Navy destroyer intercepts missiles fired from Yemen

A U.S. Navy destroyer intercepted several missiles launched from Yemen while operating in the region on Thursday, according to a Defense Department official.

It is not yet clear if the ship was the intended target, but no damage to the ship was reported, said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss an incident that had not yet been announced.

The intercepts happened as U.S. bases in Syria have endured multiple drone attacks over the past two days. American forces stopped two separate drone strikes in Syria on Thursday, hours after they shot down three unmanned aerial systems targeting troops in Iraq early Wednesday, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the incidents.

The Pentagon has 2,500 troops in Iraq supporting and training Iraqi forces, with another 900 more based in Syria who are working with the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The missile intercepts also come as the U.S. continues to bolster its military presence in the Middle East in response to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, as well as Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this summer sent ships carrying rapid response Marine units to the Persian Gulf, and those ships are now moving toward the eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Israel.

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is already in the area, where it will soon by joined by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group.

The missiles also come as armed drones have attacked U.S. troops stationed in bases in Iraq and Syria.

CNN first reported the news of the destroyer incident.

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Is an acting House speaker considered in the presidential line of succession?

With the increasing likelihood that House Republicans will empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry to run the House temporarily amid its speakership crisis, another question looms: Would the move put an acting speaker into the line of presidential succession?

When all leadership positions are present and accounted for, the speaker of the House is usually second in line to take up the mantle after the vice president.

But legal experts say that even empowering McHenry to move legislation isn't the same as being the real thing.

“By calling this person speaker pro tem, that by definition, means there isn't an actual speaker,” said Michigan State law professor Brian Kalt. “So whatever powers they give him, parliamentary powers to run things in the House, as long as he's not the speaker, he's not in line of succession.”

Kalt said that the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 states that the speaker must be the speaker, leaving no wiggle room for a speaker pro tem to be in line.

Eric Schickler, co-director of UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, concurred.

“Speaker pro tem, even if authorized to act as if he were the speaker or with some of those powers, it's still not the same,” Schickler said.

House Republicans have been in a whirlwind leadership crisis since voting for Kevin McCarthy to be removed from his speaker post earlier this month. Rep. Jim Jordan’s second failure to win the votes to secure the gavel for himself on Wednesday has sparked bipartisan talks about empowering McHenry to bring legislation to the floor — particularly spending bills, given a Nov. 17 funding deadline. POLITICO reported earlier Thursday that Jordan will back that proposal as he pauses voting on his own speaker bid.

And since a President McHenry wouldn’t become a contingency plan, the line would skip to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is the president pro tempore of the Senate and typically third in succession to the presidency.

This means that House Republicans would be skipped over if President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris were unfit to serve, which could cause a dispute between Republicans and Democrats.

Schickler said that in the unlikely event that the president and vice president can’t serve, a court battle could ensue over who would become the leader of the country.

“One of the issues with succession law is that by putting the speaker next in line, the speaker could be from a different party,” Kalt said. “It could cause a lot of problems.”

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Britain's Rishi Sunak to visit Israel

The British prime minister will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

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Senate votes to overturn CFPB small business rule as Biden threatens veto

The Senate on Wednesday voted to overturn a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule requiring lenders to report demographic data on small-business loan recipients, defying a White House veto threat.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who sponsored the bill to invalidate the measure under the Congressional Review Act, called the regulation “intrusive” in a floor speech before the Senate voted 53-44 to scrap it. The House must still act on the resolution.

“The bank has to ask the small-business person if that small-business person is gay,” Kennedy said. “What a private American does with another private, adult American in the privacy of their bedroom — we are free, so long as it doesn’t break any laws, to express our sexuality however we want to, and it’s none of the CFPB’s business.”

Supporters of the rule say it will help ensure that lenders distribute loans equitably to underrepresented borrowers.

Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) defended the rule, saying it would shed light on “gaps in the small-business lending market.”

The consumer bureau in March finalized the rule under Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank law requiring financial institutions to turn over information about the race, ethnicity and gender of small business loan recipients, in addition to information on lending decisions and the price of credit. The first data reports, for lenders above a certain threshold of transactions, are due in October 2024.

The rule would “give the public key data on this market to ensure that banks and nonbanks are serving small businesses fairly,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said at the time.

The White House on Wednesday threatened to veto the bill.

The 1071 rule “will provide small business owners, lenders, and the public with critical information about the $1.7 trillion small business financing market,” the White House said in a statement of administration policy. “If enacted, this resolution would harm all those that stand to benefit from this expanded transparency and accountability.”

