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Houthis strike Saudi targets anew as talks over Strait of Hormuz stall

By Timour Azhari Reuters | Posted by TOE Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched a new wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia and were digging into positions on the western coast of Yemen along the Red Sea, Yemeni ​officials said, as urgent deliberations took place in Riyadh over how to respond to their lightning advance. Meanwhile, Gulf Arab states postponed planned talks with Iran, raising concerns the ‌Middle East conflict could spread further and threaten global oil supplies. The Houthis on Monday said they fired dozens of missiles and drones at a military airbase in Khamis Mushait in southern Saudi Arabia, targeting aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways and ammunition depots in retaliation for Saudi airstrikes in Yemen. Saudi authorities issued emergency alerts there and in three other southern cities. Thirteen civilians were wounded in the Houthi attacks, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said. The Houthi advances in recent ​days, including the taking of Perim ...

Russia hits passenger train on Ukraine’s border with Poland, just misses ‘diplomatic train’

By Reuters | Posted by TOE A Russian drone hit a passenger train on Ukraine’s border with NATO member Poland on Sunday, shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European diplomats had used ‌the same line. The train, on a route frequently used by foreign delegations returning from Kyiv, was attacked just ‌2 kilometres (1.2 miles) from the Polish border, Ukraine’s railway operator said. No casualties were reported. “This wasn’t our train, but the one just minutes after us by ​the border crossing. It was evacuated as the drone approached and no one was hurt,” Carl Bildt, former Sweden’s Prime Minister said on X. He and other politicians were returning to Europe by train after attending a conference in Kyiv. “It is entirely possible that the Russian drone’s intended target was the diplomatic train, which departed the station earlier than scheduled after train timetables were adjusted in ‌rea...

Putin says events in Europe, like AfD’s win in Germany, caused by Western globalists

By Reuters | Posted by TOE  Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that events in Europe, including the far-right victory in a German state election, were the ​result of “system errors” committed by globalists in the West. Putin , speaking to reporters ‌in a pool report on the first day of a visit to India, also said the conflict in Ukraine was the fault of the West for constantly putting pressure on Moscow and seeking ​to “drag” Ukraine into the NATO alliance. The Russian president said he would offer no ​comment on Sunday’s top result for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ⁠in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, but then added that Western elites were ​to blame for events on the continent, including the election. “I think that everything happening ​in Europe right now is basically the result of system errors by the so-called West … the Western globalists in politics, security, and economics,” Putin sai...

Russian strikes kill five in Ukraine industrial hub of Pavlohrad

By Pavel Polityuk and Anna Pruchnicka Reuters Russian drones pounded central part of the industrial city of Pavlohrad in southeastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing five, as ‌well as striking a petrol station in the capital Kyiv and an international agribusiness facility in Dnipro as Moscow intensifies attacks ‌on logistics and economic targets. Governor Oleksandr Hanzha, writing on Telegram, said Russia deployed drones, artillery and aerial bombs in hitting five districts of in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing two more ​people. A total of 76 people were injured, including several children, he said. Photos posted online showed shattered shops and burned-out vehicles in the city, which has acted as a critical supply route for the Ukrainian military connecting central Ukraine to eastern front lines. The attack on the petrol station in Kyiv and on an agribusiness facility run by Bunge in the southeastern city of Dnipro added to Russia’s intensified air campaign in re...

Iran and US hit tankers in biggest wave of attacks on shipping since war began

By Enas Alashray, Idrees Ali and Jana Choukeir Reuters Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest wave of attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war. The attacks sent the price of ‌oil surging, with benchmark Brent crude futures breaching $100 a barrel for the first time since July. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another listed as missing. The ‌incidents follow a month of relative calm, during which the U.S. has sought to pressure Iran through economic means. Iran said it had fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan. Jordan said it intercepted 18 missiles, with the remaining two ​falling harmlessly in unpopulated areas. A U.S. official said all American troops were accounted for. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would sharply escalate its response to any further attacks, and said I...

Several dead, dozens missing after ferry fire in Philippines tourist spot

By AFP | Posted by TOE At least five people were killed and 86 remain missing after a fire erupted aboard a ferry near a tourist hotspot in the Philippine province of Palawan, the coast guard said Thursday. The blaze broke out on the M/V June Aster Wednesday evening about 2.2 kilometres (1.3 miles) offshore, the coast guard said, adding that five casualties had been brought ashore. Video shared by the coast guard on Facebook showed the vessel completely engulfed in flames. Hundreds of people, desperate for news about the incident, have left comments on the Coron town mayor’s Facebook page, searching for relatives, friends and even a dog. “Based on the data we have right now on rescued (42) and the casualties, we still have 87 people who are unaccounted for,” coast guard Captain Noemi Cayabyab told a local radio station on Thursday. The ship’s manifest had listed 134 passengers and crew, Cayabyab said. Of those rescued, 38 were passeng...

Thousands of Ecuadorians flee their homes as gang violence worsens

By Yury Garcia and Alexandra Valencia Reuters | Posted by TOE For one grandmother, it was when bullets began hitting the rooftops of her neighborhood that she decided she would have to leave the housing development where she had lived for nearly 20 years. A sharp rise in fighting between gang factions in Ecuador has prompted thousands ​of families to flee and abandon their homes to the gangs, who strip the houses for drug money or use them to hide kidnapping victims, according to residents and police. One of the areas ‌that has been the site of the heaviest bloodshed is the Nueva Prosperina district in the coastal city of Guayaquil, where fighting between factions of the Los Tiguerones gang last year killed 22 people. Among those who fled was a 66-year-old woman, who, like other residents of the district Reuters spoke to for this story, asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from the gangs. Armed groups were targeting people indiscriminately, assuming that an...