CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said Saturday that they fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in response to Saudi airstrikes on the strategic Red Sea city of Hodeida, in another escalation over vital shipping routes in the Middle East while the United States and Iran vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the Houthis’ military spokesman, said in a prerecorded statement that the attack targeted facilities in the Red Sea cities of Yanbu and Jizan that belong to Aramco, the world’s largest oil company.
Saudi Arabia's civil defense said alerts sounded multiple times early Saturday in both cities, but the Kingdom hasn't commented further.
There were no reported strikes overnight in Iran, in an apparent break from nearly two weeks of consecutive nights of U.S. attacks, though tension remains high following a recent escalation between the two countries over the Strait of Hormuz.
The rising tension in the Red Sea threatens to further choke global shipping because the rebels have said they would close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping.
That strait, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a vital shipping chokepoint, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 12% of the world’s trade, including a quarter of its container traffic, passes through the narrows.
The Houthis targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea this week. In response, Saudi Arabia struck the Yemeni port city of Hodeida, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said early Saturday. The strikes late Friday hit the city's port and the state-run telecommunications corporation, injuring two people, said Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said it didn’t hit the port but struck “legitimate military targets” in Hodeida province, which “were linked to threats to commercial vessels in the Red Sea.”
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, called for “diplomacy and dialogue” to solve the Yemen conflict without “military confrontations” in an interview published Saturday in the state-run Iran newspaper.
“Iran had a peaceful night,” Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for Iran's Health Ministry, posted Saturday on X.
U.S. Central Command didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. However, unlike the previous 13 nights, it didn't announce new strikes.
After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February, a tenuous ceasefire that halted major operations for several weeks has seemed to unravel this month. The U.S. accused Iran of striking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and responded by striking dozens of targets in Iran, which retaliated by firing at U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states.
The Strait of Hormuz has been at the center of the conflict. The U.S. military on Friday fired on a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Oman that was trying to breach its renewed blockade of Iran’s ports, while Iran targeted U.S.-allied countries in the region.
U.S. embassies alerted American nationals in the Middle East on Friday that options to leave could become more limited, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard advised residents of neighboring countries to stay away from bases with U.S. troops.
The war has killed more than 3,400 people in Iran, according to the Iranian Health Ministry. Eighteen U.S. service members, 24 civilians in Israel, and smaller numbers of civilians have been reported dead in countries across the region.
In Lebanon, more than 4,000 people have been killed, as well as 38 Israeli troops, after the Iran-backed Hezbollah militants fired at Israel in support of the Islamic Republic.
Dell'Orto reported from Jerusalem.
A woman crosses a street with a girl in downtown Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — The black campaign bus with “Talarico for Texas” across its side came to a steaming stop at Memo’s Restaurant along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bibi Valdez’s eyes lit up. She marched in heels over to the bus, phone camera trained on its door, chatting about the locals whose political leanings shifted two years ago.
“A lot of people, for some reason, especially the Hispanics, changed to Republican," she said as security guards created space for James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate. “I just don’t see what the logic was.”
Talarico is on a quest to become the first Democrat to win a statewide election in Texas since 1994. Memo's Restaurant was one stop on a winding trip along the border this month, where he was searching for support from the predominantly Hispanic counties that became national political curiosities after the 2024 election.
Once consistently Democratic, most had voted for Republican President Donald Trump, some by a lot, as Hispanic voters shifted to the right nationally. Along this stretch of border, residents and elected leaders alike tend to point to two reasons: the rise in both border crossings and everyday prices. One dropped dramatically since 2024, and it wasn’t the cost of eggs.
While Trump has tamped down on illegal border crossings — once Democrats' Achilles' heel — the cost of living is still high, giving Talarico a topic he's been hitting on repeat as he campaigns against Republican Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general.
Whether Talarico's message can sway Hispanic voters who moved to the GOP to return to the Democratic Party will help decide the Senate race, and could determine whether Democrats can win control of the Senate.
So Talarico, a former middle school teacher and state lawmaker, was taking time to shake hands and pose for photos with people outside Memo's Restaurant, which was at capacity with people wanting to see him. Valdez, waiting her turn, pondered aloud why those she knew had voted Republican.
“They thought a better economy, but obviously it didn’t,” she said, before beaming for a photo with the candidate.
Inside Memo's Restaurant, the crowd was revved up, shoulder to shoulder, below beating fans, as Talarico opened his speech.
“So many politicians show up at the border to demonize and weaponize,” Talarico said. “We are doing the opposite. We are showing the beauty of our border communities.”
