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  • Yemeni army claims 1,540 Houthi casualties as fighting intensifies in Taiz

    Yemeni army claims 1,540 Houthi casualties as fighting intensifies in Taiz

    After more than two years of fragile relative calm brokered by the United Nations, Yemen’s long-running civil conflict has reignited with intense violence, centered on the strategically critical southwestern governorate of Taiz. The internationally recognized Yemeni government has released new battlefield figures confirming that 1,540 Houthi fighters were killed or wounded in just 24 hours of intensified combat across the governorate.

    According to Yemeni military officials, government-aligned forces launched 474 coordinated operations against Houthi positions, reinforcement convoys, command hubs, and military infrastructure across multiple front lines in the region, with the vast majority of recorded casualties concentrated in Taiz. Military spokesman Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili detailed that the strikes combined multiple assets, including coalition warplanes, unmanned drones, heavy artillery, guided missiles, and rocket launchers.

    In a major development that exacerbates humanitarian risks in the region, government forces announced the closure of the al-Houban crossing last Saturday. This critical crossing connects Houthi-held al-Houban district to government-controlled Taiz city, and its closure marks a sudden reversal of a 2024 humanitarian decision that reopened the route after nine years of shutdown. Military authorities stated the action was taken for security reasons, citing attempted Houthi infiltration, targeted attacks near the route, and a large Houthi military buildup in the surrounding area. The crossing is one of the few formal links between territory controlled by the two warring parties, so its reclosure severely cuts off civilian access to basic goods and movement between opposing sides.

    The latest surge in fighting is part of a growing trend of escalated clashes across Taiz that has unfolded in recent weeks. Government forces have reported continuous engagements in multiple hotspots, including Bani Bakari, Maqbanah, al-Aqroud, and the northern and eastern outskirts of Taiz city. Military officials confirmed the closure is part of a broader strategy to block Houthi advances toward key supply routes and strategic highland positions that overlook much of the governorate. Just days before this latest escalation, the Yemeni military announced it had carried out 71 separate raids against Houthi positions across Taiz.

    This sharp uptick in hostilities follows the total collapse of a UN-brokered truce in July 2024. The truce, first agreed in April 2022, had ushered in the longest period of reduced violence since the civil war began a decade earlier. Prior to the latest Taiz escalation, Houthi forces made significant territorial gains along Yemen’s western coastline in September 2024, advancing around the strategic port city of Mocha. Government-aligned troops later reported they had stabilized most front lines and recaptured key strategic positions lost in the initial Houthi push.

    Beyond battlefield losses, the renewed conflict has triggered a massive new wave of civilian displacement. Yemen’s official Executive Unit for Internally Displaced Persons Camps Management confirmed that by September, at least 198,000 people had already been forced to flee their homes due to the resumption of large-scale hostilities. As the epicenter of the current fighting, Taiz has absorbed the largest share of displaced populations: the agency reported Thursday that 13,925 displaced families totaling 97,529 people are now scattered across 15 of the governorate’s districts.

    Yemen’s civil war first erupted in 2014, when Houthi rebels seized control of the capital Sanaa and expanded their territorial control across most of northern Yemen. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in 2015 to support the internationally recognized Yemeni government, turning a domestic insurgency into a years-long regional conflict that has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Taiz has remained one of the most strategically important regions throughout the conflict, thanks to its unique location linking Yemen’s interior highlands to the critical Red Sea shipping coast.

  • ‘The entire land is ours’: Ben Gvir escalates calls for annexation of occupied West Bank

    ‘The entire land is ours’: Ben Gvir escalates calls for annexation of occupied West Bank

    Weeks ahead of Israel’s October 27 Knesset parliamentary election, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has reignited international and regional condemnation with a set of extreme, inflammatory remarks that escalate his longstanding anti-Palestinian agenda, Israeli media has confirmed. In an exclusive interview with Israel’s Channel 14, Ben Gvir laid out his radical policy blueprint should he secure the coveted position of defense minister in the next governing coalition: dismantle the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, and facilitate the forced displacement of Palestinian communities from both the occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip.

