Ships face Houthi-claimed attack in Red Sea

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Commercial ships came under attack Sunday by drones and missiles in the Red Sea and a U.S. warship there opened fire in self-defense as part of an hourslong assault claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, officials said.

The attack potentially marked a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war as multiple vessels found themselves in the crosshairs of a single Houthi assault for the first time in the conflict.

“We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Defense Department told The Associated Press.

The Carney is an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer that’s already shot down multiple rockets the Houthis have fired toward Israel so far in the war. It wasn’t damaged in the attack and no injuries were reported on board, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss early details of a military operation.

The Carney responded after hearing from the Bahamas-flagged bulk carrier Unity Explorer that it was under attack by missile fire, the official said. The Carney shot down two drones during the attack, one in self-defense and another after checking on the Unity Explorer, the official said.

Assessments were still being made on the Unity Explorer.

The British military earlier said there had been a suspected drone attack and explosions in the Red Sea, without elaborating.

The Defense Department did not identify where it believed the fire came from. However, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed the attacks, saying the first vessel was hit by a missile and the second by a drone while in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

Saree did not mention any U.S. warship being involved in the attack.

“The Yemeni armed forces continue to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea (and Gulf of Aden) until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops,” Saree said. “The Yemeni armed forces renew their warning to all Israeli ships or those associated with Israelis that they will become a legitimate target if they violate what is stated in this statement.”

Saree also identified the first vessel as the Unity Explorer, which is owned by a British firm that includes Dan David Ungar, who lives in Israel, as one of its officers. The second was a Panamanian-flagged container ship called Number 9, which is linked to Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement. Managers for the two vessels could not be immediately reached for comment.

Israeli media identified Ungar as being the son of Israeli shipping billionaire Abraham “Rami” Ungar.

The Houthis have been launching a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, as well as launching drones and missiles targeting Israel amid the war.

Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the attack began about 10 a.m. in Sanaa, Yemen, and had gone on for as much as five hours.

Global shipping had increasingly been targeted as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a wider regional conflict — even as a truce briefly halted fighting and Hamas exchanged hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. However, the collapse of the truce and the resumption of punishing Israeli airstrikes and its ground offensive there had raised the risk of the seaborne attacks resuming.

Earlier in November, the Houthis seized a vehicle transport ship also linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen. The rebels still hold the vessel near the port city of Hodeida. Missiles also landed near another U.S. warship last week after it assisted a vessel linked to Israel that had briefly been seized by gunmen.

However, the Houthis had not directly targeted the Americans for some time, further raising the stakes in the growing maritime conflict. In 2016, the U.S. launched Tomahawk cruise missiles that destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory to retaliate for missiles being fired at U.S. Navy ships at the time.

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Liz Cheney would rather see Democrats win in 2024

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney would rather cede power to Democrats than see members of her own party win in 2024, she said, calling a Republican majority a “threat,” and warning of an existential crisis leading up to next year's election.

“I believe very strongly in those principles and ideals that have defined the Republican Party, but the Republican Party of today has made a choice and they haven't chosen the Constitution, and so I do think it presents a threat if the Republicans are in the majority in January 2025,” the Wyoming Republican said during an interview with CBS, when asked whether she would prefer a Democratic majority in 2025.

Once the No. 3 leader of the House Republican Conference, Cheney was booted from her role and later lost her seat after bucking her party to take a stand against former President Donald Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Cheney overwhelmingly alienated members after refusing to tamper her criticisms of the former president in the weeks and months following the insurrection — unlike the then-leader of the caucus, Kevin McCarthy, who quickly returned to Trump’s side after initially condemning him for his role in the riot. Cheney became the top Republican on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack. In 2022, she lost in the primary for her Wyoming seat.

Cheney has since written a book that details the groundwork laid by members of her party — including new House Speaker Mike Johnson — that led to the events of Jan. 6. "Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning" is to be released Tuesday.

In an excerpt of the interview that aired Saturday, Cheney called the Louisiana Republican a “collaborator” in Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In the full interview Sunday, Cheney warned against sending the little-known Republican back to the role in 2025.

“What happens if Mike Johnson is the Speaker on the 6th of January 2025?,” CBS’ John Dickerson asked.

“He can't be,” Cheney replied. “We are facing a situation with respect to the 2024 election where it's an existential crisis and we have to ensure that we don't have a situation where an election that might be thrown into the House of Representatives is overseen by a Republican majority.”

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Cheney: Johnson is a ‘collaborator’ in effort to overturn 2020 election

Former Rep. Liz Cheney on Saturday called Speaker Mike Johnson a "collaborator" in former president Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election.

In an excerpted interview posted to social media, CBS’ John Dickerson asked Cheney: “The speaker of the House is a collaborator to overthrow the last election?”

“Absolutely,” she said.

“If you look at what Donald Trump is trying to do, he can’t do it by himself. He has to have collaborators. And the story of Mike Johnson is a story of a collaborator,” Cheney said.

