Sanaa

Decades of U.S. and international food aid to Yemen, including hundreds of thousands of tonnes of donated wheat, have reportedly undercut local grain farmers and pushed many toward cultivating khat, a water-intensive stimulant leaf classified as a Schedule I drug in the U.S. Researchers say cheap imported grain makes it harder for Yemeni farmers to compete, while khat offers far higher profit margins despite consuming roughly 37 percent of the country's water. The trend has accelerated since a 2014 UN report, with cultivation expanding sharply amid civil war instability.

U.S. humanitarian commitments to Yemen ran as high as $1.5 billion annually before the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID sharply cut funding, leaving only a fraction of the UN's 2026 emergency appeal financed. Experts, including a Harvard historian and a Sana'a Center researcher, argue that "grain dumping" has entrenched dependency and empowered armed factions, urging locally sourced, accountable aid models instead. The State Department says it enforces strict anti-diversion standards and does not fund aid in Houthi-held areas.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered a halt to all state funding for Flock Safety license-plate cameras, escalating a national backlash against the surveillance network. His office said state agencies are clarifying that funds cannot be used for Flock cameras, a decision that came as the Texas Tribune prepared an investigation into a 2023 legislative auto-insurance fee hike that funded roughly 3,200 Flock cameras statewide. The move follows vandalism of Houston-area cameras, an indicted Lufkin officer accused of misusing Flock data on 100 counts, and the arrest of a former Katy officer accused of using the data to stalk his ex-wife. League City recently became the first Texas city to put its Flock contract to a public vote.

The Texas action joins a growing list of jurisdictions curbing Flock use, including Tempe, St. Paul, Grand Rapids, Summit County and multiple Minnesota and Iowa cities, amid Sen. Josh Hawley's Senate investigation into the roughly 120,000-camera network. Flock has added privacy safeguards, including shorter video retention and suspicious-search detection, while defending the technology as a key public safety tool amid ongoing misuse and data-sharing concerns.