The D Brief: Harris-Trump debate; Houthis’ maritime targets; US strikes in Yemen; Domestic-terrorism arrests; And a bit more.
Much of Tuesday’s first-ever debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump concerned foreign affairs, including Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Hamas-Israel war, and U.S. competition with China.
“Do you want Ukraine to win this war?” an ABC News moderator asked Trump. “I want the war to stop,” responded the GOP candidate, an admirer of Russia’s Vladimir Putin whose first campaign was noted for its ties to Russia and whose first impeachment concerned the illegal withholding of aid to Kyiv.
Trump’s meandering replies combined the implausible (“I'll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended. If I'm president-elect, I'll get it done before even becoming president”), the exaggerated (substantially overstating the amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine), as well as the odd and simply wrong (“I want to save lives that are being uselessly—people being killed by the millions. It's the millions. It's so much worse than the numbers that you're getting, which are fake numbers.”)
VP Harris spent much of her initial time introducing herself to voters, (“I was raised as a middle-class kid…”) before pivoting to a defense of the Biden administration’s approach toward several key foreign policy issues. For example: “What we have done is to preserve the ability of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to fight for their independence. Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe.”
Trump, meanwhile, denied any responsibility for the January 6 insurrection, repeated his false claim to have won the 2020 election, and shared several widely-debunked conspiracy theories—including one with racist overtones amplified by his VP pick JD Vance. The BBC explains, here.
If you didn’t watch, you can read over a transcript from ABC News. And here’s the Washington Post’s roundup of what the candidates said on foreign-policy issues, as well as a video of the 90-minute debate, courtesy of C-SPAN.
Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 2001, the U.S. was attacked by al-Qaeda airline hijackers, killing 2,977 innocent people across New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Houthis take a few days off (sort of). There have been no recorded incidents or attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea or along Yemen’s coast since Friday, according to British maritime authorities.
Background: Using missiles, flying drones, naval drones, as well as a helicopter and boats full of armed militants, the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group has been attacking dozens of vessels it believes are linked to Israel since Hamas launched its surprise attack more than 11 months ago. The most recent high-profile attack on August 21 halted the crude oil tanker Sounion; officials are still trying to figure out how best to recover that vessel without triggering an environmental catastrophe.
But U.S. forces have encountered and destroyed several Houthi drones and missile systems on the Red Sea and inside Yemen over the past week. That includes three drones and two missile systems on Sunday; two missile systems, one drone and one “support vehicle” on Monday; as well as five drones and two missile systems on Tuesday, according to military officials at Central Command.
New analysis: The Houthis have carried out at least 83 attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea since December, and 56 of those “had direct ownership links to the UK, U.S. or Europe, including 24 from Greece,” according to Michelle Wiese Bockmann of industry-watcher Lloyd’s List.
Notably, “not one Russia-owned and only one Chinese-owned vessel have been attacked in the Red Sea over the past 10 months,” she writes. “And that Chinese-owned vessel? Mediterranean Shipping Co was the disponent owner under a leasing arrangement with China Minsheng Bank.”
And Greek shippers seem to be targeted most. Indeed, Bockmann says, “Greece, the world’s largest ship-owning nation represented 30% all ships attacked by number…yet comprised 17% of the global fleet when measured by deadweight.” That includes the crude oil tanker Sounion, which the Houthis attacked, boarded, and set on fire with explosives that they caught on film to share on social media.
Bockmann’s advice: “Greece owners who continue to run the gauntlet need to reconsider transits to keep [their] crew safe.” More, here.
New: The Houthis say they shot down another U.S.-made MQ-9 Reaper drone flying over Yemen’s northwestern Sadaa province, a spokesman claimed Tuesday in a video on social media, with no supporting evidence.
The Houthis also claimed on Sunday to have shot down a different MQ-9 over Yemen’s more centrally located Marib province. Again, however, the Iran-backed terrorist group provided no evidence supporting their claim, and the U.S. military told the Associated Press it knew nothing about such an attack.