In 2021, as Congress prepared to certify the election results, Johnson urged his colleagues to join him in opposing the results. He was a key voice in shaping the legal arguments denying the results of the 2020 election, and led efforts in Congress to support a Texas lawsuit that sought to invalidate the election results of four other states.

Cheney was the top Republican on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and has been outspoken about her belief that the former president was responsible for the violence that occurred that day.

After chairing the Republican conference for several years, Cheney’s standing in the party suffered deeply over her vocal criticism of Trump. In 2022, she lost her reelection bid for her Wyoming seat.

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Johnson: Santos expulsion ‘a regrettable day’

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday called the House vote to expel former Rep. George Santos a “regrettable day,” lamenting what he viewed as an affront to due process principles and the rule of law.

The House voted Friday to expel Santos 311-114, with 105 GOP members joining Democrats to oust their fellow Republican.

“We allowed [House Republicans] to have a vote of conscience,” said Johnson in an interview with Fox News. Johnson opposed Santos’ expulsion.

Santos’ tenure in Congress has been scandal-ridden: He initially told bold-faced lies about his education and resume. A recent House Ethics Committee report found substantial evidence that Santos used his House campaign for his own personal benefit, misusing funds and misleading donors. He now faces a 23-count federal indictment that accuses him of stealing the identities of campaign donors and using their credit cards in unauthorized charges.

However, Johnson noted, Santos has not yet been convicted on any of these charges.

“Our party believes in the rule of law and due process,” he said, arguing that expelling Santos was in conflict with Republican values.

Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik said during the joint interview that members who supported Santos’ expulsion had expressed concerns over the Ethics committee report’s findings. She dismissed questions about the dent in the already slim Republican majority and expressed optimism that the seat would be filled by another Republican.

“We saw a red wave on Long Island at the local level, so we’re very optimistic that we’ll have a strong candidate to join our Republican majority in February or March," Stefanik said.

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Johnson: Impeachment inquiry vote is a ‘necessary step’

House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled Saturday that he plans to tee up a formal vote on the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, calling it a “necessary step.”

“We're being stonewalled by the White House, because they're preventing at least two to three DOJ witnesses from coming forward, a former White House counsel, the national archives ... the White House has withheld thousands of pages of evidence," Johnson said in an interview on Fox News.

"I think it's something we have to do at this juncture," Johnson added.

The speaker’s comments came after several Republicans predicted Friday that a vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry would come before the House breaks for December recess.

The Biden administration has argued that the impeachment inquiry is illegitimate since it has not yet been formalized by a House vote. Such a vote is not technically required, but has been used in the past to legitimize the process.

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United Auto Workers call for cease-fire in Israel-Hamas war

The United Auto Workers on Friday became the highest-profile union in the country to call for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, buoying calls within labor movement to stop the fighting and setting the powerful union apart from President Joe Biden on a key policy issue.

“I am proud that the UAW International Union is calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. From opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war, the @UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe,” union president Shawn Fain said Friday in a post on the social media platform X.

The announcement nearly two months into the war sets UAW apart from much of the labor and Democratic establishment, including Biden — who has still not yet received an endorsement from the UAW, even after he showed the union historic support this fall.

United Electrical Workers and UFCW Local 3000, which says it represents 50,000 workers in the Pacific Northwest, have been circulating a petition calling for the labor movement to demand a cease-fire. But those organizations are in the minority, as most of the largest labor organizations, including the AFL-CIO, have aligned with Biden in rejecting calls for a cease-fire.

Fain has made clear that endorsing former President Donald Trump in 2024 isn’t on the table. But the UAW’s lack of endorsement so far for Biden also marks a break from the AFL-CIO, which earlier in the campaign issued its earliest-ever presidential endorsement in favor of the current president.

Biden visited the picket line during the auto workers’ strike against Detroit auto companies in September, an unprecedented show of solidarity with the union. Both Trump and Biden have fought for the votes of the blue collar, Rust Belt autoworkers that the UAW represents.

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Inside the Biden administration’s secret deal to stop a war in Congo

A top U.S. intelligence official presented a detailed proposal to the leaders of Congo and Rwanda last week for a pact to reduce fighting in eastern Congo — and promised to help enforce the deal.

The leaders largely signed off on the U.S. plan, which included commitments for Rwanda to pull back its forces and offensive military equipment by Jan. 1 and for Congo to ground its drones, according to a readout of the meetings.

The readout shows that the U.S. is playing a much more active role than previously disclosed in trying to calm tensions in the increasingly volatile region, where conflict between Congolese forces and rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda is threatening to escalate into all-out war between the countries.

The Biden administration previously said that Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines flew to the region last week to “secure commitments” from Congolese and Rwandan leaders to deescalate fighting and that they “plan to take specific steps to reduce current tensions.” But the administration did not disclose the extent to which the U.S. was designing and overseeing the plan.

Washington drew up the deal, according to the readout. The administration is also setting up an intelligence fusion cell — a formalized information-sharing mechanism — to transmit data to Congo and Rwanda about ground movements and to ensure both countries adhere to the deal.