It was one of the few times Talarico referenced the border during his stop, turning instead to an economy he says is rigged to help “mega donors” and criticizing Paxton as a “puppet politician" for the wealthy.
“We can’t get ahead no matter how hard we work, no matter how much we save, because the system is rigged against us," he said.
Talarico is not the first Democratic Senate candidate in recent years to draw crowds and give the party hope of winning in the reliably Republican state. Beto O'Rourke went on a similar mission in 2018 and failed.
Republicans remain confident about Texas, but Democrats see some reason for optimism.
While Trump gained with Hispanic voters in 2024, opinions of the president have fallen among Hispanics overall since he took office, according to AP-NORC polling. Only 29% of Hispanic adults nationally approved of his performance as president in a June AP-NORC poll, an apparent drop from 41% at the start of his second term.
In communities along the Rio Grande, which defines the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, the ebb and flow of migrants isn’t an abstract political issue. People here still recall — often with empathy — hundreds huddled in reflective emergency blankets under a bridge, and the hit to local businesses and town coffers.
Little aid, many said, came from President Joe Biden's administration.
“It was a nightmare because of him. Now, you don't see no immigrants," said Hector Flores, 72, sitting with his two friends at a McDonald’s in Maverick County, about an hour's drive south of Memo's Restaurant.
Maverick County had one of the sharpest swings toward Trump than any county in the country in 2024, from backing Biden by 10 percentage points in 2020 to supporting Trump by 19.
The three men of varying political persuasions weren't following the Senate race particularly closely. But the issues on their minds were the same ones Talarico and Paxton have been talking about, from high costs to ICE and social issues.
Under past presidents, costs were OK, said Eduardo “Lalo” Riojas, 73, who sat next to Flores. Now, “You go down to HEB to buy merchandise, groceries," he said, trailing off without the right English word.
“Expensive,” Flores offered.
“Yeah,” said Riojas, who supports Talarico. “Mr. Trump is crazy.”
For Flores, who works with orphanages across the border in Mexico, those high prices aren’t making him question his Republican vote. Nor is he politically moved by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s sometimes lethal operations in the interior, which have ruffled some Trump supporters, both Hispanic and otherwise.
“I love ICE,” said Flores.
Mike Garcia, 76, who sat across from the two and said he voted for Trump three times in a row, was more wary.
“The ones they’re killing, some of them, been here in the United States for years and years and got children," Garcia said.
He said Paxton, who has been impeached, then acquitted, and faced allegations of corruption and extramarital affairs, has a “horrible reputation." But he also is bothered by comments Talarico has made about God's gender, a statement Paxton has used to attack his opponent as he appeals to Texas voters' conservative values.
Garcia still didn’t know which candidate he'll support come November.
Paxton has leaned more on immigration enforcement as an issue, including during his own border stop in the Rio Grande Valley.
Speaking in a circle of supporters in McAllen, Paxton first plugged the lawsuits he filed against the Biden administration over immigration enforcement, and his endorsement from the National Border Patrol Council.
He then returned to some of his core attacks on Talarico, including repeating the Democrat's statements that “God is nonbinary,” which Talarico — a seminary student — said on the Texas House floor several years ago, citing Scripture.
His campaign's director of Hispanic outreach said Paxton has delivered what Hispanics want, including taking on criminals and companies that gouge consumers, and attacked Talarico as “wimpy.”
“Hispanics know Ken Paxton is a strong man who shares our values, and we see in James Talarico a wimpy liberal,” Alex Alarcon said. "No one looks at him and thinks, now there’s a guy who’ll protect us from the cartels.”
Talarico didn't avoid talk about immigration enforcement completely during his border tour.
At a news conference, he stood in Sanderson, Texas, alongside local sheriffs to pledge investment in surveillance tech to catch illegal crossings and to hire more border patrol agents and immigration judges.
Later, after a town hall where voters aired their frustrations over affording rent, property taxes and healthcare, Talarico spoke with The Associated Press about what's been happening here.
"The Biden administration failed border communities like this, and so people were feeling disillusioned. They were open to an alternative and Republicans came down here with some big promises," he said.
Now, “they’re seeing a lot of those promises weren’t kept."
Associated Press journalist Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico shakes hands with voters at a rally on Monday, July 13, 2026, in Del Rio, Texas. (AP Photo/Brenda Bazán)
Attendees listen as Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico speaks at a rally on Monday, July 13, 2026, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Brenda Bazán)
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico greets voters at a rally on Monday, July 13, 2026, in Del Rio, Texas. (AP Photo/Brenda Bazán)
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico speaks at a rally on Monday, July 13, 2026, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Brenda Bazán)