    Claiming without evidence that 60 percent of Palestinians currently residing in the occupied territories wish to leave, Ben Gvir said he would prioritize the initiative as defense chief. “I will dedicate consistent time and resources to this process, holding weekly coordination meetings with all relevant government bodies to advance it,” he stated. Rejecting the decades-old territorial division framework agreed through the 1995 Oslo Accords, which split the West Bank into three administrative zones—Areas A and B with varying degrees of Palestinian self-governance, and Area C under full Israeli control—Ben Gvir asserted complete Israeli sovereignty over the entire region. “There is no difference between Areas A, B and C. The entire land is ours,” he said.

    The United Nations has repeatedly formalized its position that the entire West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is legally classified as occupied Palestinian territory, and that all Israeli settlements built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War hold no legal validity under international law. This is not the first time Ben Gvir, a politician with a well-documented history of hate speech and genocidal rhetoric against Palestinians, has pushed anti-Palestinian policy. In his latest comments, he also called for rolling back existing restrictions on the use of force by Israeli soldiers operating in occupied territories. When asked how Israel could deploy additional troops to counter unrest in the West Bank and Gaza, Ben Gvir replied: “It is very simple: The more you allow soldiers to shoot and use force, the less manpower you need.” He added that current military rules of engagement are far more restrictive than those governing Israeli police, and that he would eliminate those limits if given the defense portfolio.

    Ben Gvir also used the interview to publicly critique incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing that the prime minister has lacked sufficient commitment to advancing the policy of displacing Palestinian communities from occupied land. The controversial remarks come amid a wave of highly provocative Israeli incursions into major Muslim holy sites across the occupied Palestinian territories during the recent Jewish holiday of Sukkot. On September 29, more than 950 Israeli settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, where far-right Israeli groups shared footage online showing participants conducting unauthorized Jewish religious rituals, praying, singing and dancing within the Islamic holy site. Ben Gvir was among the far-right figures who took part in earlier incursions into the Al-Aqsa compound this season, and Netanyahu further escalated tensions with a visit to underground tunnels located beneath the site. During his trip, Netanyahu stated: “It is moving to touch the rock of our existence. We are here very close to the Holy of Holies. We are here, and we will always remain here.”

    Longstanding status quo agreements governing the Al-Aqsa compound recognize the site as an Islamic holy site under the administrative control of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, with Israel retaining authority over external security and visitor access. Later on September 29, Ben Gvir led hundreds of Israeli settlers on a visit to the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, another site sacred to both Muslims and Jews. “When I arrive at the Ibrahimi Mosque, I draw energy that makes me want to sing and rejoice,” Ben Gvir told Channel 14 during the visit. Israeli authorities closed the entire mosque to Muslim worshippers for the duration of the Sukkot holiday, a move the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned as a deliberate attack on the holy site and a violation of Muslim freedom of worship. The Ibrahimi Mosque has been split into separate sections for Muslim and Jewish worshippers since 1994, when an Israeli ultranationalist settler opened fire inside the mosque, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers at prayer.

  • Tennessee prison chief to resign after Christa Pike’s failed execution, governor says

    Tennessee prison chief to resign after Christa Pike’s failed execution, governor says

    A high-profile leadership shakeup has hit Tennessee’s correctional system, after the state’s top prisons official stepped down in the wake of a botched lethal injection attempt that left convicted murderer Christa Pike — the only woman on Tennessee’s death row — clinging to life in a Nashville hospital.

    Governor Bill Lee made the resignation of Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada public Saturday in a joint statement with the departing official. Strada framed his departure as a decision made for the good of the state, noting that the ongoing probe into the failed execution is “entirely appropriate and necessary.” In his remarks, Lee praised Strada’s years of service, saying the commissioner “has served with integrity,” and thanked him for prioritizing the needs of Tennessee residents amid the ongoing crisis.