Republicans and banks have pushed back on the rule, accusing Chopra of regulatory overreach and arguing that the rule is both invasive and onerous to comply with.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) praised the resolution, casting it as an effort to “chip away at yet another example of the Biden administration’s run-away regulatory state.”

“Washington Democrats want to tie small business loans to diversity quotas,” McConnell said.

A federal court in Texas suspended enforcement of the rule for members of the American Bankers Association in July. The ABA, the Texas Bankers Association and Rio Bank had sued to block the rule until the Supreme Court resolves a case challenging the CFPB's funding structure. The high court, which heard arguments in that case this month, is expected to rule on the matter by June.

Kennedy said the agency had “totally perverted” what Congress intended when it passed Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank in 2010.

“[The CFPB] took the 13 pieces of information we, the Congress, asked for and they expanded it to 81 — all of a sudden they want a book,” Kennedy said.

“This private information has got to be collected by the CFPB … and it’s not like the CFPB is exactly a wizard when it comes to data security,” he added, pointing to the breach of 256,000 consumers’ data earlier this year by a CFPB employee.

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How to get Trump to shut up, and other puzzles raised by a judge’s new gag order

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan’s gag order against Donald Trump is the first major consequence of his life as a criminal defendant. But in some ways, the order raises more questions than it answers — including how Chutkan intends to enforce her restrictions on a politician who never stops talking.

The veteran Obama-appointed jurist ruled Monday that Trump’s pretrial attacks on potential witnesses and others threatened the integrity of the upcoming trial on charges stemming from Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election. She barred Trump from continuing to publicly berate special counsel Jack Smith and his team, court staff, or any “reasonably foreseeable witness.”

Chutkan followed up with a three-page order on Tuesday that spelled out her ruling in writing. But it left many details murky — and so far, Trump has shown no signs of piping down. His legal team also filed an immediate appeal.

Here are some unanswered questions about the Trump gag order.

What if Trump defies the order?

This is the whole ballgame. During Monday’s hearing, Chutkan pressed Smith’s team for their thoughts, acknowledging that punishing a former president presents different obstacles than the typical subject of a criminal gag order.

“An order is sort of pointless if you don’t have a mechanism to enforce it,” Chutkan said.

But her oral ruling Monday and written order Tuesday were silent on how she’ll determine potential punishments for Trump, which could range from in-court scoldings to financial penalties to pretrial incarceration.

Chutkan also could try to limit Trump’s use of social media — his favored platform for many of his attacks. That’s the approach a federal judge adopted in 2019 in the case of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone. After Stone threatened the judge on Instagram, the judge barred him from using social media.

Chutkan, though, is plainly aware that Trump’s supporters would portray any such measures as acts of political persecution. But she also cited Supreme Court precedent emphasizing that she is obligated to protect her proceedings “from prejudicial outside interferences.”

Senior assistant special counsel Molly Gaston said Chutkan has the full range of options at her disposal, but Trump’s attorney John Lauro scoffed at the idea that the judge would even contemplate jailing Trump ahead of the 2024 election. Lauro called any pre-election enforcement against Trump “impossible.”

Chutkan’s only hint of a plan came at the end of Monday’s hearing, when she said she would raise any purported violations “sua sponte” — meaning, at her own initiative — and dole out potential punishment.

Who are the “interested parties?”

When Smith’s team asked Chutkan to impose a gag order, they proposed barring Trump and his surrogates from making inflammatory statements that might “prejudice” the case. But Chutkan’s order used different language, instead imposing restrictions on “all interested parties.”

The verbiage may be a nod to the fact that her order also binds the special counsel’s office, but it uses broader language that doesn’t have an immediately obvious definition. And it could become a complicated matter when figures like Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., or Trump’s political allies launch attacks on the special counsel, the court or others covered by the order.

How does Chutkan define “target?”

Chutkan’s order bars statements that “target” Smith or his staff, defense attorneys, court staff or witnesses, but the judge never describes what she means by the term. She could’ve sought to rule out all public comments by Trump or his lawyers that simply mention the special counsel or his aides, but she didn’t do that.

Gaston had proposed that the judge bar comments that are both “disparaging” and “inflammatory,” but the judge complained during the Monday hearing that those words were hard to define. “Target” is a bit clearer, but still lacks certainty about what kind of speech the judge is trying to prevent.

