Yemen’s Houthis have claimed responsibility for launching two missiles towards northern Israel, targeting the Ramat David military airbase and the Tel Aviv area, as the group continues its military pressure in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli fire.
The Israeli military said on Friday it intercepted the first missile and launched another interceptor at the second, which was also fired from Yemen.
Alarms were triggered in several locations, though authorities reported no casualties or damage. The military added that the outcome of the second interception was still under review.
Yahya Saree, spokesperson for the Houthis – also known as Ansar Allah – confirmed the group had carried a “military operation” against a key Israeli military target.
Saree said hypersonic missiles were used and had successfully hit their intended destination.
The Israeli army responded that “interception attempts were made” without providing further details.
The Houthi group has repeatedly said its attacks on Israel as well as United States and British ships in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait will only cease if Israel agrees to a permanent Gaza truce.
The Houthis did not carry out attacks during the Gaza ceasefire earlier this year until Israel blocked all aid into the besieged enclave in early March and followed that with a full resumption of the war.
Growing civilian death toll
The attacks come as the US escalates its military operations in Yemen.
Since March, the US has launched large-scale attacks not only on infrastructure but increasingly on individuals linked to the Houthi leadership.
Civilian casualties are mounting, with UK-based monitor Airwars estimating between 27 and 55 civilians were killed in March alone, and suggesting April’s toll is even higher.
One of the deadliest US strikes in April hit Ras Isa port in Hodeidah, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 150.
On Monday at least 68 people were killed in the overnight strike on detained African migrants, and eight people were killed around the capital, Houthi media reported.
Rights advocates have been alarmed about the growing civilian death toll. Three US Democratic senators recently wrote to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, demanding an accounting for civilian lives lost.
When the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked the Zamzam refugee camp, more than 400 000 people had to pick up and depart. The World Food Programme is concerned about how they will care for them and the millions of others as the rainy season approaches and funding is looming.
When the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked the Zamzam refugee camp, more than 400 000 people had to pick up and depart. The World Food Programme is concerned about how they will care for them and the millions of others as the rainy season approaches and funding is looming.
British football icon David Beckham is turning 50 in style tonight, with the star throwing a glamorous dinner party at one of Notting Hill’s hottest restaurants.
The ex England player has invited some of the biggest celebs to Michelin-star restaurant Core in west London, where he’ll be throwing a star-studded party tonight.
While David’s family – including wife Victoria and children Brooklyn, 26, Romeo, 22, Cruz, 20 and Harper, 13 – will be in an attendance, the likes of Tom Cruise and the footballer’s ex teammates are always set to make an appearance.
Meanwhile, comedian Jack Whitehall, singer Lionel Messi and Victoria’s fellow Spice Girl star Mel B are also set to attend.
A source recently told The Sun about David’s plans: “What he actually really loves, and wants more than anything, is some quiet time with Victoria and their kids away from it all – that’s the thing he’s looking forward to most”.
They added that details of his birthday celebrations are being kept from him as a surprise. “It will be very isolated, well away from the big showbiz places they might usually be seen at – just them and the kids miles away from it all having some great food and drink together. They’re the private moments he really cherishes – they’re hard to find when you’re as recognisable as a family as they are”.
Brooklyn Beckham and his wife Nicola Peltz, 30, will reportedly make an appearance at the party despite rumours of a feud between the 26-year-old and his younger brother Romeo.
Brooklyn was spotted in London earlier this week as he enjoyed a meal at Mountain Restaurant in Soho with Nicola. It is set to be the first time that the family will be together since reports of Brooklyn and Romeo’s rift, reportedly caused by Brooklyn’s past with Romeo’s girlfriend Kim.
Brooklyn was close with Kim when she dated pal Rocco Ritchie previously – and it is rumoured that Brooklyn and Nicola are not fans of Kim, showing their feelings by snubbing family events.
The pair failed to attend David’s pre-birthday bash in Miami last month, which the rest of the family attended. Meanwhile, back in April, neither Brooklyn nor Nicola wished Victoria a happy birthday publicly as she celebrated her 51st birthday.
Earlier this week, David began his 50th birthday celebrations with a bash at his £10m Cotswolds home. The family dressed in black tie for the shindig and were treated to rides in supercars, including a Porsche Penske.
