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US Imposes Sanctions on Hezbollah-Linked Businessmen in Lebanon

An exterior view of the building of US Department of the Treasury is seen on March 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. (AFP)
An exterior view of the building of US Department of the Treasury is seen on March 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. (AFP)
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US Imposes Sanctions on Hezbollah-Linked Businessmen in Lebanon

An exterior view of the building of US Department of the Treasury is seen on March 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. (AFP)
An exterior view of the building of US Department of the Treasury is seen on March 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. (AFP)

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on three businessmen with ties to Hezbollah, saying their activity as financial facilitators for the Iran-backed group was exploiting Lebanon's economic resources at a time of crisis for that country.

The Treasury Department has added Adel Diab, Ali Mohamad Daoun, Jihad Salem Alame, and their company Dar Al Salam for Travel & Tourism, to its sanctions list, the department said in a statement.

"Through businessmen like those designated today, Hezbollah gains access to material and financial support through the legitimate commercial sector to fund its acts of terrorism and attempts to destabilize Lebanon's political institutions," the US Treasury said in the statement.

Lebanon's economy has been in crisis since 2019 when it collapsed under a mountain of debt. Its currency plunged to a new low last week, and swathes of the nation have been driven into poverty.

Lebanon's cabinet will hold its first meeting in three months next week, local media reported on Monday, after Hezbollah and another group, Amal, ended their boycott of the cabinet at the weekend.

The two groups, which back several ministers, had been boycotting the cabinet in a dispute over the conduct of an investigation into a huge explosion at Beirut's port in 2020.

The US Treasury said Tuesday's action requires all property owned by the three men and their business that is in the United States to be blocked and reported to the department, and that all transactions related to the property by U.S. citizens be prohibited.

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Arab World

Red Cross Delivers Essential Medical Supplies to Yemen’s Besieged Taiz City

Internally displaced people transport mattresses they received from a charity in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen October 29, 2026. (Reuters)
Internally displaced people transport mattresses they received from a charity in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen October 29, 2026. (Reuters)
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Red Cross Delivers Essential Medical Supplies to Yemen’s Besieged Taiz City

Internally displaced people transport mattresses they received from a charity in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen October 29, 2026. (Reuters)
Internally displaced people transport mattresses they received from a charity in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen October 29, 2026. (Reuters)

The Red Cross said on Wednesday it had delivered four truckloads of essential medical supplies to the besieged Yemeni city of Taiz after renewed fighting cut off access for weeks.

Taiz has been largely isolated for a month, with fighting preventing humanitarian supplies from entering the city and restricting the movement of civilians, after an escalation in clashes between the legitimate government and ‌the Iran-backed Houthi ‌militia.

Key supply routes, including the ‌Taiz-Aden ⁠corridor, have been blocked ⁠by Houthi militants, exacerbating shortages of water, food and fuel, while hospitals said they were under significant pressure and faced scarce medical supplies. The city hosts about half of the 300,000 people displaced across Yemen by the latest fighting, ⁠according to the UN.

The Red Cross ‌said the delivery ‌to Taiz of surgical kits to help hospitals treat patients ‌wounded in the renewed fighting was a ‌vital step in providing support to health facilities under extreme pressure since fresh hostilities began in September.

“For patients with severe injuries or critical medical conditions, regardless of ‌where they live or which side of the front line they find ⁠themselves on, ⁠timely access to medical care can be a matter of life or death,” said Christine Cipolla, the Red Cross head of delegation in Yemen.

She urged parties to the conflict to continue facilitating the safe and sustained access of humanitarian aid.

Hospitals across Yemen are struggling to cope with a sharp rise in war casualties, while intensified fighting along multiple front lines has cut off vital aid to around 800,000 people, humanitarian agencies have said.

Arab World

UK Ban on Palestine Action is Challenged at Top Court, Some Protesters Arrested

Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Court of Justice in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Court of Justice in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
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UK Ban on Palestine Action is Challenged at Top Court, Some Protesters Arrested

Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Court of Justice in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Court of Justice in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A co-founder of Palestine Action challenged Britain's decision to ban the campaign group as a terrorist organization at the UK Supreme Court on Wednesday, arguing that the move was disproportionate and undermined counter-terrorism laws.

The British government proscribed Palestine Action last year after a series of high-profile incidents mostly targeting defense firms, culminating in a break-in at the Royal Air Force's Brize Norton air base in which two planes were damaged.

Britain's Home Office (interior ministry) argues that the group's escalating actions, causing serious property damage, particularly a 2024 raid targeting Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems, amounted to terrorism and justified the ban.

But the move has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups and prominent supporters including Irish novelist Sally Rooney, whose books can no longer be sold in Britain over her plans to provide royalties to the group.

There have been more than 3,600 arrests linked to support for Palestine Action between proscription in July 2025 and this June, representing more than one-third of all terrorism arrests in Britain since 9/11, according to Home Office statistics.

With the arrest of over 300 people last weekend outside the US embassy in London, plus two dozen or so outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the figure is now more than 4,000 – though any resulting charges could be dropped if the ban is overturned.

LAWYER COMPARES GROUP TO SUFFRAGETTES

Founded in 2020, Palestine Action carried out hundreds of "actions", many involving obstructing or occupying premises, or spraying graffiti and breaking windows of businesses they said were linked to providing arms to Israel.

After Israel began bombarding Gaza in response to a deadly attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023, Palestine Action's campaign escalated, the Home Office says, with the Elbit raid causing an estimated £1 million ($1.35 million) of damage.

Lawyers representing Huda Ammori, who co-founded Palestine Action, said that, at the time the group was proscribed, government officials had assessed that just three of 385 actions carried out over five years had met the definition of terrorism.

London's High Court initially ruled that the ban was unlawful, but the Court of Appeal overturned that decision in June, rejecting comparisons with historical groups such as the suffragettes who campaigned for women's right to vote.

Ammori's lawyer Raza Husain, however, said on Wednesday that the suffragettes and other groups "used tactics similar or more extreme than Palestine Action", citing the suffragettes' early 20th-century bombing campaign.

The Home Office, though, says the 2024 Elbit attack did involve the use of violence and weapons against security staff and police officers, one of whom suffered a spinal injury when she was hit with a sledgehammer.

The United States in August also designated Palestine Action as a terrorist group. President Donald Trump has described activists who targeted his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last year as "terrorists".

Arab World

Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Kills One in South

This picture taken by the southern Lebanese vilalge of Zawtar al-Garbiya shows Israeli excavators demolishing homes in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya on November 2, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)
This picture taken by the southern Lebanese vilalge of Zawtar al-Garbiya shows Israeli excavators demolishing homes in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya on November 2, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)
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Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Kills One in South

This picture taken by the southern Lebanese vilalge of Zawtar al-Garbiya shows Israeli excavators demolishing homes in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya on November 2, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)
This picture taken by the southern Lebanese vilalge of Zawtar al-Garbiya shows Israeli excavators demolishing homes in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya on November 2, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)

An Israeli strike killed a motorcyclist in Lebanon's south on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, the first such death since September.

A drone carried out the strike in the Qabrikha area, killing one man and wounding another, the official National News Agency also said.