Houthis fire missiles at Aden presidential palace, killing five

First strike on Al-Maashiq palace in current conflict

Yemen’s Houthi forces fired missiles at the presidential palace complex in the southern city of Aden, killing five people, according to the Guardian. The strike was the first on Al-Maashiq palace in the current conflict. Yemen’s Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani and cabinet members were said to be safe after the attack.

Yemen’s former prime minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed has characterized the Iran-backed militia’s use of drones as representing “a new era of radical terrorism,” according to the Guardian. An adviser to the Yemeni president said he had no doubt that the Houthis intended to seize control of all of Yemen, claiming their goal was “to help Iran to expand the chaos” in the region.

In other reporting from the Guardian’s First Thing newsletter on Thursday, Donald Trump called Ukraine’s latest strikes on Russian oil refineries a “disgrace” and renewed his criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskyy after a US-announced energy ceasefire collapsed. “All he’s doing is making the world oil price higher. Well, I think that’s a disgrace. I think I find Zelenskyy to be more difficult to deal with than Putin,” Trump said.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the EU intended to increase pressure on Russia, promising a 22nd round of sanctions. French president Emmanuel Macron said it was “crucial” that Ukraine received “all the means necessary to protect itself.”

Trump also shelved a plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people at a military base at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009. “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump said, adding that the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims if they so choose. Douglas Wilson, the de facto leader of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches associated with Pete Hegseth, had welcomed the earlier announcement, saying he preferred “public execution” and favored “the older forms, like a firing squad, as opposed to attempts to ‘medicalize’ it,” adding: “Executions in the scriptures were public.”

In a Guardian podcast, the directors of the film NAZA, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, described how they have been called “traitors” since the film’s release and said Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to hunt down and expose their sources. The film collects the testimony of 24 insiders who helped remotely target homes in Gaza during Israel’s military campaign. The film’s executive producer, Jonathan Glazer, said the Israeli government’s targeting of those involved was expected but “in my point of view it was much more venal” than anticipated.

The Republican former congressman Matt Gaetz has been accused of participating in the sex trafficking of two young women in a civil lawsuit filed on Thursday in a district court in Florida.

Saudi Arabia is to execute a man for being at protests and funerals when he was 15, described as a “new low” by rights groups. Tyler Ulrich, a 21-year-old college football player from Azle, Texas, in his third season at Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma, died five days after a “traumatic injury” during a game.

Multiple wildfires ignited across California as the state braced for more strong winds and high temperatures, with evacuations issued and officials briefly closing part of the Interstate 5. The federal government’s seasonal outlook says El Niño is likely to shift weather patterns later in the year to bring more moisture, with the US winter generally looking wetter and warmer.

Michael Desronvil, the sole holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial, told Fox News he never had any reasonable doubt that Clancy was guilty of first-degree murder, adding there was “a lot of evidence to back up my claim.” During the interview, he read a Bible passage. He said he was struck by “how methodical Lindsay was in the execution of the children” and that “constantly praying” had guided him through 38 hours of jury deliberations.

Voting registration organizations have accused Texas officials of failing to ensure eligible voters can register properly, while the US Justice Department is suing California over allegations of noncitizen voting. The FBI is investigating letters containing an “unknown substance” sent to US election officials. Satellite analysis has linked VW, Ford, and Tesla batteries to deforestation of primary rainforest in Indonesia’s nickel-rich lands.

Primetime and You Can See Everything are both audacious awards contenders that challenge our sense of reality; Ryan Gilbey speaks to the 30-year-old director Lance Oppenheim about his drama starring Robert Pattinson as a TV vigilante. In China, architects have worked with a harsh environment to create a sustainable building to showcase hundreds of fossils of pterosaurs, ancient flying reptiles related to dinosaurs.

Other items from the newsletter: police have identified a man found murdered in a barrel in drought-stricken Lake Mead four years ago. A neighborhood in Vienna has introduced guidelines for dog walking, including the use of bottled tap water to rinse away urine to protect vulnerable trees.

Earlier Thursday, a 16-year-old opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, killing three children and a teacher before being fatally shot by a community member. The children killed were ages 5, 8, and 11, officials said. The gunman, who was a Bend resident, has not been publicly identified. After the attack, children from the school were taken by bus to a nearby church serving as a reunification center for families, with parents arriving with stuffed animals and other comfort items. A vigil was held at Drake Park in the hours after the attack, with a photograph by Saj Sundaram of EPA showing a four-year-old drawing with chalk at the gathering.