Worth noting: The Houthis are believed to have shot down MQ-9 drones at least seven times before, going back to 2014.
Related reading:
- “Sailing through Houthi Red Sea hotspot now is ‘insane’, says shipowner,” industry monitor Trade Winds reported Tuesday;
- “Oil tanker ablaze off Yemen threatens environmental disaster,” France24 reported Tuesday;
- And “Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd will add more vessels to alliance if Red Sea disruption continues,” Reuters reported Tuesday from Maersk HQs in Copenhagen.
Two men in their mid-30s were charged this week with trying to start a race war and conspiring to support terrorism, the Justice Department said in a 15-count indictment announced Monday.
In custody: Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, Calif., and Matthew Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho. They’re described as leaders of the Terrorgram Collective, which the Justice Department said is “a transnational terrorist group that operates on the digital messaging platform Telegram.”
The two are part of a movement known as “white supremacist accelerationism,” which is “an ideology centered on the belief that the white race is superior; that society is irreparably corrupt and cannot be saved by political action; and that violence and terrorism are necessary to ignite a race war and accelerate the collapse of the government and the rise of a white ethnostate,” according to the charges.
“The defendants solicited murders and hate crimes based on the race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, and gender identity of others,” said U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert. “They also doxed and solicited the murder of federal officials, conspired to provide material support to terrorists, and distributed information about explosives that they intended to be used in committing crimes of violence,” he said.
Solicited attacks include “An individual who shot three people (killing two) outside of an LGBT bar in Slovakia; an individual who planned an attack on energy facilities in New Jersey; and an individual who stabbed five people near a mosque in Turkey,” the Justice Department said. Details (PDF), here.
By the way: “White nationalists use [Telegram] to coordinate fight clubs and plan rallies,” the New York Times reported in a multimedia feature published Saturday. Four reporters combed through more than 3 million messages on Telegram to uncover a wide range of nefarious and illegal actions and transactions coordinated on the social media app.
For example, “The Times investigation found 1,500 channels operated by white supremacists who coordinate activities among almost one million people around the world,” the reporters write. “At least two dozen channels sold weapons,” they add. And “In at least 22 channels with more than 70,000 followers, MDMA, cocaine, heroin and other drugs were advertised for delivery to more than 20 countries.”
However, “In many democratic countries, patience with the app is wearing thin,” the Times reports. France, of course, recently arrested Telegram’s founder, Russian-born Pavel Durov. But more broadly, “The European Union is exploring new oversight of Telegram under the Digital Services Act, a law that forces large online platforms to police their services more aggressively, two people familiar with the plans said.” Read on, here.
Developing: Authorities in Kentucky are searching for a former Army Reservist who appears to have shot and wounded at least five random motorists along I-75 on Saturday.
His name is Joseph Couch, age 32. According to CNN, he “served as a combat engineer in the Army Reserve from March 2013 to January 2019.” He also never deployed, and separated from the service as a private, according to his Army record. A neighbor told CBS News Couch has a history of threatening people with an armed weapon.
He reportedly texted someone just minutes before the shootings on Saturday, writing, “I'm going to kill a lot of people. Well try at least.”
And lastly: A 26-year-old man from Illinois has helped design 3D-printed guns used by “terrorists, drug dealers and freedom fighters in at least 15 countries,” the New York Times reported Tuesday.
One of the more ubiquitous models is known as FGC-9, and its specs were released four years ago. “The gun was specifically designed to circumvent gun laws and equip people with a weapon that cannot be accounted for by the state,” the Times reports. It’s “so desirable among far-right extremists in Britain that the possession and sharing of its instruction manual is being charged as a terrorist offense.”
The co-designer’s name is John Elik, and he’s “the nephew of a state representative,” according to the Times. He’s also big on whataboutism, saying for example, in 2022, “I’m sharing a computer file.” Pointing to Western governments like the U.S. arming groups like the Kurds in Syria, he added, “If I’m guilty of sharing information, what does that make them?”
The twist? “Because he is a licensed manufacturer, there is no indication that Mr. Elik is violating [Illinois] law.” Read on, here.