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Today's Brief: Houthis, Diesel, and Guilfoyle

The Homebrew · · Posted · AI-drafted daily brief, synthesized from Left, Center, and Right coverage. Facts may be inaccurate — verify with the cited sources below.

A Houthi official warned of a "swift and painful" response against the United States if it joins Saudi Arabia's strikes on the group, after President Trump said the Houthis were "misbehaving very badly," CBS News and the Washington Examiner reported. Trump stood by his deal to import Russian diesel as a bipartisan group of senators urged him to reverse it, and Ukraine's president said Ukraine got no warning from "our partners" before the latest Russian strikes. The White House asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as ambassador to Greece, press secretary Katie Zacharia said, according to the Guardian; Guilfoyle denies wrongdoing. At a rally in Ohio, Trump attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar hours after agents searched her home, as Democratic leaders condemned the search. Newly released 911 recordings show how confusion delayed help for Christa Pike after her failed execution, the IMF warned that an AI stock crash could spread around the world, and Pope Leo XIV was admitted to the hospital ahead of scheduled lung surgery.

The Houthis warn the United States. "If the U.S. becomes involved in the aggression against Yemen, we will not deliberate over the decision to respond, rather, there will be a swift and painful response targeting the U.S. and all its interests in the region," Houthi political bureau member Mohammed Al Bukhaiti told Agence France-Presse on Monday, CBS News reported. He also warned workers at Saudi oil facilities and airports to stay away, saying the sites "have become legitimate targets," according to CBS and the Washington Examiner. Trump, who has said he is considering joining Saudi strikes on the group, told reporters Monday, "The Houthis are misbehaving very badly," the Examiner reported, adding that he had not made a decision after speaking with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

CBS said at least 20 people, including a U.S. national, have been killed in a week of attacks on Saudi airports blamed on the Houthis, and two regional officials told CBS that an attack on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport killed at least 13 people and wounded over 300. The Washington Examiner reported that at least 13 people, including one U.S. citizen, were killed in at least two attacks on the airport over the weekend. Reuters reported Tuesday that Saudi Arabia's public missile warning system went silent days before the attacks began, according to CBS. The Saudi-led coalition said Tuesday that it intercepted three drones north of Riyadh, CBS reported, and the Houthis said Saudi airstrikes hit areas they hold along Yemen's northern border and Red Sea coast, which the Saudis did not confirm, according to CBS and the Examiner. Egypt's foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, called for an immediate halt to the attacks on Saudi Arabia, saying there was "no justification" for them, CBS reported.

Russian diesel deal draws fire, and Ukraine says it got no warning. Trump doubled down Monday on his decision to allow Russian diesel imports, posting that the "European Union paid Russia 250 Billion Dollars for Energy" and "I made the right choice for the American People," ABC News reported. ABC said Trump announced Friday a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import 300,000 tons of Russian diesel immediately, with a promise of millions more. Fox News described the deal as supplying more than 1.8 million tons. In a Sunday statement, Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, John Curtis and Lisa Murkowski and Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Blumenthal and Ron Wyden wrote that "The United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians," and argued the move violates a 2022 law banning Russian energy imports, according to ABC. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer defended the deal as "another example of our president thinking out of the box," ABC reported.

The Kremlin said it saw no direct link between the diesel deal and Moscow's stance on Ukraine peace talks, the Guardian reported, responding to a Reuters report that Trump's envoys had told Ukrainian officials the deal was part of an effort to draw Russia back into negotiations. In a Washington Examiner opinion piece, former diplomat James Rogan argued that 300,000 tons of diesel, about 2.2 million barrels by his math, is small next to the roughly 30 million barrels he said the world uses each day.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said early Tuesday that Ukraine got no heads-up from "our partners" about the latest Russian attack, which he said involved more than 100 weapons and destroyed a residential building in Kharkiv, killing four people, the New York Post reported. The Post said his comments came after the Financial Times and CNN reported that the State Department and Pentagon had warned Ukrainian and European officials that U.S. assistance would stop if Kyiv did not rein in its long-range strikes. Zelenskyy said Ukraine had not struck Russian refineries or energy sites in the two days since Trump announced an "energy ceasefire," according to the Post, while Trump said Monday that "there have been violations on both sides."

