Yemeni Army Accuses Militias of Testing Anti-Ship Missile

All evidence showed the involvement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the launching process. Photo: Houthi media
All evidence showed the involvement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the launching process. Photo: Houthi media
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Yemeni Army Accuses Militias of Testing Anti-Ship Missile

All evidence showed the involvement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the launching process. Photo: Houthi media
All evidence showed the involvement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the launching process. Photo: Houthi media

The Yemeni army accused the Houthi militia of testing an anti-ship missile launched from Sanaa, which landed in the Red Sea waters off Hodeidah.

The army spokesman, Brigadier General Abdo Majali, announced that the Houthis conducted an anti-ship missile test from the Nehm district, which landed west of Hodeidah in international waters.

Majali warned the militias of the consequences, considering it another hostile operation.

He stressed that all evidence showed the involvement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the launching process and its continuous support for the militia.

Houthi threats and targeting of Shabwa and Hadramout ports undermine regional and international security, said Majali, calling on the international community to shoulder its responsibility in protecting international waterways and ensuring freedom of maritime navigation.

Meanwhile, the head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, asserted that the decision to classify the Houthis as a terrorist group takes into consideration concerns about the flow of aid.

Alimi received in Riyadh the Chargé d'Affaires of the US Embassy, Inger Tangborn, and they discussed the latest developments in Yemen and the joint efforts to alleviate peoples' suffering.

Official sources said that the meeting touched on the repercussions of Houthi terrorist threats and attacks on the economic and commercial facilities upon the livelihoods of the Yemeni people, the international security and peace, and the required measures to contain those implications.

Alimi cited the government measures to deter the Houthi terrorist threat, including the National Defense Council's resolution to designate the militia as a terrorist organization.

According to official sources, the President reassured humanitarian organizations, relief agencies, and the private sector, stressing that designating Houthis as a terrorist organization will take into account all concerns related to the flow of aid to the Yemeni people, warning against dealing with militias outside the framework of approved agreements.

The President highly praised the role of the UK and US in supporting the Central Bank of Yemen with $300 million from Yemen's Special Drawing Right of the International Monetary Fund, reported Saba News Agency.

He asserted the importance of this step to bolster trust in the national currency, help ongoing imports of essential commodities, and improve the livelihood of the Yemeni people across the country.

The President praised the US efforts to implement the resolution to ban weapons sent to the Houthi terrorist militias, which led to the interception of many Iranian smuggling ships, most recently when the US Fifth Fleet intercepted an Iranian ship laden with explosives in the Gulf of Oman.

Yemenis and the international community fear that the Houthi escalation would torpedo all peace efforts, especially since the group insisted on rejecting to renew the UN-sponsored ceasefire and deliberately aggravated the situation by bombing oil export ports.

Next week, the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, will brief the UN Security Council on his latest efforts to persuade the Houthis to renew the armistice.



Israel’s Death Penalty Law Perpetuates Racial Discrimination, Says UN Watchdog

Protesters hold placards outside the Red Cross offices in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 31, 2026, during a rally against a bill approved by Israel's parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. (AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters hold placards outside the Red Cross offices in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 31, 2026, during a rally against a bill approved by Israel's parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. (AFP via Getty Images)
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Israel’s Death Penalty Law Perpetuates Racial Discrimination, Says UN Watchdog

Protesters hold placards outside the Red Cross offices in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 31, 2026, during a rally against a bill approved by Israel's parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. (AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters hold placards outside the Red Cross offices in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 31, 2026, during a rally against a bill approved by Israel's parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. (AFP via Getty Images)

Israel's new death penalty law permitting the execution of Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks perpetuates racial discrimination against them, a United Nations committee said Friday, urging its immediate repeal.

The law amounts to a grave erosion of human rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said in a statement.

Under the new law, passed by the Israeli parliament in March, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as "terrorism" will face the death penalty as a default sentence.

"The new law is a severe blow to human rights, rolling back Israel's long-standing de facto moratorium on executions since 1962 and expanding the use of the death penalty," the committee said.

The law is "de facto applicable to Palestinians only" and sets a 90-day deadline for executions once a final judgement is rendered, the committee said.

Furthermore, it said Israel should ensure that all Palestinian detainees "are guaranteed their rights to equal treatment before the law, security of person, protection against violence or bodily harm, and access to justice".

The committee also called on Israel to "end all policies and practices that amount to racial discrimination against and segregation of Palestinians".

It said other countries should "ensure that their resources are not used to enforce or support discriminatory policies and practices against Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory".

The committee of 18 independent experts monitors adherence to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its 182 states parties.

Under the convention, which came into force in 1969, countries must eliminate racial discrimination, eradicate practices of segregation and guarantee equality before the law without distinction as to race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin.

Israel ratified the convention in 1979.

In March, UN rights chief Volker Turk branded Israel's new law "cruel and discriminatory", warning that applying it in occupied Palestinian territory "would constitute a war crime".