Cast played with Liam Gallagher last year and the frontman phoned up to personally invite them back for the Oasis Live 25 tour
John Power performs at the Utilita Arena Cardiff last year – he will be back in the Welsh capital with Oasis in July(Image: Redferns)
John Power will be entertaining fans this Summer as they sip beers waiting for an incredible moment to happen on stage when Oasis reunite in massive stadiums.
But as well as being the lead singer in Cast and performing alongside Richard Ashcroft as a support act, he will also be there in part as a fan. Looking ahead to the Oasis Live 25 shows which kick off in Cardiff in July, John says: “I think it’s the right time for them to walk on stage together in far too long, you know. And sometimes you’ve got to do it, sometimes things are just right. I’m looking forward to it myself as a fan to watch them come on. It’s going to be some tour to be part of.”
Liam and Debbie phoned up John Power to offer Cast the support slot with Oasis(Image: Getty Images Europe)
At 57, John knows what it is like to play huge shows and have massive hits having been in The La’s from 1986 to 1991 and then forming Cast afterwards who had phenomenal success themselves in the Britpop years of the Nineties.
The band split up in 2001 but reformed in 2010 and last year they toured as support for Liam Gallagher as he played a Definitely Maybe Oasis tour which fans loved. And now the Manchester frontman has personally got them back for the Oasis shows.
John said: “I got a call from a number, and I have got Liam and Noel’s numbers and all that, but it was a different number, and I don’t normally answer them.
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“And I picked it up, and it was Debbie, Liam’s manager and his wife, and Liam in the background as well. And then Liam, he’d just spoken to Noel and they just discussed it, and they just said, ‘You know, look, we just spoke to our kid. Do you want to open up on the tour?’
“I was like, ‘You know, I think I do actually!’ And it was a really cool conversation, and then we were blown away like, I mean, it was like the best news we could have hoped for.”
He adds: “It’s the biggest tour this year and it authenticates the legacy of Cast. This is a band in previous years if there was a Britpop list, top 20, we wouldn’t even be in it.
“But now you can’t do it. Because it’s like the biggest band of that time are saying ‘check this out’.”
As well as the call from Liam, Cast firmly have the Oasis seal-of-approval with Noel Gallagher previously describing frontman John as being “as cosmic as the day is long.”
The Gallaghers also enjoyed Cast 2024 album Love Is The Call, their first new LP in seven years, although their debut album All Change released in October 1995 is still the one most people will know.
Fans can expect John to belt out ‘Alright’ and ‘Finetime’ to fire up audiences from the off, while slow burners such as ‘Sandstorm’ and ‘Walkaway’ are perfect for early singalongs in the stadiums.
After touring with Oasis, Cast will then be on the road themselves with dates going through the year.
John formed the band with Peter Wilkinson who played bass and Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson on guitar and Keith O’Neill on drums completed the line up. Three of the original band – minus Peter – are still playing together now.
Now older and wiser from decades on the road and in the spotlight, John seems content as well as excited about new material for the band.
“I think when you’re younger, you’re kind of trying out a load of different personalities before you get it right. You know, your split personality, there was John this, John that, but lots of that is kind of… just kind of coats you have taken off.
“So what you see now and what you hear now is the genuine ‘John’. You know, it’s the all encompassing John. There was John who played bass in The Las. There was John who was the young Cast singer. There was John who didn’t quite know…. well they’ve all come together.
“I can appreciate and make my peace with the two iconic bands I’ve been in, whilst feeling like’m in this good place at the moment.
“The music industry can be very fickle and fad orientated. And we’ve kind of, we’ve had success, we’ve lost it, we split up, we kind of got back together. We kind of kept it together barely as a band, and then we regrouped,
“And now we’ve been away already and we’ve come back about a month ago. We’ve got a new album recorded that will be out this time next year and it’s, you know, it’s anthemic.
“It’s the one of those records that you make at the right time in your career. So, I mean, there’s a lot of good… I’m kind of right in the pocket at the moment, right in the groove in many things in my life.”
He adds: “It’s funny, but I’m driven in not a desperate way. I’ve realised that the universe meets you. I mean, I always used to say the universe will meet you halfway if you do certain actions, but it doesn’t do desperation. You know, if you want something too much for whatever reason, you don’t get it. So what I’m concentrating on is being very present with my music, very present with my energy.”
