Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis, denounced Israel and signaled defiance, hailed as “the martyrs of all Yemen” as a result of the group’s confirmation of the death of its prime minister and other cabinet ministers.
He said in his first speech on Sunday since the Israeli attacks that “the Israeli enemy, with its crimes and savagery, does not spare even children, women, and defenceless civilians,” according to Houthi media.
The Israeli enemy in the area’s criminal history is “adjusted to the crime of targeting ministers and civilian officials.”
According to a statement released on Saturday, the Houthis’ government’s prime minister, Ahmed Ghaleb al-Rahawi, was killed in an Israeli attack on Sanaa on Thursday along with “several” other ministers.
At a workshop, Al-Rahawi, who served as prime minister in the country’s divided regions, was targeted along with other Houthi-led government members, according to the statement.
According to Al-Houthi, “the Israeli enemy’s history is one of horrific terror” because it murders civilians in Palestinian-held areas like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. He referred to Israel as “a criminal foe that uses practices that have no laws, commitments, charters, and no considerations to demonstrate its savagery, criminality, and aggression.”
In solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinians, the Houthi commander declared that the organization would continue to act against Israel in support of the Gaza war, adding that “our people will not be weakened by the aggression they are facing.”
In recent months, Israel has repeatedly attacked Houthi positions as a result of Yemen’s attacks on Israeli and Western vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Israeli media reported on Friday that the Israeli army attacked the entire Houthi cabinet on Thursday, including the prime minister and 12 other ministers, in a report quoting unnamed sources.
According to health officials, the attack occurred four days after Israeli attacks on the Yemeni capital on August 24. The attack resulted in the deaths of 10 people and more than 90 injuries.
Houthi office raids
At least one UN employee was detained in Yemen’s capital on Sunday as a glaring attempt to tighten security following Israel’s attacks across Sanaa.
Without providing further information, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Ammar Ammar reported to the Associated Press that there was “an ongoing situation” involving their Sanaa offices.
The UN official claimed that several other World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF employees had lost contacts and that they were likely also being held hostage.
Security forces also raided the organizations’ offices in the Houthi-controlled capital on Sunday morning, according to Abeer Etefa, a WFP spokesperson, according to the Associated Press.
According to Etefa, “WFP reiterates that the arbitrary detention of humanitarian staff is unacceptable.”
The latest Houthi crackdown against the UN and other international organizations operating in Yemen’s rebel-held areas is the most recent.
Difficulty numbers of UN employees have been taken into custody, as well as individuals connected to aid organizations, civil society, and the now-closed US Embassy in Sanaa.
Samar Abu Ajwah held her frail newborn baby in a crowded clinic in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza as he burst into swollen sobs.
With only a weight of 1.9 kg (44.2 lbs), Eyad has been diagnosed as malnourished. He needs milk, according to Abu Ajwah, who also suffers from malnutrition as a result of Israel’s punishing blockade of humanitarian aid. “We are appealing for help from people who can afford it because we cannot,” Abu Ajwah said.
Ru’a, Ameera Tafesh’s severely ill six-month-old, was taken to the clinic by Ameera Tafesh in search of rest. She told Al Jazeera, “I breastfed her when she was born, but it only lasted a week because I couldn’t produce enough milk.” She needs to give me her formula, but it’s not.
In the wake of Israeli-induced starvation in the enclave, mothers are desperate to find food for their children and themselves, according to Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, who is based in Nuseirat.
Despite an Israeli food and other aid embargo, children at a clinic in Nuseirat are waiting for food. [Screengrab/Al Jazeera]
Israel has halted the distribution of food and other aid through the United Nations and humanitarian organizations since unilaterally striking a ceasefire in March, setting up a few aid distribution centers run by its army, supported by the US, and run by US-based GHF.
Since the Gaza Ministry of Health’s operation began in late May, more than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed and more than 16, 225 have been injured as a result of Israeli soldiers and GHF security contractors opening fire on aid seekers at the locations, according to a report from the Gaza Ministry of Health.
UN agencies have repeatedly urged Israel to be allowed to resume its own distributions and labeled the system “a abomination” and “a death trap.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative, a global hunger monitor, confirmed this month that there is a famine in the northern and northern border of the Strip, and that it is expected to reach central and southern areas by the end of September.
Nearly 641,000 people in Gaza are expected to be in incredibly dire conditions by that time.
Newborns are at acute risk, especially women.
The IPC analysis identified a significant risk of starvation for pregnant women and newborns. According to its report, an estimated 55,500 pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished and require an immediate nutritional adjustment.
By June, it added that at least 132, 000 children under the age of five are in danger of dying from acute malnutrition.
124 children have died as a result of malnourishment and famine, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which includes 339 victims so far this war.
The famine in Gaza was described by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as a “man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself.”
Israel’s death toll figures are disputed, and it does not acknowledge the widespread malnutrition of Palestinians in Gaza.
According to the UN Population Fund, mothers in Gaza are being forced to give birth while being malnourished, exhausted, and more than likely to die.
Their babies are born too small, weak, or prematurely, according to the statement. Mothers are unable to breastfeed because they are also starving, according to the organization’s statement.