A broad reading of the judge’s order could spell the end for TV appearances by Trump and his lawyers addressing in any way developments in the D.C. election-subversion prosecution or the other case Smith is pressing against Trump in Florida. In that case, Trump is charged with obstruction of justice and illegally retaining classified information.

Chutkan did make clear on Tuesday that Trump remains free to “make statements criticizing the government generally, including the current administration or the Department of Justice; statements asserting that Defendant is innocent of the charges against him, or that his prosecution is politically motivated.”

The preface to Chutkan’s order points to Trump’s use of the word “thugs” to describe people involved in the legal process — a term she dwelled on at Monday’s hearing as well, worrying that it was a signal to Trump’s followers to do harm.

“If you call people thugs enough times, doesn’t that suggest that someone should get them off the streets?” Chutkan wondered.

Trump used the term again shortly before the judge’s written order was released.

“This is a railroading. It’s all coming out of the Department of Justice. It’s all set up by Biden and his thugs that he’s surrounded with,” the former president told reporters in New York Tuesday morning, without a specific reference to Smith or his team.

Trump’s lawyers filed papers on Tuesday afternoon initiating an appeal of the gag order, and although his lawyers have not yet laid out their arguments for the appeal, Lauro made clear at the Monday hearing that an appeal would likely focus on alleged vagueness in the judge’s directive.

How far does the Pence carve-out go?

During oral arguments on the gag order proposal, Chutkan made clear that she viewed former Vice President Mike Pence as differently situated than others Trump has criticized with his social media invective. Pence is a possible witness against him in the election-subversion case — but he is also actively campaigning against Trump for the GOP presidential nomination.

Chutkan singled out Pence by name in her written order, emphasizing that the restrictions she is imposing “shall not be construed to prohibit … statements criticizing the campaign platforms or policies of Defendant’s current political rivals, such as former Vice President Pence.”

But the line between impermissible attacks on Pence’s truthfulness or character and those pertaining to his “platforms or policies” may be hard to locate — particularly when a central premise of Pence’s candidacy is his willingness to stand up to Trump on Jan. 6 and refuse to subvert the election. That confrontation is at the heart of Smith’s charges against the former president.

What will an appeals court — or the Supreme Court — do?

How Trump’s appeal of the gag order will fare is far from clear, since there’s little legal precedent involving defendants challenging gag orders imposed on them in criminal cases — and there is no precedent involving a defendant who is simultaneously running for president.

In the Roger Stone case in 2019, Stone and his family members filed an immediate petition challenging his gag order at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court essentially punted on the issue, saying Stone used the wrong legal mechanism to appeal and his kin should have brought their complaints to the trial judge first before seeking relief from the appeals court.

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Hundreds killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza City hospital, Health Ministry says

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza — The Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike Tuesday hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds. If confirmed, the attack would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.

Photos from al-Ahli Hospital showed fire engulfing the hospital halls, shattered glass and body parts scattered across the area. The ministry said at least 500 people had been killed.

Several hospitals in Gaza City have become refuges for hundreds of people, hoping they would be spared bombardment after Israel ordered all residents of the city and surrounding areas to evacuate to the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said there were still no details on the hospital deaths: “We will get the details and update the public. I don’t know to say whether it was an Israeli air strike.”

In the south, continued strikes killed dozens of civilians and at least one senior Hamas figure Tuesday in attacks it says are targeted at militants. U.S. officials worked to convince Israel to allow delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals after days of failed hopes for an opening in the siege.

With Israel barring entry of water, fuel and food into Gaza since Hamas’ brutal attack last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken secured an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss creation of a mechanism for delivering aid to the territory’s 2.3 million people. U.S. officials said the gain might appear modest, but stressed that it was a significant step forward.

“The return of the hostages, which is sacred in our eyes, is a key component in any humanitarian efforts,” he told reporters, without elaborating whether Israel was demanding the release of all of the roughly 200 people Hamas abducted before allowing supplies in.

U.S. President Joe Biden prepared to head to the region as he and other world leaders tried to prevent the war from sparking a broader regional conflict. Violence flared Tuesday along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants operate.

With tens of thousands of troops massed along the border, Israel has been expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza — but plans remained uncertain.

“We are preparing for the next stages of war,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said. “We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about a ground offensive. It might be something different.”

In Gaza, dozens of injured were rushed to hospitals after heavy attacks outside the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, residents reported. Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former health minister, reported 27 people were killed in Rafah and 30 in Khan Younis.

An Associated Press reporter saw around 50 bodies brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Family members came to claim the bodies, wrapped in white bedsheets, some soaked in blood.