    The botched execution took place Wednesday, when execution teams administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital to Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the brutal 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Now 48 years old, Pike survived the two injections, and was rushed by ambulance to a Nashville hospital for emergency care. According to legal documents submitted by her legal team, medical providers are currently working to flush the execution drugs from her system. As of Thursday night, Pike remained unconscious, intubated and reliant on a ventilator to breathe.

    Pike’s attorneys have detailed harrowing details of the botched procedure, saying that throughout the two doses, “she could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly.” The legal team had repeatedly warned state officials in advance of the execution that Pike’s pre-existing medical conditions — including thrombocytosis, a disorder that causes excessive blood clotting, and naturally small veins — created a high risk of severe, unnecessary pain and complications during lethal injection. Those warnings went unheeded: multiple last-minute legal challenges to block the execution failed, with the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting two separate stay requests, and Governor Lee turning down a plea for clemency.

    In the aftermath of the failed procedure, the Tennessee Department of Defense has stood by its execution protocol, stating that “the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out.” To date, state officials have not explained what caused the procedure to fail, nor have they confirmed whether they will attempt to execute Pike a second time.

    Pike’s legal team moved quickly to protect evidence related to the botched execution, filing an emergency motion Friday to preserve all documentation and physical materials connected to the attempt. They are also currently pushing to have Pike’s death sentence commuted to a life prison term.

    In response to the incident, Governor Lee has ordered an independent external review of the attempted execution, and has put a full halt to all scheduled executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year.

    The case dates back to 1995, when 18-year-old Pike and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp beat, tortured and killed Slemmer, a fellow student, in Knoxville, Tennessee. The killing drew extensive local media attention, and Pike was sentenced to death the following year, marking the start of her nearly 30-year stay on death row.

  • Medical plane with 6 on board missing off Massachusetts coast

    Medical plane with 6 on board missing off Massachusetts coast

    A multi-agency search and rescue operation is actively ongoing off the coast of Massachusetts, United States, after a medical aircraft carrying six people vanished from air traffic control radars in the early hours of Saturday. The incident unfolded when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lost all communication contact with the Gulfstream G-100 aircraft shortly after 1 a.m. local time, prompting officials to immediately issue an urgent alert for search teams to mobilize. According to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Northeast District, the search area is concentrated in waters surrounding Nantucket, a small island located off Massachusetts’ southeastern coast.

    Flight tracking data from industry platform FlightAware outlines the plane’s final journey: the aircraft departed Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport at 11:40 p.m. local time Friday, on a scheduled flight bound for Boston Logan International Airport, with an expected arrival time of 1:30 a.m. EDT Saturday. Records from the flight tracker show that in the moments before contact was lost, the plane suffered a dramatic, sudden loss of altitude, plummeting from a cruising height of approximately 7,300 meters (24,000 feet) to just 3,300 meters (11,000 feet) before all signals went dark.

    Coast Guard officials confirmed that the plane, identified by its registered tail number, is owned and operated by Latitude Air Ambulances, a company specialized in arranging and operating international medical evacuation flights that transport patients back to their home countries for ongoing care. As of the latest updates, search teams combining air assets and coastal cutters are combing the targeted area, with no debris or signs of the missing aircraft or passengers having been reported as found. The cause of the disappearance remains under preliminary investigation by aviation safety officials.

  • Flydubai attack feeds Netanyahu’s ‘protector’ line as polls near

    Flydubai attack feeds Netanyahu’s ‘protector’ line as polls near

    A near-disaster on a Flydubai flight carrying 170 passengers, most of whom held Israeli citizenship, has reignited long-simmering national anxieties about persistent terror threats just weeks ahead of Israel’s October 27 general election. What could have become one of the deadliest civilian aviation terror attacks in recent history was averted only by the quick, brave action of the flight’s chief pilot and passengers who intervened to stop the attacker.