No woman should be forced to give birth in a famine setting. No child should go hungry all their life. More mothers and newborns are suffering every day as a result of inaction.
Children with wasted bodies, too weak to cry or eat, babies dying from hunger and preventable diseases, parents arriving at clinics with nothing to feed their children, according to UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell’s repeated warnings.
As McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris saw his hopes swelter after winning the Dutch Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri now holds a massive 34-point lead in the Formula One championship.
McLaren had been on track for a fifth successive one-two victory on a day full of drama until Norris suffered late-disappointment on Sunday after both Ferrari drivers crashed out in separate incidents.
After claiming that he could smell smoke in his car’s cockpit, Norris slowed down and took his seat in second place on lap 65 of 72, with evidence emerging from the wrecked vehicle.
Late in the race, Norris reported a “funny” smell in his cockpit while chasing Piastri.
Norris said, “I don’t know if I’m on fire or not. He had to stop because the car’s back was full of smoke.
Norris and his broken-down car met at the finish line of the race while standing behind a barrier by the trackside.
Norris’s race engineer apologized by expressing his satisfaction with his recent improvement.
Norris responded, “It’s irrelevant.”
With nine races left, Piastri’s advantage over second-placed Norris increased from nine points to 34.
After Norris’s breakdown, the Australian won by managing three safety car restarts, holding off twice, and then putting his rival Max Verstappen in his place.
Piastri addressed the team, “Nicely done, everyone, nicely done.” “I’m sorry for Lando for what occurred,” he said.
Verstappen, a native of Belgium, placed second behind Racing Bulls’ French rookie Isack Hadjar, who won his first Formula One podium, in third place and exhilarated.
As the squad celebrated its first podium appearance in four years, Hadjar was lifted off the ground and slapped on the back by a crowd of cheering team members.
This is the first step, according to Hadjar, who said, “because that was always the target since I was a child.”
In the same location, both Ferraris collided with the barriers. In yet another disappointing Ferrari race, Lewis Hamilton hit the wall in a rainstorm.
Charles Leclerc, a teammate, spun into the same barrier after being struck by Andrea Kimi Antonelli from Mercedes.
Confirmation of our top ten Zandvoort #F1 #DutchGP images. twitter.com/81hYFSRLWS
According to author Joan Williams, populism has been pushed into the party by elitism.
Author Joan Williams contends that the United States Democratic Party’s elitism is still driving people away as the popularity of the party reaches historic lows.
Williams is the author of Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back and the founder of the Equality Action Center at the College of Law in San Francisco.
The UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, will remain there until 2026, with an exception for an “orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal” starting in 2027, according to a UN Security Council vote on Thursday.
Israel and the United States have heavily pushed for UNIFIL’s closure, despite the fact that UNIFIL has not fulfilled its stated purpose. They claim that the organization has provided political cover for Hezbollah since the 2006 war.
In addition to its invasion of south Lebanon in October, Israel is still occupying at least five locations in Lebanon. Israeli troops should leave south Lebanon, according to a ceasefire agreement reached in November, but that has not yet been done.
What does the closure of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mean for Israel’s border region? What information is necessary here.
What’s going on now?
South Lebanon will remain under UNIFIL’s control until December 31, 2026.
After that, it will have a year to leave its forces and give the Lebanese Army command of the area.
Given Israel’s disproportional position in terms of military might, technology, and US support, the development seems to favor Israel. Israel’s air force regularly violated Lebanon’s airspace with surveillance flyovers even before Hezbollah started fighting with Israel in October 2023.
When UNIFIL’s mandate expires [Hussein Malla/AP] Lebanon’s security forces will have to deploy to all of south Lebanon.
There won’t be a global organization that can follow these violations now that UNIFIL has been discontinued.
Andrea Tenenti, a UNIFIL spokesman, questioned how Israeli forces’ continued support for UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was put into effect at the end of the 2006 conflict.
If the [Israeli military] are still present in the south, how can they be deployed everywhere in the south? he inquired.
These are the things that are challenging to comprehend, so to put it another way.
Describe UNIFIL.
After Israel invaded southern Lebanon earlier that year, the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) was established to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel would retake control of south Lebanon in 1982 before Hezbollah expelled them in 2000.
More than 10,000 peacekeepers from 47 nations make up UNIFIL, with Indonesia and Italy serving as the country’s top two.
It records violations of UN Resolution 1701 and monitors the entire border region.
Israel has focused its attacks on Naqoura, a coastal town with its headquarters in Naqoura. After the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, not during fighting, according to Al Jazeera’s report earlier this year.
UNIFIL has 50 positions on Lebanese territory and 1, 060 square kilometers (409 square miles) of southern territory where it conducts its operations.
UNIFIL’s ability to use force
Only in self-defense or to defend armed civilians.
UNIFIL typically doesn’t fire on either Hezbollah or Israel because of its role as a peacekeeping force.
UNIFIL has recently used non-lethal force to defend itself in situations where its vehicles have been attacked.
What are Israelis’ opinions of UNIFIL?
They don’t support fans.
In the past, Israel has attacked UNIFIL’s peacekeepers, and UNIFIL accused Israel of intentionally attacking its peacekeepers during the conflict last year.