Israel has only applied the death penalty twice: in 1948, shortly after the state's founding, against a military captain accused of high treason, and then in 1962, when the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hanged.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence in the territory has soared since Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.


Israeli Authorities Taking 2 Activists Who Led a Gaza-Bound Flotilla to Israel for Questioning

Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a demonstration to condemn the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla by the Israeli army, in Turin on April 30, 2026. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP)
Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a demonstration to condemn the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla by the Israeli army, in Turin on April 30, 2026. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP)
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Israeli Authorities Taking 2 Activists Who Led a Gaza-Bound Flotilla to Israel for Questioning

Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a demonstration to condemn the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla by the Israeli army, in Turin on April 30, 2026. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP)
Protesters hold Palestinian flags during a demonstration to condemn the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla by the Israeli army, in Turin on April 30, 2026. (Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP)

Israeli authorities say they are taking two activists who led an aid flotilla bound for Gaza — and who were captured by Israel in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea — to Israel for questioning. 

The activists, Palestinian-Spanish citizen Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila, were among dozens of activists intercepted by the Israeli navy off the coast of Crete. They are members the Global Sumud Flotilla's steering committee, whose mission was to break Israel's naval blockade and bring some humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory. 

In all, some 20 boats and 175 activists were intercepted by the Israeli navy. Activists said Israeli forces stormed their vessels, smashed engines and detained some of those onboard. The incident occurred hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Gaza and Israel overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. 

Israeli officials said they needed to take early action against the flotilla before it reached Israeli waters because of the high number of boats involved. 

On Friday the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on X that it was taking the two activists to Israel for questioning, and that Abukeshek was “suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organization” and Ávila was “suspected of illegal activity," without providing evidence. 

The Global Sumud Flotilla appealed for international support. “We demand that all governments do all they can to pressure the Israeli regime to release all the illegal abductees," the group said Friday. 

The rest of the flotilla participants were released in Crete late Thursday. Of the 53 vessels that had been sailing prior to the interception, 31 reached safe waters and would continue their attempts to “break the illegal siege of Gaza," organizers said. 

The flotilla set sail earlier this month from Barcelona, Spain. Organizers have said more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world would be participating, with more vessels joining the original boats as the flotilla sailed east across the Mediterranean. 

The Greek foreign ministry said Thursday that it had asked Israel to withdraw its ships from the area and had offered its “good services” for the activists to disembark in Greece and be repatriated. 

Protests in solidarity with the flotilla erupted across several capitals including Rome, Athens and Istanbul. 

Spain and Brazil have not yet commented on the detention and transfer to Israel of Abukeshek and Ávila. But they said in a joint statement with several other nations late Thursday that Israel's interception of the flotilla and detention of the activists in international waters “constitute flagrant violations of international law and international humanitarian law." 

The flotilla’s latest attempt to reach Gaza comes less than a year after Israeli authorities foiled a previous effort by the group. That attempt involved about 50 vessels and around 500 activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, and several lawmakers. 

Israel arrested, detained and later deported the participants, including Ávila, who claimed Israeli authorities abused them while in detention. Israeli authorities denied the accusations. 


Trump Congratulates Zaidi on His Nomination to Be Next Iraqi Prime Minister

This handout photograph taken and released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office on April 28, 2026 shows new prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi talking on the phone at his office in Baghdad. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office /AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office on April 28, 2026 shows new prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi talking on the phone at his office in Baghdad. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office /AFP)
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Trump Congratulates Zaidi on His Nomination to Be Next Iraqi Prime Minister

This handout photograph taken and released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office on April 28, 2026 shows new prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi talking on the phone at his office in Baghdad. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office /AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office on April 28, 2026 shows new prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi talking on the phone at his office in Baghdad. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office /AFP)

US President Donald Trump congratulated Ali al-Zaidi on his nomination to be next prime minister of Iraq on Thursday, saying that he looked forward to a highly productive new relationship.

Iraq's alliance of Shiite political blocs, the Coordination Framework, on Monday named Zaidi as its ‌nominee for the ‌post of prime minister, a ‌coalition ⁠statement said.

"We wish ⁠him success as he works to form a new Government free from terrorism that could deliver a brighter future for Iraq," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

"We look ⁠forward to a strong, vibrant, ‌and highly ‌productive new relationship between Iraq and the United ‌States."

Trump also invited Zaidi to visit ‌Washington after forming a government during a phone call on Thursday in which he congratulated him on his nomination, according to ‌a statement from the Iraqi prime minister's media office.

The call reviewed ⁠strategic ⁠ties between Iraq and the US and ways to strengthen cooperation across multiple fields, the statement said, adding that both sides affirmed joint efforts to support regional stability.

Trump had threatened in January to withdraw Washington's support for Iraq if former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was designated to form a cabinet.