    The incident came mere hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a public video address warning of coordinated plots to target Israeli citizens ahead of the vote. Initially, opposition leaders dismissed the warning as a blatant political stunt. They argued Netanyahu was intentionally shifting public conversation away from his personal responsibility for the catastrophic intelligence and security failures that allowed the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks to unfold. But in the wake of the foiled hijacking attempt, Netanyahu has seized the opportunity to frame his pre-warning as prescient, doubling down on his decades-long political brand as the ultimate “protector of Israel.”

    Moving quickly to weaponize the incident for his campaign, Netanyahu posted a viral social media clip and photo set showing him embracing a passenger who stormed the cockpit to stop the attacker — a self-identified Netanyahu supporter, whose shirt still bore bloodstains from the confrontation.

    Netanyahu has faced mounting, cross-partisan public anger over his handling of the October 7 attacks, in which Hamas militants killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, abducted 250 more, and carried out widespread sexual violence and destruction of Israeli communities. Despite widespread public outcry demanding accountability, Netanyahu has refused to accept any blame for the failure to prevent the assault. He has blocked the formation of an independent judicial commission of inquiry into the events leading up to the attack, while failing to push through a partisan alternative investigative body stacked with allies who would clear his administration of wrongdoing.

    Netanyahu has repeatedly attempted to shift blame to security officials, claiming he was never properly warned of the impending attack, and that “if they had woken me up” earlier on the morning of October 7, “things would have been very different.”

    But emerging reporting and new investigations paint a starkly different picture. Multiple independent media outlets have confirmed that both Israel’s top security agencies and Netanyahu personally received explicit, detailed warnings of a large-scale impending attack from senior regional leaders days before the 2023 assault. These warnings came from Egypt’s top intelligence minister and United Arab Emirates leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. A new book further claims that Netanyahu received a direct warning from Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader and the mastermind of the October 7 plot.

    Rather than recognizing the threat, Netanyahu and his senior security team misinterpreted explicit warnings of an impending “earthquake” — Sinwar’s own description of the coming attack — as a demand for economic concessions for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This misjudgment grew out of what Israelis call a *conceptzia*: a deeply entrenched set of assumptions about an enemy’s intentions and capabilities, a term first coined to describe the catastrophic Israeli intelligence failure ahead of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

    In 2023, Netanyahu’s *conceptzia* — which was widely shared by senior security officials who were misled by Sinwar — held that funneling Qatari financial aid into Gaza would “buy quiet” on the border, as critics of the policy have phrased it. From 2018 onward, Netanyahu approved the transfer of millions of dollars in Qatari funds to Gaza. Israeli intelligence has since concluded that most of this funding did not reach vulnerable Palestinian civilians, and instead went toward expanding Hamas’ military capabilities and building underground terror infrastructure across the enclave.

    For the upcoming election, Netanyahu faces a unified opposition bloc called “ABBA,” short for “Anyone But Bibi Again” — a reference to the Israeli prime minister’s widely used nickname. His main challenger is the *Yashar!* (Straightforward) Party, led by former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, who lost his son in the post-October 7 Gaza war. Eisenkot has publicly labeled Netanyahu a “pathological liar” who has prolonged the “forever war” in Gaza solely to maintain his grip on political power.

    Pre-election polling has consistently projected that *Yashar!* will emerge as the largest single party in the Knesset after the vote. But forming a stable governing coalition remains an enormous hurdle for the anti-Netanyahu bloc, which is a loose coalition of right, left, and centrist parties that share little policy common ground beyond their shared goal of removing Netanyahu from office. A similar broad anti-Netanyahu coalition, led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, collapsed in acrimony within just a year of taking power in 2022.