UNIFIL is a body with an international mandate and legitimacy that publishes reports on Israeli attacks and violations in southern Lebanon, in contrast to Gaza, where Palestinian voices are the only ones authorized to voice information about Israeli attacks or civilian killings.
The US sees UNIFIL as a waste of money because it doesn’t address Hezbollah’s influence in south Lebanon directly.
The US has increasingly adopted Israel’s position on UNIFIL under President Donald Trump.
The United States will support an extension of UNIFIL for the last time, according to Dorothy Shea, the acting US ambassador to the UN. The first letter in UNIFIL, “i,” denotes “interim.” The UNIFIL mission needs to come to an end.
Why is Hezbollah in trouble?
Hezbollah is perceived by Israel and the US as a “terrorist” organization.
In response to Israel’s occupation of Lebanon and the subsequent expulsion of the occupiers from south Lebanon, Hezbollah was established in the 1980s. Although Lebanon contributed the majority of the casualties and damage during the two parties’ inflicted war to a stalemate in 2006.
Israel saw Hezbollah as a primary threat and its weapons as a deterrent to military action between 2006 and last year. Israel’s military has attacked southern Lebanon and occasionally struck closer to Beirut without restraint since the ceasefire was reached, despite an assurance that hostilities would end.
Israel claims that it is attacking Hezbollah targets despite the fact that civilians were frequently killed in Israeli airstrikes last year and continue to do so.
Hezbollah’s influence in south Lebanon is a priority for Israel and the US, according to Bilal Hussein/AP.
How about Lebanon’s?
UNIFIL’s renewal was supported by the current Lebanese government.
Nawaf Salam, the prime minister, applauded the decision to renew UNIFIL’s mandate, stating that it “reaffirms the necessity of extending state control over all of its territory” and “reiterates the call for Israel to withdraw its forces from the five sites it continues to occupy.
With the exception of the Lebanese government, UNIFIL has a wider range of viewpoints in south Lebanon.
Many Lebanese residents have publicly criticized the peacekeepers’ presence, despite the fact that some do so.
In south Lebanon, armed civilians attacked a UN vehicle in May with axes and rods. Many southerners have expressed anger toward UNIFIL troops because many of them are unable to return to their homes in South Lebanon due to Israel’s destruction of their villages or because there are still Israeli-style assaults on them. Some people reportedly have a suspicion toward them.
Conflicts between Lebanese civilians and UNIFIL troops are documented on violent videos. After an argument, a local smacks a Finnish UNIFIL peacekeeper across the face in one.
In Marjayoun, near the Israeli-Israeli border, southern Lebanon, on November 19, 2024, vehicles from the UNIFIL peacekeeping force travel along a street.
China’s president Xi Jinping has informed 20 world leaders that he hosted a summit in northern Tianjin that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) security forum now bears “greater responsibility” for preserving regional peace and stability.
As he hosted and addressed the high-profile gathering at a banquet on Sunday evening, Xi also emphasized the SCO’s commitment to the development and prosperity of its member states.
According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Xi was quoted as telling the assembled leaders that the ongoing SCO summit has the crucial task of fostering consensus among all parties and fostering momentum in cooperation.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most notable guests at the two-day summit. This is his first visit to China since 2018 following years of tense relations following an Indian and Chinese troops clashed in 2020 at a disputed Himalayan border.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, is also present, as is Vladimir Putin, who is facing a 2023 international criminal court (ICC) arrest warrant.
The court has no authority in China because it is not a member of the ICC and not a member of the original Rome Statute.
China and Russia have occasionally compared the SCO to the NATO military alliance. The summit, which will be held in Washington, is the first since Donald Trump’s second term as president of the United States, which will begin in 2025. It is a powerful demonstration of global South solidarity in the face of global wars, conflicts, and Trump’s tariffs, which are shaking up the world’s economies.
A “meaningful direction”
Xi and Modi made a promise earlier on Sunday to work together and to improve cooperation along the border.
In his opening remarks, Modi claimed that “there is a peaceful environment at the borders after disengagement” and that ties with China have “moved in a meaningful direction.”
According to a statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, he also noted “the importance of peace and tranquillity on the border areas for the continuation of bilateral relations.”
Our cooperation is a “connection between our cooperation and the interests of 2.8 billion people in both countries.” Modi told Xi, “This will also open the door for the welfare of the entire humanity.”
The two most populous countries are fiercely allied to each other in South Asia as they vie for dominance. For the first time in five years at a summit in Russia, Modi and Xi had a meeting in October.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, Xi stated in regards to ties with India that he hoped the Tianjin meeting would “further elevate” and “promote the sustained, healthy, and stable development of bilateral relations.”
According to Xi, the two sides should “not let the border issue define the overall China-India relationship,” adding that their main concern should be economic development.
China-India relations will flourish and advance steadily as long as they keep their commitment to the overarching goal of being partners, not adversaries, and providing development opportunities, not threats, according to Xi.
Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, flew to New Delhi earlier in August to make an announcement about their reconciliation.
Both parties made promises to resume border negotiations and resume direct flight and visa issues.
