The Brief

Iran-backed Houthi rebels have made their biggest land grab in years, reigniting Yemen's 12-year civil war and pushing toward a key maritime chokepoint that threatens Saudi Arabia's oil exports and has driven up global fuel prices. An estimated 125,000 people have fled the advance along the Red Sea coast.

The conflict escalated further Friday as Houthi officials accused Saudi Arabia of launching 26 strikes in the preceding 24 hours, while Italy said it would deploy warships to protect shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb strait and tankers increasingly turned to ship-to-ship transfers off Oman to skirt a separate blockade at the Strait of Hormuz.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Russia could carry out attacks on NATO members designed to look accidental, warning such strikes "intend to paralyze NATO" and to show that the alliance's Article 5 mutual-defense pledge "exists only in theory." President Trump touted "major progress" on plans for a new permanent U.S. Army base in Poland as Warsaw pressed for a stronger American presence.

Trump on Friday signed into law a new Russia sanctions bill championed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, letting him impose tariffs on the largest buyers of Russian oil and gas. French President Emmanuel Macron separately warned that Russian hybrid attacks against Europe are intensifying, as Russia said it had seized the assets of French firms and summoned the UK's ambassador over British support for Ukraine.

A vehicle loaded with explosives rammed into a mosque near a police complex in northwest Pakistan during Friday prayers, killing at least 21 people, including a four-year-old child, police said.

Gunmen also opened fire on the police facility during the attack.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied Friday in a government-organized demonstration, pledging readiness to take up arms in the largest show of defiance against the US since the war began.

The rally, which drew volunteers through downtown Tehran, comes after months of war and follows the US and Israeli attacks on Iran in February.

President Trump said the United States has struck a deal with Denmark giving Washington "permanent control over security ... in Greenland," following a monthslong push by Trump to boost American influence over the mineral-rich Arctic island, which Denmark has controlled since the 1700s.

Danish officials have not confirmed the specifics of the agreement, and Denmark and Greenland are expected to sign a formal US defense pact next week, pending approval from both countries' parliaments.

Russians went to the polls Friday to elect a new State Duma, the lower house of parliament, marking the country's first nationwide parliamentary election since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Millions of voters were choosing lawmakers in the vote, according to NPR.