Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Thousands gather in London to express support for Palestinians after three years of ‘genocide’

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Twenty arrested in first march since Ed Miliband declared UK’s position was that Israel’s occupation of West Bank was unlawful

Thousands of people have gathered in central London to express their support for Palestinians after three years of “genocide” carried out against them by Israel.

The demonstrators, many wearing keffiyehs and holding Palestine flags, gathered on the Embankment at midday on Saturday. Some carried placards reading “End the genocide” and “Free Palestine” as they marched towards parliament. A bride and groom appeared to be among those in attendance and a two-minute silence was held to reflect on the lives lost in Gaza.

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Twelve killed and hundreds injured in Houthi attack at Riyadh airport

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Donald Trump evaluating whether US should join Saudi strikes against the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels

The latest attack on the international airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh killed 12 people and injured more than 300 others, civil aviation authorities said early on Sunday, with some in a critical condition. A Saudi-led coalition blamed Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.

A missile struck a King Khalid international airport complex housing terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights, a regional official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to speak to the media.

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Flydubai co-pilot planned suicide attack on Israeli airport, UAE prosecutors say

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Hammam al-Hammami is believed to have been targeting the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv

The co-pilot who tried to seize control of a passenger jet flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week was planning to launch a suicide attack targeting the passenger terminal at Israel’s international airport, prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates said on Friday.

Hammam al-Hammami attacked the plane’s Indian pilot with an emergency axe, but failed to prevent his badly injured colleague from opening the cockpit’s security door to allow passengers to overpower his assailant.

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Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream execution puts US in dubious company

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Only Iran and Afghanistan routinely carry out sentences in public, with Saudi Arabia appearing to have ended practice

If the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, goes ahead with plans to livestream the execution of a soldier radicalised to extremist Islam who killed 13 people at a military base in Texas, his country will join a motley assembly of lesser powers and rogue actors who have conducted public executions in recent years.

Only two countries currently systematically carry out capital sentences in public: Iran and Afghanistan. In 2025, the Taliban authorities carried out six such killings and the regime in Tehran 11, according to Amnesty International.

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Three Saudis killed in Riyadh airport attack claimed by Houthis

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Attack is deadliest in kingdom since it launched major military offensive with allies against Houthis in Yemen

Three Saudi citizens have been killed and several other people were wounded in attacks targeting Riyadh ⁠airport for which Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility, Saudi officials have said.

The attack late on Thursday was the deadliest in Saudi Arabia since the kingdom and allied forces in neighbouring Yemen launched a major military offensive last weekend against the Iran-backed Houthis.

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Israel’s downgrading of UK consulate aims to tighten its hold on Jerusalem

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Consulate targeted in sanctions spat has unusual diplomatic status that clashes with Israel’s ambitions to fully annex the city

Israel’s attempt to close the British consulate general in Jerusalem was primarily designed to deter London from imposing sanctions on settlements in occupied Palestine. But it also served the current government’s ambitions to fully annex Jerusalem as a national capital, diplomatic and legal experts said.

The UK mission to the city has an unusual diplomatic status, which dates back to before the founding of the state of Israel, rooted in a vision of Jerusalem as a neutral enclave under international control.

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Florida judge allows lawsuit against Shah of Iran’s alleged ‘chief torturer’ to move forward

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Parviz Sabeti denies allegations he led Savak intelligence agency under shah and directed torture of thousands

The alleged “chief torturer” for the deposed Shah of Iran is a step closer to trial for human rights abuses after a Florida federal judge rejected his demand to halt a lawsuit brought by three former political prisoners.

Parviz Sabeti, who was reported last year to have lived in a quiet upscale central Florida community, is accused of being the former head of Savak, the shah’s secret police and intelligence agency. The plaintiffs say they discovered his whereabouts only after a photo of Sabeti at a 2023 protest against the Iranian government was posted on social media by his daughter.

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British consulate in East Jerusalem will stay open as UK mission, says Ed Miliband

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UK and Israel back away from full diplomatic confrontation, though British presence in Palestine will be much reduced

Israel and the UK have backed away from a full-scale diplomatic confrontation, with Britain announcing it is rebranding its consulate general ⁠building in ⁠East Jerusalem ​as a UK mission, a move that will result in UK diplomats leaving Israel, with only seven to remain in the building. Among those leaving is the consul general, Helen Winterton.

The change was forced on the UK by the Israeli government as punishment for the decision by the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, last month to ban trade with illegal settlements and introduce a tougher sanctions regime against those who aided the building of settlements. The UK is seeking to protect the two-state solution as the best means of ending the Israel-Palestine conflict.

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Houthi forces appear to make slow advance in south-west Yemen

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Group’s fighters hit key airport in Aden with explosive moments before plane from Cairo was due to land

Houthi forces appeared to be making slow advances on Wednesday in south-west Yemen, approaching the city of Taiz and firing a missile and an explosive towards the airport in Aden, the chief international hub of the Saudi-backed government.

The explosive hit the key airport moments before a plane was due to land. The British ambassador to Yemen, Abda Sharif, said the attack could have endangered thousands of people. It forced the flight – from Cairo – to be diverted to Jeddah and led to a review about the safety of flights in Aden.

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US, Israeli and European far-right figures to gather for conference in Israel

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Trump’s counter-terrorism ‘czar’, Sebastian Gorka, was scheduled to speak at conference but White House says he will no longer attend

A National Conservatism (NatCon) conference beginning today in Jerusalem advertises a talk from the Trump administration’s anti-terrorism czar alongside speeches from far-right Israeli politicians, European figures who have faced disciplinary action over alleged antisemitism, and Christian nationalist and far-right figures from the United States.