    Complicating matters further, many Zionist parties have stated they will refuse to join any coalition that includes Ra’am, an Arab Islamic party. Ra’am was the critical missing piece that allowed the Bennett-Lapid government to form after four consecutive deadlocked elections in 2019 and 2020. Without Ra’am’s support, the ABBA bloc may lack the seats needed to reach a governing majority. The outcome is also made unpredictable by the fate of small fringe parties, which must clear a minimum vote threshold to earn seats in the Knesset. If large numbers of votes for either bloc are “wasted” on small parties that fail to cross the threshold, the final seat distribution can shift dramatically.

    Until recent weeks, polling consistently pointed to a high likelihood of a change in government. But polls have tightened considerably in the final stretch of the campaign, in large part because they do not account for support for small unaligned factions including the center-right Hendel/Zelekha party, whose odds of clearing the threshold remain uncertain.

    The shadow of October 7 hangs over every aspect of the 2026 election campaign. A few days before Israelis head to the polls, the nation will hold a somber commemoration of the third anniversary of the 2023 attacks. In the Gaza war that followed the attacks, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gazan health officials, vast swathes of the densely populated enclave have been reduced to rubble, and an estimated 1.2 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes.

    October 7 has reshaped the entire election landscape. An unprecedented number of candidates running in this cycle are family members of October 7 victims or soldiers injured in the war. Polling of young first-time voters, who make up a large share of the electorate this cycle, shows the October 7 attacks have shifted their political views sharply to the right.

    For many Israeli voters, the biggest fear is that the election will once again end in parliamentary deadlock. The nation is facing growing international criticism over its conduct of the Gaza war, a rising global wave of antisemitism, and persistent terror threats targeting Israeli citizens at home and abroad — all of which create an urgent need for a stable government that can address these challenges. Netanyahu is positioning himself as the only leader strong enough to tackle these threats, but his opposition rivals are making the same case to an electorate hungry for accountability and stability.

  • Will Spain’s housing crisis lead to a snap election?

    Will Spain’s housing crisis lead to a snap election?

    Spain’s simmering housing crisis has taken a sharp new political turn, with the country’s national Congress voting down a slate of emergency policy measures designed to address skyrocketing rents and widespread affordable housing shortages. The legislative defeat has thrown the ruling government into chaos, fueling immediate speculation that a premature national election could be called months ahead of the scheduled 2027 vote.

    Public anger over the ongoing housing emergency has been boiling over for years, as rental prices in major urban centers including Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia have surged far beyond the average household’s ability to pay. Many young and low-income Spaniards now report being locked out of homeownership entirely, with stagnant wages failing to keep pace with the double-digit growth in housing costs seen across much of the country. In response to the latest legislative setback, organizers have rolled out a schedule of coordinated mass marches in cities nationwide to demand urgent action from political leaders.

    The BBC’s international correspondent Guy Hedgecoe is on the ground in the Spanish capital, Madrid, reporting on the unfolding political and social fallout from the Congress vote. Political analysts note that the rejection of the housing reforms exposed deep rifts within the governing coalition, leaving Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez with few options to pass meaningful legislation before his current term ends. If the government is unable to form a new majority or advance an alternative policy package, a snap election will become increasingly likely, reshaping Spain’s political landscape for years to come.

  • Protesters across Spain demand action over housing crisis

    Protesters across Spain demand action over housing crisis

    A wave of mass demonstrations has spread across Spain this weekend, as thousands of frustrated citizens take to the streets demanding sweeping tenant protections, just days after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s minority leftist coalition government saw its emergency housing legislation defeated in Congress.

    The current housing crisis, which has sent rents skyrocketing and pushed thousands of vulnerable households into risk of eviction, reached a breaking point last month with the forced eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her Madrid home after she could not cover a sharp rent hike. That incident ignited immediate public outrage and nationwide protests, pushing Sánchez’s government — a partnership between his Socialist Party and the left-wing Sumar alliance — to rush two emergency decree bills to parliament in a bid to address widespread anger.

