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Houthi rebels claim missile launch at Israel following Gaza conflict
Warning sirens were heard in multiple areas of Israel before the military announced that the missile was 'most likely successfully intercepted.' read more
Houthi supporters raise their machine guns during an anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen. AP
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group stated on Saturday that it launched a ballistic missile toward Israel, citing Israel's actions in Gaza as the reason.
Warning sirens were heard in multiple areas of Israel before the military announced that the missile was 'most likely successfully intercepted.'
This marks the first Houthi-claimed missile attack on Israel since the June 24 ceasefire between Israel and Iran, which followed a 12-day conflict.
Rebel military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement that the group targeted a 'sensitive Israeli enemy target in the occupied area of Beersheba using a Dhu al-Fiqar ballistic missile'.
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The attack was in 'response to the crimes of the criminal Zionist enemy against civilians in the Gaza Strip', Saree added.
The Houthis have launched repeated missile and drone attacks against Israel since their Palestinian ally Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
The Iran-backed rebels, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month ceasefire that ended in March, but renewed them after Israel resumed its offensive.
Israel has carried out several retaliatory strikes in Yemen, targeting Houthi-held ports and the airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
Saree said the rebel administration would 'continue its supportive operations until the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted'.
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Mint
30 minutes ago
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The coup leader who's become an anti-Western hero in Africa and beyond
Three years ago, Ibrahim Traoré was a junior army officer in Burkina Faso's armed forces. Today, he has emerged as a surprising anti-Western hero preaching self-reliance and resilience with fans across Africa and beyond. Since toppling the West African country's previous military leader in 2022 and making himself president, Traoré has won the kind of glowing admiration from people across the continent that has eluded African leaders since the days of antiapartheid icon Nelson Mandela and the generation that led the independence struggles. 'Many Africans are disillusioned with the West," said Ayotunde Abiodun, an analyst with SBM Intelligence, a Nigeria-based geopolitical research consulting firm. Traoré, he said, has become the anti-imperialist face of that sentiment. Russia has tried to court him, seeing him as a way to accelerate the decline of France's influence across the arid countries of the Sahel, the wide band of land bordering the southern reaches of the Sahara. But Traoré has his own agenda of reviving the Pan-African movements of the past. Whether he succeeds in putting Burkina Faso on a stronger footing and pushing back a long-running Islamist insurgency could influence what happens elsewhere across the region. The 37-year-old appears to be genuinely popular as people across the region tire of a generation of aging leaders widely seen as corrupt and beholden to the West. In April, thousands of Burkina Faso citizens poured into the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital city, in solidarity with Traoré after an alleged counter-counter-coup failed to oust him from office. The protesters were also incensed by comments by Gen. Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command, accusing Traoré of misusing the country's gold reserves. Traoré partisans saw Langley's comments as a pretext for Western intervention, and members of the African diaspora held solidarity marches to show their support for him. In London, Traoré supporters held banners that read, 'Hands off African resources, Hands off Ibrahim Traoré." In Jamaica, demonstrations took place outside the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, and on the north coast in Montego Bay, where protesters sang, played drums and hailed Traoré as a 'Black liberator." Motorized rickshaws, a common mode of transport among working people, display photos of the beret-wearing Traoré in Nairobi, a city on the opposite side of the continent. Part of Traoré's appeal comes from how he styles himself after his countryman and Pan-Africanist leader Thomas Sankara. Often called 'Africa's Che Guevara," Sankara renamed the Republic of the Upper Volta as Burkina Faso, or 'land of the upright people," and set about making the country more self-sufficient before he was assassinated in 1987. In taking a leaf out of his book, Traoré has revived interest in Sankara and his pan-Africanism. Last month, a newspaper published by the Nation of Islam, the Black religious and political movement of Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan, featured side-by-side photos of Traoré and Sankara on its front page. Traoré primarily came to power on a promise to improve security, however. As a captain, he ousted Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had himself overthrown a civilian government eight months earlier. Both Traoré and Damiba had justified their actions by accusing their predecessors of failing to quell dual insurgencies by Islamists affiliated with al Qaeda and Islamic State. Traoré has since surfed a wave of public discontent with France, the former colonial power, whose continued involvement in the political and economic lives of its former West African colonies created resentment, according to analysts. In a popular move, Traoré expelled French troops, who had also been unable to tame the insurgencies. U.S. Green Berets, who had arrived to train local commandos shortly before the coup, suspended military aid after the putsch. Donning the populist mantle, Traoré renegotiated international gold-mining contracts to guarantee the government a greater share of the revenue. He distributed tractors and cheap fertilizer to farmers and built factories, such as a tomato-processing plant and the country's first gold refinery—efforts to keep value-added businesses at home. A survey by Afrobarometer, a Ghana-based pollster, found last year that a majority of Burkina Faso's people supported military rule as the best way to combat corrupt civilian elites. The survey showed that across the continent, more than half of Africans were willing to tolerate military intervention in politics if 'elected leaders abuse power for their own ends." Two-thirds, however, rejected military rule as the default system of government. Analysts say Traoré has gained strong support from the country's rural poor by placing land under state control, nullifying previous land allocations that favored agribusinesses and recognizing customary rights of rural communities. Supporters see the measures as an attempt to undo decades of land policies that favored corporate investors over smallholder farmers, said Burkina Faso analyst Luc Damiba. The new land policies have also gained him favor from young people, who have cheered his promise of land and agricultural training. Analysts say sections of Burkina Faso's urban, educated classes, including academics, journalists and civil‑society activists, worry that Traoré doesn't intend to return the country to elected civilian government. Traoré has postponed elections scheduled for last year until 2029, saying voting will take place when the military has wrestled enough territory from jihadists to allow all citizens to vote. Like the African liberation leaders of the 1960s, Traoré has cozied up to Moscow. Last month, he attended a Moscow parade celebrating the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany. Russia has launched an influence operation in Burkina Faso involving pro-Moscow local radio stations as well as sports and musical events, says the nonprofit African Digital Democracy Observatory. Paid content lauding Traoré also began to appear across pro-Russian social-media platforms after he seized power, according to a 2023 report by the Paris-based watchdog All Eyes on Wagner. 