Away from the stage, Power and his grown up son Fin will both have been thrilled with Liverpool’s Premier League title this season. A proud Scouser he often puts photos from his hometown on social media including a recent trip to Penny Lane which is close to where he went to school.
And looking even further ahead, John is set to keep playing live his whole life and seems born to do it.
He says: “I don’t think I’m going to stop. I mean, I might not be as intense. The last two years have been slightly intense, and this year there’s so much going on that, like, I’m just literally taking it one day at a time, because I look too far ahead I could freeze.
“But all I know is that if I stay in the pocket in this present moment, things seem to be coming our way. And we’re writing great music. The next album is going to blow your mind and I mean that – it’s a special record.”
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* Cast are on tour with Oasis this Summer, their own tour Cast: 30 Years of All Change begins in October.
The army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) asked the Senate this week to revoke former President Joseph Kabila’s immunity from prosecution.
Removal of Kabila’s immunity would pave the way for him to be prosecuted on charges of “supporting a rebel insurgency” in the country’s troubled eastern region, Justice Minister Constant Mutamba said.
Last week, the government placed travel restrictions on Kabila’s family, signalling a deepening rift between Kabila, who led the country for more than a decade until 2019, and current President Felix Tshisekedi, who took over from him that year.
Tension between the two has kept Kabila away from the country for several years, living for the most part in South Africa. But his reported reappearance last month in the rebel-held Goma territory in DRC’s eastern Kivu region has led to speculation that he may have allied himself with the armed rebel group, M23.
His reappearance in DRC appears also to have angered the government, which has been battling the Rwanda-backed M23 group in a deadly conflict in the country’s east for months. Last week, the rebels announced a ceasefire following mediation talks in Qatar.
Kambale Musavuli, a researcher at the Center for Research on Congo-Kinshasa, a think tank, said the DRC’s move to prosecute the ex-leader was a positive step.
“Putting him on trial could be a pivotal moment for the DRC, not only in seeking justice for past crimes but also in breaking the cycle of impunity that has plagued our leadership since independence,” he said.
Democratic Republic of Congo’s former President Joseph Kabila attends a memorial service for Sam Nujoma, who became Namibia’s first democratically elected president, at the Independence stadium, in the Windhoek, Namibia, on February 28, 2025, several weeks before his reported reappearance in DRC [Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
What is Kabila’s history?
Joseph Kabila, 53, is a former military officer who was fourth president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2001 to 2019. Although his term was supposed to end in 2016, he controversially delayed elections until huge protests broke out. Presidents in the DRC are elected for a five-year term and are only permitted to serve two terms. A new constitution, adopted in 2006, reset Kabila’s two-term tenure.
He took over leadership of the country in 2001 at the age of just 29, after his father and former coup leader, President Laurent Kabila, was assassinated. DRC presidents, former presidents and senators are immune from prosecution unless they commit “gross misconduct” according to the country’s constitution.
Kabila’s relationship with President Tshisekedi, a former opposition leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), is fraught. Although the two men agreed in 2019 to an awkward power-sharing pact that allowed members of Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) to take part in the new government, they clashed over who could appoint which officials to office. Their alliance broke down a year later, in 2020.
Tensions were also mounting over the M23 rebellion which began in 2012. Kabila has accused Tshisekedi of failing to tackle the matter with tact, complaining that the president has relied on external mediation rather than engaging in direct dialogue with the rebels.
In a recent opinion piece in South Africa’s Sunday Times, Kabila wrote that under Tshisekedi, the DRC “is close to imploding as a result of the civil war”. He also accused the president of attempting to hang onto power, referring to Tshisekedi’s plans to push for a constitutional review. Tshisekedi said in 2023 his government would review the constitution and leave the matter of term limits “for the people to decide”, without expanding further.
Kabila has held talks with opposition leaders, including Moise Katumbi, leader of the Together for the Republic party, although it is unclear what was discussed. Observers say Kabila is angling to act as a lead negotiator between M23 and Kinshasa, but he has not publicly made that claim himself.
For his part, Tshisekedi blames Kabila for undermining his government and accuses him of supporting M23, citing his close links to former election chairman-turned-rebel-leader, Corneille Nangaa.
Nangaa, who declared his alliance with the rebels in 2023, was head of the country’s electoral commission from 2015 to 2021 and oversaw the disputed 2018 elections that brought Tshisekedi into office. The two later fell out over how the elections were run, causing Nangaa to publicly criticise Tshisekedi and eventually join a rebel group.