    The proposed legislation carried a series of key reforms to ease pressure on renters: the first bill would have suspended evictions for vulnerable tenants through 2030, extended expiring rental leases for two years until 2028, raised taxes on tourist-focused short-term apartment rentals, and restricted residential property purchases by the government-labeled “vulture funds” that have bought up large swathes of Spanish housing stock. The second bill enshrined automatic renewal of rental contracts, a top longstanding demand from tenant advocacy groups and left-wing political actors.

    Despite the government’s last-minute push, both bills failed to secure enough support to pass. The first was defeated by a vote of 178 against to 172 in favor, while the second was rejected 184 to 166. The conservative opposition People’s Party (PP) and far-right Vox had already pledged to block both measures from the start. Already lacking a parliamentary majority, Sánchez’s coalition relied on backing from small nationalist parties from Catalonia and the Basque Country to pass the bills — but the centre-right pro-independence Together for Catalonia (JxCat) announced its opposition just ahead of the vote, condemning the legislation to defeat.

    In response to the parliamentary defeat, tenant unions across the country organized roughly 50 coordinated marches for Saturday in major population centers including Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, one of the first cities to see large-scale mobilizations earlier this month. Clashes erupted in the eastern coastal city of Valencia near the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, which was hosting an industry real estate summit. Spanish media reports confirm that dozens of protesters pushed past security barriers and threw projectiles at police officers, who responded by firing rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. A spokesperson for the Valencia Tenants’ Union described widespread public anger boiling over into the streets, confirming the demonstration had kicked off earlier Saturday morning.

    The largest demonstration is projected to take place in the capital Madrid, where pro-housing reform activists have maintained a continuous encampment at the iconic central Puerta del Sol square for multiple days leading up to Saturday’s mobilization. “We’re not here for pleasure or comfort. We’re here out of conviction,” protester David told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE ahead of the march. Madrid’s Tenants’ Union released a statement Friday night arguing that while the government’s proposed reforms fell far short of what was needed, the outright rejection of the legislation has dramatically worsened a housing crisis that is already devastating working-class communities across the country. The union has now called for a general strike to demand urgent action on the country’s deepening housing shortage.

    While the property management company that owns Abascal’s apartment later negotiated her return to the home at a reduced rent following the public backlash, protests have continued to gain momentum as broader systemic issues drive unrest. Official data underscores the severity of the crisis: the Bank of Spain estimates a national shortage of 700,000 affordable homes, driven by a persistent gap between growing housing demand and stagnant new construction. National statistics institute INE reports that overall house prices rose 12.2% over the past year as of the second quarter of 2026, while real estate firm Idealista data shows average national rents climbed 8.5% in 2025 alone. Madrid saw average rents jump 9.7% last year, making it one of the country’s most expensive rental markets alongside Barcelona, where average rent hits €23.80 per square meter compared to Madrid’s €22.70 per square meter.

    The parliamentary defeat of the housing bills has also intensified political speculation, with analysts now suggesting Sánchez could be forced to call an early general election. The next scheduled national vote is not set to take place until summer 2027, but the minority government’s repeated struggles to pass legislation amid shifting parliamentary alliances have raised questions about its ability to govern through to the end of its term.

  • Flydubai co-pilot attacked captain with axe, UAE official says

    Flydubai co-pilot attacked captain with axe, UAE official says

    A dramatic mid-flight crisis unfolded on a Flydubai commercial flight traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv earlier this week, when the aircraft’s co-pilot launched a sudden, violent attack on the captain in an attempt to seize control of the plane carrying more than 170 passengers and crew. The United Arab Emirates’ top prosecutor confirmed the attacker used a standard emergency crash axe stored in the cockpit to assault the flight’s commander, Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national.

