and had it not been for this defensive coalition that is named operation prosperity guardian, that some ships may have been sunk, and there was even a situation within the last month or so where a vessel carrying jet fuel might have gotten hit. so close calls is how one senior official described some of the tense situations that we have seen, and sort of explains the importance of this coalition that has been operating in the red sea, the u.s. and a number of its allies. and we re also told just in terms of timing, abby, that it was after these attacks on tuesday that president biden convened his national security team, basically instructed them to come up with a number of proposals on how exactly to respond. and that is what culminated in the scenes that you re playing on the screen right now. mj lee, thank you for all of that reporting. let s go now to cnn chief
national security correspondent alex marquardt. he is joining me now for more on what the defense department is saying on all of this. alex, tell us about this region. these strikes are taking place in a critical place where so many ships, thousands of them go through on a regular basis. how significant is that? extremely, abby, and that s why the u.s. has held off until now, because this is such a sensitive region. it s why the u.s. wanted to be sure that what they did tonight was with an international coalition. so you have about 15% of the world s seaborne commercial shipping passing into the red sea. and that has come under attack some 27 different attacks by the houthis since late november. and so just a few days ago, last week in fact, the u.s. warned with others that there would be consequences if the houthis kept this up. tonight, abby, we saw these consequences. more than a dozen strikes all
the u.s. fires back, fueling fears of an all-out war in the middle east. that s tonight on newsnight. good evening. i m abby phillip in washington. and we begin tonight with breaking news. american fighter jets and submarines delivering a message. that the moment of impact inside of yemen, caught on camera. tonight multiple individual yes, sir on social media capturing the fiery aftermath of u.s. and british tomahawk missiles unloading on houthi targets. president biden says that tonight s barrage amounts to a warning shot. he pledges that he will not hesitate to order more strikes if the houthis do not relent and stop attacking ships transiting the red sea. now houthi officials have already vowed to make the united
military vessels, freedom of navigation, but the disruption of the global economy where you have 12 to 15% of commercial trade going through the straits. look, i think it was the right thing to do. i think it s going to, again, significantly degrade capability of the houthis for some point in time to come. we ll know more in the morning once we have the chance to do a battle damage assessment. but the question now will be how and when do they respond, and how does iran act? again, at the end of the day, iran is behind the houthis, hezbollah, hamas, you name it. and eventually there is going to be we have to confront the iran problem at some point in time here. secretary mark esper, thank you for your time tonight. thank you , abby. and donald trump is taking his campaign into the courtroom, complete with what felt like a campaign speech. that s next. to duckduckgo on all your devie
that this is a great political opportunity for him, but it s just as much a political liability. do you think americans are paying attention to the charges in the case or has this all become background noise for an electorate pretty oversaturated with trump right now? well, if it s oversaturated then it s pretty impossible not to pay attention to it. let s just be honest. nobody is surprised by these antics from mr. trump in this courtroom today. but it was arresting to actually see it, to actually hear it, and to know he was so off the chain today with this hyperbole in a u.s. courtroom. let s just be honest once again. only in america could a rich white male get away with that kind of behavior. you and i both know, abby, had that been you or me or letitia or jamal, they d be under the prison right about now. only a rich white male could get away with that in this courtroom. and i think it s arresting to