It’s a surprising level of engagement for a U.S. administration that has played a more passive role in the talks between warring parties involved in other conflicts on the continent. And it highlights the seriousness with which Washington views the potential for war and for the long-volatile region to become the latest global flashpoint.

Wars in Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas are already destabilizing regions and straining global alliances. And a conflict between Congo and Rwanda could easily spill into other parts of Africa. It could also undermine U.S. efforts to counter China on the continent.

Previous conflicts in Congo, a country about the size of Western Europe in the center of the African continent, have pulled neighboring countries into years of fighting. A war in Congo would also complicate Washington’s efforts to woo the country away from China and gain more access to its critical minerals for electric vehicles and other advanced technologies.

Asked for comment on the U.S. involvement in the deal, a senior U.S. official said Washington is using diplomacy and intelligence “to push the sides to fulfill all of the obligations and that's a conversation that we're able to leverage intelligence resources to validate.”

“But more importantly, it's fostering this channel where they can talk together,” the official said.

Fighting in the eastern part of Congo has dragged on for decades. Since the Rwandan genocide, various rebel groups and militaries have vied for control over the border region — an area that sits in the middle of a high-traffic commercial trade route and is rich in natural resources, including copper and cobalt.

Members of M23, many of whom are of Rwandan descent, are aligned against the Congolese government.

The situation in eastern Congo has become increasingly violent over the past year. After nearly 10 years of relative calm in the eastern part of Congo, rebels with the March 23 Movement — a group supported by Rwanda — gained control over parts of eastern Congo in 2022.

Since May, soldiers aligned with the Congolese army have launched fierce counteroffensives. The clashes have exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis and prompted the United Nations in October to warn about a potential direct confrontation between the two countries.

“Since early October, the situation has gotten significantly worse,” said Graham Inglis, project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in eastern Congo. “There are tens and tens of thousands of new displaced people.”

The U.S. has previously attempted to ease tensions between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda — primarily through diplomatic channels. This month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reached out to leaders of both countries, asking them to deescalate and engage in diplomatic talks to end the fighting. But the meeting between Haines and the leaders of Congo and Rwanda is a higher-level engagement with more specific asks.

“We are looking to work with both sides to take steps that reduce fighting in eastern DRC and avoid the prospect for interstate conflict,” a second senior U.S. official said. “We worked with both sides to identify what equipment and posture they view as offensive in nature and then options to remove some of those from the equation so that there’s a less chance for miscalculation." Both officials were granted anonymity to speak about sensitive negotiations with Congo and Rwanda.

The intervention was welcomed by Congolese officials, said Patrick Muyaya, a spokesperson for the Congolese government.

“When it comes to Ukraine, the United States is doing its best. When it comes to Rwanda, which is acting the way sometimes Vladimir Putin is acting, we are not receiving the same answer or the same reaction from the United States,” he said. “It's a bit unfair for Congolese people, so we hope that these last rounds of discussions will be able to deliver.”

Haines’ visit included separate meetings with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi. The talks with Tshisekedi took place in a small, closed-door meeting at the Kinshasa airport on Nov. 20, according to the readout.

Haines told Tshisekedi that President Joe Biden was particularly worried about a direct conflict breaking out between Congo and Rwanda in the lead-up to the Congolese presidential elections on Dec. 20. The deal also incorporated language to limit hate speech and to refrain from interfering in the other’s political processes, including elections.

Haines urged Tshisekedi to agree to the deal’s terms, which included his government issuing an order prohibiting the funneling of arms to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an armed rebel group that operates in eastern Congo.

The meeting with Haines comes as Washington is attempting to counter China in Africa.

“The Chinese have cornered the market on Congolese minerals and have for a number of years. And we have in office right now [in Congo] a government which has at least shown itself amenable to revisiting those contracts,” said Cameron Hudson, a former intelligence analyst for Africa at the CIA. “A glaring piece of this that I think undermines all of this is that there’s a proxy war going on in the eastern part of the country.”

Over the last several years, the administration has worked to establish economic pacts with Congo and its neighbors to develop trade routes for the export of minerals such as copper and cobalt — a key component for electric vehicle batteries.

Congo is home to about 70 percent of the world’s cobalt reserves, and China is its main producer. Beijing is Kinshasa’s largest trading partner, having gobbled up key mining rights beginning in the 2000s. Its control over the market has put it far ahead of the U.S. race to secure critical components needed for electric vehicle batteries.

In an effort to find a way into that market, the U.S. in September signed a memorandum of understanding with Congo and Zambia to help stand up a supply chain for the batteries. The administration also committed to help develop a new rail line that will connect southern Congo and northwestern Zambia via the Lobito Port in Angola. The pathway is critical for the export of minerals key to EV battery production.

An escalation in fighting in eastern Congo could undercut those agreements.

The current U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo is drawing down by the end of the year. A withdrawal of U.N. forces will leave a security vacuum in the country right as elections are set to kick off, potentially complicating the implementation of the U.S. agreement.

Phelim Kine contributed to this report.

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