    Roughly two and a half hours into the scheduled journey, the assault sent the plane into a terrifying 17,000-foot nosedive, triggering emergency transponder codes: first the general emergency signal 7700, followed by 7500, the international code for unlawful interference or hijacking. Despite suffering multiple stab wounds and being left lying on the cockpit floor injured, Captain Machchhar refused to surrender control of the downing aircraft. In a first-hand account of the incident, he recalled, “I told myself to go for one last push to open the door from inside,” a critical action that allowed passengers and backup pilots to reach the cockpit and intervene.

    Israeli President Isaac Herzog detailed how the alarm was first raised by Tali Manes, an Israeli passenger who heard the chaotic struggle coming from the locked cockpit. Once Captain Machchhar managed to pry the door open, Manes’ husband Zvika, alongside three other Israeli passengers — Yaniv Hayun, Dr. Shota Musayev and Asaf Rajuan — rushed into the cockpit to subdue the attacker. Hayun, in an official video released by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, explained that the attacker was actively attempting to destroy cockpit instruments to disable the plane. Hayun grabbed the attacker in a chokehold, dragged him out of the cockpit, and other passengers assisted in restraining him, using the attacker’s own zip ties and in-flight multimedia headphone cables to secure him. Hayun also adjusted the plane’s controls to steady its descent before two off-duty reserve pilots on board took over full control of the aircraft and diverted it to a safe landing in Saudi Arabia.

    One passenger, Almog Itali, described the terrifying experience to the BBC, comparing the rapid descent to a rollercoaster drop. “Suddenly the aeroplane started to, like a rollercoaster, to drop down with a massive G-force. It was falling down for 20 or 30 seconds, rapidly, and then balanced, and then started once again to fall down,” he said.

    According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the attacker is an Omani national. After he was subdued, Netanyahu told Fox News the attacker repeatedly shouted “Kill me, kill me!” to the crew, leading Netanyahu to conclude “it’s clear that he was suicidal… It looks very likely that he was going to down the plane.” Netanyahu also added that the attacker “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.” The UAE’s state news agency confirmed that authorities have launched an investigation to determine whether the incident was linked to any terrorist organization or extremist activity, with the country’s attorney general noting that investigations are still ongoing to establish the full circumstances and underlying motives of the attack.

    Following the successful landing, Captain Machchhar was first transported to a nearby medical facility for urgent treatment, then airlifted to Abu Dhabi for further care. The Indian Embassy in the UAE released a statement Thursday confirming the captain is in stable condition, and that he is “in good health and recovering well.” In his own public comment on the incident, Machchhar expressed confidence in his recovery, saying “I am confident that the recovery will be there and I will become fit and healthy again.”

    The Indian government has publicly commended Captain Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery in the face of danger, praising his “immense courage” that saved the lives of everyone on board. Netanyahu echoed that praise Wednesday during an interview with CNN, saying the injured captain, quick-thinking passengers, and backup crew had “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster.”

  • Russia strikes second major bridge in Kyiv, mayor says

    Russia strikes second major bridge in Kyiv, mayor says

    Fresh Russian strikes have targeted a second critical infrastructure bridge in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, marking a sharp escalation in Moscow’s campaign against key city facilities, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

    The latest attack damaged the road surface and overhead power lines for trolleybus transit on the Northern Bridge, Klitschko confirmed in a statement posted to Telegram on Saturday. Following the strike, all traffic traveling from the left bank to the right bank of the Dnieper River on the bridge has been temporarily blocked, with emergency response teams already deployed to the site to assess damage and begin repairs.

    This assault on the Northern Bridge comes just days after repeated Russian drone strikes targeted Kyiv’s Southern Bridge (known locally as Pivdennyi Bridge) starting last Thursday. In that initial attack, one Russian drone struck critical power cables on the Southern Bridge, disrupting transit operations.

    Before this string of attacks that began Thursday, neither of the two major bridges connecting the eastern and western districts of Kyiv had been hit by Russian forces. Analysts and Ukrainian officials say this new targeting of key capital transit links signals a clear shift into a new phase of Russian offensive operations against Kyiv’s core infrastructure.