An airstrike in Deir al Balah reduced a house to rubble, killing a man and 11 women and children inside and in a neighboring house, some of whom had evacuated from Gaza City. Witnesses said there was no warning before the strike.

Shelling from Israeli tanks hit a U.N. school in central Gaza where 4,000 Palestinians had taken refuge, killing six people and wounding dozens, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said. At least 24 U.N. installations have been hit the past week, killing at least 14 of the agency’s staff.

The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers.

A barrage of strikes crashed into the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, leveling an entire block of homes and causing dozens of casualties among families inside, residents said. Among those killed was one of Hamas’ top military commanders, Ayman Nofal, the group’s military wing said — the most high-profile militant known to have been killed so far in the war.

Nofal, formerly the intelligence chief of Hamas’ armed wing, was in charge of Hamas militant activities in the central Gaza Strip, including coordinating activities with other militant groups.

Netanyahu sought to put the blame on Hamas for Israel’s retaliatory attacks and the rising civilian casualties in Gaza. “Not only is it targeting and murdering civilians with unprecedented savagery, it’s hiding behind civilians,” he said.

In Gaza City, Israeli airstrikes also hit the house of Hamas’ top political official, Ismail Haniyeh, killing at least 14 people. Haniyeh is based in Doha, Qatar, but his family lives in Gaza City. The Hamas media office did not immediately identify those killed.

Israel sealed off Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed over 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and resulted in some 200 taken captive into Gaza. Hamas militants in Gaza have launched rockets every day since, aiming at cities across Israel.

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were children, a ministry official said.

Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes — roughly half of Gaza’s population — and 60% are now in the approximately 14-kilometer (8-mile) long area south of the evacuation zone, the U.N. said.

Aid workers warned that the territory was near complete collapse. Hospitals were on the verge of losing electricity, threatening the lives of thousands of patients, and hundreds of thousands of people searched for bread and water.

The U.N. agency for Palestinians said more than 400,000 displaced people are crowded into schools and other facilities in the south. The agency said it has only 1 liter of water a day for each of its staff members trapped in the territory.

Israel opened a water line into the south for three hours that benefitted only 14 percent of Gaza’s population, the U.N. said.

At the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, truckloads of aid were waiting to enter. The World Food Program said that it had more than 300 tons of food waiting to cross into Gaza.

Civilians with foreign citizenship — many of them Palestinians with dual nationalities — also waited in Rafah, desperate to get out.

“We come to the border crossing hoping that it will open, but so far there is no information,” said Jameel Abdullah, a Swedish citizen.

Repeated reports that an opening was imminent have proven false as negotiations continued to grind on, including the U.S., Israel and Egypt.

A senior Egyptian official called it a “very tough, complicated back-and-forth process” and said talks were over deliveries through Rafah and Israel’s Karam Shalom crossing to Gaza. He said Israel was insisting to search all aid, and wants to “ensure that such aid won’t benefit Hamas.” He said Egypt proposed that the U.N. oversee the whole process, including inside Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to brief the press on the talks.

Officials for Hamas and Israel cast doubt on an immediate opening, saying they were unaware of an agreement.

Blinken arrived in Israel last Thursday with a full-throated message of unequivocal U.S. support for Israel in its campaign to destroy Hamas. But in meetings with seven Arab leaders over the next three days, Blinken’s tone shifted subtly, talking more prominently about the need for humanitarian aid.

U.S. officials said it had become clear by then that already limited Arab tolerance of Israel’s military operations would evaporate entirely if conditions in Gaza worsened. They said that outright condemnation of Israel by Arab leaders would be a boon to Hamas and could encourage Iran, according to four officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking. That prompted Blinken to press Netanyahu on an aid deal.

Biden’s visit to Israel Wednesday will signal the White House’s support for a key ally. He will also travel to Jordan to meet with Arab leaders amid fears the fighting could spread in the region.

Israel evacuated towns near its northern border with Lebanon, where the military has exchanged fire repeatedly with Hezbollah militants.

Israel said it killed four militants wearing explosive vests who were attempting to cross into the country from Lebanon on Tuesday morning. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Israel’s continuing offensive in Gaza could cause a violent reaction across the region.

“Bombardments should be immediately stopped. Muslim nations are angry,” Khamenei said, according to state media.

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Hamas admits Israel killed a top commander

Ayman Nofal is reportedly the second top Hamas commander killed in Israeli strikes since the militant group launched an attack on Israel.

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