The Jerusalem event is perhaps the most significant recent gathering to feature large contingents of Israeli nationalists alongside Christian nationalists and far-right European nationalists from a milieu sometimes shadowed by accusations of antisemitism.

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Saudi-backed forces recapture key areas around strait from Houthis in Yemen

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Government offensive launched under air cover by Saudi military coalition aims to retake all Houthi-held territory

Forces of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen have recaptured several key areas around Bab al-Mandab strait from Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Yemeni officials said on Monday.

The officials said forces allied with the internationally recognized government have retaken the crucial town of Dhubab just north of the strait. They also captured the towns of Bab and Hadeid, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. Witnesses said they saw government tanks and forces entering the towns.

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UK threatens to expel Israeli diplomats over planned East Jerusalem consulate closure

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Tit-for-tat expulsions expected after relations deteriorate as a result of UK ban on goods from illegal settlements

The UK has threatened to expel one Israeli diplomat for every British diplomat forced to leave Israel as a result of Israel’s decision to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem later this week.

This could mean as many as 27 Israeli diplomats being expelled from the UK, a step that would arguably mark the lowest point in British-Israeli diplomatic relations since the formation of the state of Israel.

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Air campaign against Houthis under way in Yemen, says Saudi-led coalition

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Operation supported by 100 fighter jets said to have secured ‘air protection’ of Bab al-Mandab strait and destroyed hundreds of targets

Leaders of a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen claimed a broad air campaign involving 100 jet aircraft was under way on Monday against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea coastline and farther north in the capital, Sana’a.

The Saudi coalition spokesperson, Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, said the 100 fighter jets participating in Operation Dawn of Yemen were providing support to forces of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

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Iran’s oil minister resigns as country’s economic crisis worsens

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Departure comes amid large drop in oil receipts, rampant inflation and shrinking economy

Iran’s oil minister has resigned days after allegations that an intermediary trust selling Iranian oil abroad owed millions of dollars’ worth of export receipts to the state.

Mohsen Paknejad’s departure comes as Iran grapples with a dire economic situation, including inflation running at 85%. An overall drop in oil receipts has led to a massive shortfall in foreign exchange earnings and one of the biggest drops in the value of the rial since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

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Skull fractures suggest servants of Egypt’s ancient kings were sacrificed

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Study of remains taken from royal cemetery at Umm el-Qa’ab appears to confirm early Egyptologist’s theory

Court officials and craftspeople serving early Egyptian kings may have been sacrificed when their ruler died, according to research that found fractures in several ancient skulls.

The royal cemetery of Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos features the tombs and enclosures of the First Dynasty rulers of Egypt, and dates as far back as 3,000BC.

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Yemen’s Saudi-backed government launches military drive to retake all Houthi-held territory

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The announcement came hours after Iranian-backed Houthis reportedly cut a vital supply route to besieged city of Taiz

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has announced the start of a new military operation to retake all territory held by the Houthis, even as the militant group made fresh gains on the ground, reportedly encircling a government-held city.

Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s presidential council, said in a statement on Sunday: “I announce today the start of military operations to retake the remaining territories of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory.”

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As it happened: Israel condemns Green party passing ‘Zionism is racism’ as a ‘stain on history of UK’

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Party formally adopts policy which equates Zionism with racism, as all Green party votes to adopt policy that equates Zionism with racism

On Friday the Times revealed that Katie Lam, the communities secretary, told a meeting in private earlier this year that the state pension system needs a fundamental overhaul.

Speaking in June, when she was a frontbencher but not yet in the shadow cabinet, Lam was asked at a meeting with activists if she thought the pensions triple lock was sustainable. She replied:

Ultimately I think what we will need in the end is an entirely new pension system.

I mean, a baby that is born today has a 20% chance of living to be 100 and I don’t think we can fund one in five people half of their lives, you know, for the first 20 and the last 30 years. But obviously if you are 90 you probably can’t go out and get a job right, so I think you have to be realistic about how you would taper that and bring that in across the population.

The fact is, the triple lock and pensions are things that people have contributed to.

Conservatives believe that if you have contributed, then you deserve to get your state pension.

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Libyan unity talks upended as warlord’s son linked to drone attacks on fuel facilities

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Western Libya’s GNU say working with Saddam Haftar ‘impossible’ as US-backed merger plan breaks down

Allegations that the son of the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar oversaw a “terror cell” that launched drone attacks on fuel storage facilities and power stations in western Libya have upended plans for the Tripoli-based government of national unity (GNU) to continue cooperating with Haftar on a plan to unify the country.

Saddam Haftar, the deputy commander of the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), has increasingly been seen by the US as an important figure in its plans to unify Libyan security, judicial and political institutions.

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Suicide by plane or terrorism? Speculation over motive in flight 1073 attack

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Experts sceptical flydubai co-pilot’s only motivation was to end his own life and say key question is means of radicalisation

At about 9.30 on Wednesday morning local time, Tali Manes was taking her six-year-old daughter, Nina, to the toilet on the regular flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv when she heard a series of heavy blows against the cockpit door.

Manes, an Israeli bank executive, immediately told a flight attendant seated nearby that something was wrong. When he did not react, she shouted at him: “Something is happening in there!” Seconds later, the man “simply went to the [cockpit] door and opened it”, Manes told Israel’s Channel 12 TV.

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‘I was fighting for my life’: Indian pilot hailed as hero recalls flydubai cockpit attack

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Smit Machchhar says in video call with Indian PM that he realised if he did not get up ‘passengers would lose their lives’

The Indian pilot who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv said his faith and his desire to save his passengers allowed him to make a “last push” to open the cockpit door as he fought for his life.

Capt Smit Machchhar, who was recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital, described to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, how he helped save the plane and its more than 170 passengers.

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