    In the wake of the first attacks on the Southern Bridge, Kyiv’s Defense Council held an emergency crisis meeting on Friday. During that session, Klitschko issued a stark warning that the stepped-up pace of Russian drone and missile strikes was putting intense strain on the capital. He described the current situation facing Kyiv as “very dramatic,” noting that Russian forces are systematically targeting critical infrastructure, logistics networks, residential housing, and other essential facilities that keep the city functioning.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended the recent wave of strikes, claiming they are carried out in retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. This claim comes despite historical records showing that Moscow first launched large-scale strikes targeting Ukrainian energy and critical infrastructure early in the full-scale invasion.

  • US sends additional Patriot batteries to Saudi Arabia and Qatar: Report

    US sends additional Patriot batteries to Saudi Arabia and Qatar: Report

    As former U.S. President Donald Trump confirms he is actively considering new military strikes against Iran, the United States has moved to bolster defenses across the Arabian Peninsula by deploying additional Patriot air defense batteries to two key Gulf energy producers, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, multiple sources familiar with the deployment confirm.

    Axios first reported the deployment details Thursday, noting that one extra Patriot battery has been positioned in Saudi Arabia to shield a critical oil processing facility, while a second battery has been sent to Qatar to protect a major natural gas infrastructure site. What makes this troop movement particularly noteworthy is the global shortage of these highly sought-after air defense systems: the U.S. maintains only a limited stock of operational Patriot batteries globally. Data from the nonpartisan Missile Defence Alliance shows that just 33 batteries are currently stationed for domestic defense within the United States, while another 27 are deployed across all overseas U.S. military missions.

    While major U.S. allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council—including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates—already operate their own fleet of Patriot batteries, regional partners have increasingly turned to Washington for supplementary defensive support. Gulf states have faced the full force of Iranian retaliatory actions targeting Western and Israeli interests in the region, leaving their critical infrastructure vulnerable to attack.

    Saudi Arabia faces the most acute security risks among Gulf states, with both major urban centers and core energy infrastructure facing repeated attacks. Yemeni Houthi fighters have launched regular strikes on Saudi targets, while Iran-aligned Shia militias operating out of Iraq have also carried out attacks against the kingdom. Riyadh has formally blamed Shia militias for a recent strike on its strategic East-West Pipeline, even as Houthi forces have launched their own attacks on Yanbu, Saudi Arabia’s primary oil export terminal on the Red Sea.

    The decision to reinforce Gulf defenses comes at a moment of heightened tensions, after regional allies raised sharp criticism of U.S. security commitments earlier this year. When Gulf states faced a wave of intense Iranian missile and drone strikes in response to the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, many regional leaders said they felt sidelined by Washington. This backlash has thrown renewed scrutiny on the decades-old U.S. security umbrella that has anchored Washington’s relationships with the energy-rich Gulf states, with many allies questioning the reliability of American protection amid escalating regional conflict.

    In public comments Thursday, Trump confirmed he is weighing a dramatic escalation of conflict, saying new strikes against Iran remain a clear possibility. “Now I have to make a decision; they’ll either sign a very fair deal, or they won’t exist any longer,” Trump stated, repeating his extreme threat to completely dismantle the Islamic Republic of Iran.

    The Patriot deployments are just one part of a broader U.S. military buildup in the Middle East. The Pentagon is also moving thousands of additional troops and a third full aircraft carrier strike group to the region. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt departed its home port of San Diego Sunday, while the USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group—made up of three large amphibious vessels carrying roughly 10,000 U.S. Marines—set sail a day later on Monday. The U.S. already has two other carrier strike groups, the USS George HW Bush and USS George Washington, operating in the Middle East. Once the Theodore Roosevelt arrives, the U.S. will have three aircraft carriers positioned in the region, the largest concentration of American naval air power there since April 2026.