On April 20, the DRC’s government suspended Kabila’s party, PPRD, and ordered his assets to be seized on charges of supporting M23. It is not clear if those assets are yet under state control.
People gather around market stalls as residents begin to venture out onto the streets following clashes at Kadutu Market in Bukavu on February 18, 2025 [Luis Tato/AFP]
Why is the DRC government seeking to lift Kabila’s immunity?
DRC Justice Minister Constant Mutamba told reporters on Wednesday that the state has amassed evidence implicating Kabila in “war crimes, crimes against humanity and massacres of peaceful civilians and military personnel” in the country’s east. He did not give specific details of these crimes.
Swaths of the eastern region are currently under control of the M23 group, which seeks control of mineral wealth and has ambitions to take power in Kinshasa. The United Nations and United States claim the group is backed by neighbouring Rwanda.
In relation to this, Kabila is accused of “treason, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and participation in an insurrectional movement”, the justice minister said.
It’s not clear when the Senate will approve the army’s demand, or when a trial might begin.
What is the M23 and what does it want?
The M23 armed group is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of eastern DRC’s trillions of dollars in mineral wealth, critical for the production of much of the world’s technology.
According to UN experts and the US, M23 rebels are supported by about 4,000 soldiers from neighbouring Rwanda.
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has not explicitly denied supporting the group. In February, he told a CNN reporter he did “not know” if Rwandan troops had boots on the ground in the DRC.
The group, which is largely composed of Tutsi fighters, says it wants to protect Congolese Tutsis of Rwandan origin from discrimination and wants to transform the DRC from a failed state into a modern one, though critics say this is a pretext for Rwanda’s involvement.
Many M23 members were indeed former ethnic Tutsi rebels who integrated into the DRC army following the Congo Wars (1996-2003) but later defected, citing discrimination and broken peace deals.
Those wars had roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of minority Tutsis and centrist Hutus. Thousands of genocidaires fled over the border into refugee camps in the DRC following the fall of the Hutu government, and from there, launched attacks on Rwanda. That conflict led to fighting in an already unstable DRC.
President Kagame’s government, meanwhile, accuses the DRC of enlisting remnant Hutu forces in the form of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which fights alongside the Congolese army.
In a previous uprising in 2012, M23 briefly seized Goma, a strategic regional hub, but withdrew after international pressure.
Since January, the group, which analysts say is eyeing political power this time, has again captured Goma as well as Bukavu, a city of 1.3 million people. At least 3,000 people were reported killed and thousands displaced in the Goma fighting in January.
Congolese traffic police officers affiliated with the M23 fighters direct traffic on the roads around the Birere Market in Goma on February 17, 2025 [Michel Lunanga/AFP]
What will happen to Kabila next?
Kabila has not responded to the DRC government’s recent allegations or its moves to prosecute him. However, his allies have criticised these moves. Ferdinand Kambere, a senior member of Kabila’s PPRD, said Kinshasa’s actions were a “relentless persecution” of the former president.
“For us, these mistakes that those in power keep making against the former president, thinking they are humiliating or intimidating him, actually show that the regime is nearing its end. They have nothing left to use against Kabila,” Kambere told The Associated Press news agency.
But some say the move is necessary for justice. Kabila’s reported appearance in Goma should not be seen as a coincidence, Musavuli, the researcher, said, but rather indicates that he may be shoring up alliances or defying Kinshasa. Kabila and any others implicated in crimes should be tried, he said.
“His regime is deeply implicated in enabling armed groups, particularly in the east. Many of these crimes occurred under his watch, if not with his direct complicity, certainly with his strategic silence. The people want a transparent and credible judicial process, one that doesn’t just scapegoat one individual but exposes the broader networks of power, both domestic and international, that have profited from the suffering of the Congolese people,” he added.
Meanwhile, an opposition alliance against President Tshisekedi is forming. On Thursday, opposition leaders Moise Katumbi, Martin Fayulu and Delly Sesanga, together with Kabila, issued a joint call for national dialogue in what looked like a united front.
In a statement, they questioned the strength of the Qatar-led ceasefire deal and instead called for a return to Congolese-led mediation mechanisms, including one being led by the country’s Catholic Church leaders, to deal with the “root causes” of the crisis, among them “bad governance”.