'Allowing Burkinabé to sleep peacefully and live without hunger. These are his ambitions. This man deserves the greatest respect," read a caption on one Traoré portrait. The posts were disseminated widely across the continent by the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary force active in Africa, the watchdog said, though only a fifth of Burkina Faso's population has internet access and only 12% use social media, limiting the domestic influence of online campaigns. Russia has a clear interest in getting on Traoré's good side. Hobbled by Western sanctions, it needs gold to shore up its struggling economy and has expanded its presence around West Africa through resource‑for‑security pacts, providing military trainers, mercenary units and media campaigns in exchange for mining rights. Burkina Faso, a major gold producer, struck a deal with the Russian company Nordgold, which took an 85% stake in a gold-mining project. The government, which retained 15% of the ownership, expects the project to contribute $101 million to its coffers over an eight-year span. However, unlike in countries like Mali or the Central African Republic, where Moscow's mercenaries play a key role in protecting local regimes, Traoré has been reluctant to accept Russian boots on the ground. A 400-strong contingent of Russian mercenaries, who arrived in Ouagadougou with much fanfare last year, departed within three months, according to current and former French and Burkinabé officials. 'Traoré feels the army is the guarantor to preserve his country's sovereignty," said a former minister in the Burkina Faso government. 'Russian mercenaries are not his cup of tea." Traoré's Achilles' heel, however, may be the very issue he used to sell his power grab: security. Violence has gotten worse since the military seized power. More than 17,000 people have been killed in insurgent violence since the takeover—more than triple the death toll from the final three years of civilian rule, according to an analysis by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, part of the Pentagon's National Defense University. The center analyzed data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit monitoring service. In August, jihadists massacred hundreds of villagers in Barsalogho, a remote town in north-central Burkina Faso. Rights groups report that the Burkina Faso military has committed extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions during Traoré's time in power, and has used an emergency law to forcibly conscript civilians, including critics and activists, to quell dissent. Burkina Faso officials didn't respond to requests for comment. 'There's a possibility for this symbolism and popular legitimacy that he enjoys right now to erode if there's no improvement in the security situation and economic condition of the Burkina Faso people between now and then," said Abiodun, the Nigeria-based analyst. Write to Caroline Kimeu at and Benoit Faucon at
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First Post
an hour ago
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This Week in Explainers: Were Iran's nuclear sites ‘totally obliterated' as Trump claims?
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This explainer answers the question. Axiom Mission 4 successfully docked with the @Space_Station on 26 June 2025 at 16:15 hrs IST. Team ISRO, led by Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, ISRO, witnessed the historical moment from the Mission Control Room at @NASA_Johnson, Houston. Welcome ceremony of Axiom… — ISRO (@isro) June 26, 2025 STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 6. Last year, the South Korean government implemented a nationwide ban on the sale of dog meat for consumption. The landmark legislation comes into effect in 2027. Farmers have time until then to shut operations and sell off the remaining canines. This leaves 500,000 dogs and thousands of farmers in a limbo . A dog in a cage is pictured during a protest to demand that the government scrap plans to enforce a ban on eating dog meat. File photo/Reuters 7. The 'Wedding of the Century' took place in Venice. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former TV journalist Lauren Sanchez exchanged vows on Friday (June 27). What followed was a grand celebration. From politicians to businessmen and celebrities, the who's who of the world thronged the San Giorgio island. Here's how much the wedding cost . Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos embrace, as they leave on a boat from Aman Venice hotel, on the third day of their wedding festivities, in Venice, Italy, June 28. Reuters That's all from us this week. Happy reading. If you like taking a deep dive into the news, come back for more explainers here .
News18
an hour ago
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'Get The Hostages Back': Trump Pushes For Immediate Ceasefire Deal In Gaza
On Friday, Trump said he believed it was possible to that a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas group can be reached within a week. 'I think it's close. I just spoke to some of the people involved," he said in the Oval Office. 'We think within the next week we're going to get a ceasefire," he added, without disclosing who he has been talking to, although the US president had been in near-daily contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the Israel-Iran conflict. Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas has refused to lay down its arms. Over 1,200 people were killed when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and took more than 250 people hostage. Almost two years later, 50 people remain in captivity in Gaza, but 28 of those people are believed to be dead. Meanwhile, Israel's retaliatory assault on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 56,000 people – as per Gaza's Health Ministry – and has left thousands more wounded, displaced and with sparse resources, including food, water and medical supplies. Israel's military operation still continues, killing 37 people in central Gaza on Saturday. Trump's surprise prediction of a possible ceasefire deal in coming days came at a time when there have been few signs that the warring parties were ready to restart serious negotiations or budge from their positions.