Ilhan Omar: Democrats condemn the search, Trump attacks her at a rally. Chants of "deport" broke out Monday night as Trump criticized Omar at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, hours after federal agents searched her Washington home, NBC News and Fox News reported. "She's a disaster," Trump said, and he called Somalia, where Omar was born, "one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet," according to NBC and Fox. NBC reported that Trump also called Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, a "jihadist." Earlier Monday, Trump told reporters he had "nothing to do" with the search, NBC said.

House Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar called the search "deeply disturbing" in a joint statement and vowed "full accountability," the Guardian reported. "For 10 years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns," Omar wrote on X, according to NBC. NBC said the Justice Department's statement called the search "part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation" but did not specify that the investigation was related to Omar; Fox quoted a DOJ spokesperson as calling it "part of an ongoing federal investigation," adding that the DOJ later said it was criminal in nature. Two sources told Fox News Digital the search stemmed from a criminal fraud investigation into immigration paperwork filled out by Omar's late father, Fox reported.

White House asks Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as ambassador to Greece. White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said at Tuesday's briefing that the administration has asked Guilfoyle to resign as ambassador to Greece, the Guardian reported. "We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign," Zacharia said, according to NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and Fox News. "She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well." The Guardian said she gave no further details, and NBC said it was not immediately clear whether Guilfoyle had resigned. On Monday, Trump had told reporters, "We're looking at it. Yeah, we're not happy," when asked whether he was considering firing her, the BBC and Fox News reported. The Wall Street Journal reported that Guilfoyle allegedly asked a Trump donor to pay a $100,000 credit card bill while promising access to administration officials, Fox News said. The donor, Eric Deters, told ABC News, "It was all quid pro quo," and the BBC said he never sent the money. ABC noted that Deters had his law license suspended in 2012.

Guilfoyle denies wrongdoing through her lawyers, who said Deters owed her about $150,000 for speeches and consulting work done long before her ambassadorship and disputed the authenticity of the messages, the BBC reported. "Asking a client to pay for work already done is not corruption," they said, according to the BBC. A U.S. official told ABC that the State Department's inspector general is examining the claims, though it is unclear whether a formal probe has begun.

911 calls show delays after Christa Pike's failed execution. Emergency help for Christa Pike was delayed by confusion among first responders and Tennessee prison officials after her failed lethal injection on Sept. 30, according to 911 dispatch recordings released Monday and first obtained by the Associated Press, CBS News reported. The first call came at 8:40 p.m., CBS said; at 9:03 p.m., an unidentified person on the recordings said, "we have been informed it is a false call," and at 9:07 p.m. the prison's central control said it "did not make that call." The Daily Wire, citing the News & Observer, reported that responders were at first stuck outside the gates because they had not been given entry codes. The records were published in full by the Nashville Banner, the BBC said.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital and has since been discharged from the hospital and returned to prison, CBS reported. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, according to CBS. The Tennessee Department of Correction has not said what went wrong, CBS reported. Gov. Bill Lee has paused all executions in the state through the end of the year and ordered an investigation, the Daily Wire said.

IMF warns an AI stock crash could go global. The International Monetary Fund warned in its twice-yearly Global Financial Stability Report that "the consequences of an AI correction could be global," the Guardian reported. The IMF named an AI crash as one of three "salient risks" to stability, alongside rising government borrowing costs and the threat of a big cyberattack, according to the Guardian. "The exposure of the rest of the world to US assets, particularly AI, is the highest it has ever been," said Athanasios Vamvakidis, deputy director of the IMF's monetary and capital department, the Guardian reported.

Pope Leo XIV in the hospital for surgery, and a new press secretary's first briefing. Pope Leo XIV was admitted Tuesday to Rome's Agostino Gemelli University Hospital, where he was scheduled to have surgery Tuesday afternoon for a lung nodule, the Vatican said, according to ABC News and Vatican News. His recovery was expected to take about a week, the Vatican said, according to ABC.

Katie Zacharia held her first briefing as White House press secretary Tuesday, stepping up to the podium at about 9:46 a.m. ET, the Guardian reported. "I want to thank President Trump for his trust that he has placed in me," she said, according to the Guardian. She succeeds Karoline Leavitt, who left the White House in August, and previously advised Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, Fox News reported. In naming her, Trump called her "a devoted fan and member of MAGA!" NPR reported.

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