YEMEN
Houthis detain UN staff
Houthi security forces have detained at least 15 Yemeni employees of international organizations including the UN, three officials of Yemen’s internationally recognized government said yesterday. In a series of raids on Thursday, armed Houthi intelligence officers detained nine UN employees, three employees of the US-funded pro-democracy group National Democratic Institute (NDI) and three employees of a local human rights group, the officials said. Intelligence officers of the Houthi group, which controls the capital and large parts north of the country, raided the homes and offices of these people, confiscating phones and computers. The detained UN employees work for the human rights office and the office for humanitarian affairs, the officials said. Neither the UN office nor NDI immediately responded to a request for confirmation or comment. A Houthi spokesperson did not immediately comment.
UKRAINE
Trust in Zelenskiy dips: poll
Ukrainians’ trust in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has fallen below 60 percent for the first time since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, a leading poll published yesterday showed. Zelenskiy has faced many challenges in the past year, including a failed summer counteroffensive, a divisive debate on mobilization and high-profile corruption scandals involving senior officials. Public trust in the 46-year-old zoomed to 90 percent in May 2022, but by May this year, it had plunged to 59 percent, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology reported. “We would like to point out that Volodymyr Zelenskiy still retains legitimacy in the eyes of Ukrainian society and the majority of Ukrainians continue to trust him,” the pollster said. “However, the downward trend in trust continues and ... the main reasons for criticism from ordinary Ukrainians are the not always successful staffing policy and issues of justice (in particular, in the form of fighting corruption and the fair burden of war for all),” it said.
GREECE
Michael Mosley missing
A search for missing British broadcaster and healthy living advocate Michael Mosley continued yesterday. He went missing on the island of Symi after setting out alone on a coastal walk in searing heat. Mosley, known for endorsing fasting diets, was last seen at 1:30pm on Wednesday when he set out on a short stroll along a rocky path between Agios Nikolaos beach and the village of Pedi, police officials said. Police, the fire brigade, coast guard and volunteers were searching for Mosley on land and sea, using a helicopter, drones and a rescue dog as temperatures hit 40°C. Mosley did not have his mobile phone with him, which made tracing him more difficult. “So far, we don’t have evidence of what may have happened, whether it is an accident ... or something else,” said a senior police official who declined to be named.
SUDAN
RSF kills 40: activists
Pro-democracy activists yesterday reported that about 40 people were killed in “violent artillery fire” carried out the previous day by paramilitary forces on Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city. “So far, the death toll is estimated at 40 civilians and there are more than 50 injured, some seriously,” the Karari Resistance Committee said in a statement posted on social media, blaming the shelling on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The strikes come a day after the RSF was accused of killing more than 104 people, including 35 children, in an attack on Wednesday on the village of Wad al-Noura.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
‘SIGNS OF ESCALATION’: Russian forces have been aiming to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas province and have been capturing new villages as they move toward Pokrovsk Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Saturday said that Ukraine faced increasing difficulties in its fight against Moscow’s invasion as Russian forces advance and North Korean troops prepare to join the Kremlin’s campaign. Syrskyi, relating comments he made to a top US general, said outnumbered Ukrainian forces faced Russian attacks in key sectors of the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly address said that Ukraine’s military command was focused on defending around the town of Kurakhove — a target of Russia’s advances along with Pokrovsk, a logistical hub to the north. He decried strikes
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