📰 The UAE is pursuing “port imperialism” across Africa, the foreign minister of Eritrea told Middle East Eye in an exclusive interview from Asmara.

“The UAE has port facilities everywhere in the region, and African countries have to ask why,” Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh told MEE. “Is it just for economics? No.”

The UAE’s two port groups, DP World and AD Ports, have stakes in or manage facilities in Egypt; Tanzania; Somaliland, a breakaway republic of Somalia recognised only by Israel; and Puntland, a semiautonomous region in Somalia that earlier this year defied Mogadishu’s decision to cut ties with Abu Dhabi.

🔗 Read more https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-eritrea-foreign-minister-says-uae-pursuing-port-imperialism-across-africa

📰 The UK’s Charity Commission has reminded a British charity funding the Board of Deputies of British Jews that risks arise when a charity "is, or is perceived to be, closely associated with a company", following a protest against a London real estate event that promoted properties in illegal Israeli settlements.

The regulatory guidance and advice to the trustees of the Board of Deputies Charitable Foundation, which also executes the activities of the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BDBJ), comes in response to a complaint filed by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP).

In a statement, the ICJP said that the board had claimed that a protest demonstration held outside Edgware United Synagogue, which hosted the Great Israeli Real Estate Event, was organised on “bogus grounds”.

🔗 click the link to read more https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uks-charity-commission-issues-regulatory-advice-board-deputies-following-icjp-complaint

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun visits Nabatieh

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun visited the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on Saturday, near a strategic Hezbollah position that the Israeli army had blown up on Thursday, and announced that there would be no new negotiations with Israel at present.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that Aoun, who was accompanied by security chiefs, “stressed that the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the return of prisoners and displaced people, and reconstruction remain national constants that Lebanon is committed to upholding”.

The visit comes a day after a US diplomatic official announced that the new round of US-brokered diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon, originally scheduled for next week in Rome, has been postponed until October.

Iran's Pezeshkian says Arab foreign ministers to sign Hormuz navigation deal in Oman on Monday

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Arab states' foreign ministers will meet in Oman on Monday to sign an agreement establishing a joint Iran-Oman shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.

“On Monday, the foreign ministers of those same Arab countries that wanted us to fight one another will meet in Oman. They will discuss an understanding on this Hormuz route and notify the relevant international maritime organization of its status.”

Pezeshkian added that the Hormuz route will be opened “provided that the United States ends its blockade and its acts of aggression against us."

The Abu Ghraib whistleblower

In 2004, US soldier Joseph Darby was handed a CD containing photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused and humiliated inside Abu Ghraib.

Darby secretly handed the images to army investigators, exposing a scandal that would shock the world and severely damage America’s moral standing.

Trump says ‘very little happening in Gaza’ after US facilitate a ‘peace of a kind’

Answering a reporter’s question about Washington’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, President Donald Trump says “there’s very little happening right now in Gaza” after the US “put out the fire”. 

“We put out the fire and we got all the hostages back. There's very little happening right now in Gaza. That's not the place that people are talking about, actually,” Trump said, at a presser in Dublin. 

According to rights group Euro-med Monitor, at least 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza in the past week.

Smotrich calls Palestinians in Gaza ‘two million Nazis’ with ‘anti-semtiic hatred of Israel’

Speaking on a podcast, far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called out European and Egyptian “hypocrisy” for not taking in Palestinians from Gaza. 

“If every country in Europe were willing to take in 20,000 or 30,000 Gazans, this whole story would be over… There’s no other solution. Ultimately, we cannot have two million Nazis who, for generations, have been brought up to harbour a deep anti-Semitic hatred of Israel,” he said. 

Smotrich then suggested that should military escalation with Iran resume, he hoped it would “put the citizens there in a situation where they have nothing to lose” and push them to “rise up and overthrow the regime.”

Houthi-owned TV network shows attacks on pro-government forces in Yemen

A video released by Houthi-owned network Al-Masirah TV shows damaged military vehicles and casualties from what it claimed were strikes on pro-government forces in Yemen.  

In a lightning offensive, the Houthis have seized a wide swath of the Arabian Gulf's Red Sea coast, including strategic islands and the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, as the conflict with Saudi-backed forces reignites after years of relative calm.

Protests erupt across Syria over sharp fuel price hikes

Footage shows protesters blocking the Aleppo–Damascus highway as demonstrations erupt across Syria over steep fuel price increases.
The government has temporarily raised diesel prices by up to 40 percent and gasoline prices by up to 28 percent, citing rising global fuel prices amid the US-Iran war and an overhaul of the Baniyas refinery, Syria’s largest fuel-processing plant.
Protesters can be heard chanting, “The people want the downfall of al-Jolani”, a reference to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who formerly was known by the name Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.

Exposing AIPAC spending

"They started publicly crashing out against us on social media... trying to discredit our work."

Cory Archibald and Casey Kennedy are the co-founders of Track AIPAC, the platform credited with providing crucial public context on how much money members of Congress receive from pro-Israel lobby groups in America, especially AIPAC.

In this Real Talk interview, Cory and Casey join Mohamed Hashem to talk about what it's cost them to build TrackAIPAC, the tactics AIPAC has used to fight back, and whether the political tide in America is turning against the pro-Israel lobby.

The Abu Ghraib whistleblower

In 2004, US soldier Joseph Darby was handed a CD containing photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused and humiliated inside Abu Ghraib.

Darby secretly handed the images to Army investigators, exposing a scandal that would shock the world and severely damage America’s moral standing.

Inside Israel's plan to erase the West Bank's refugee camps

Israel has a military plan ready to invade three more West Bank refugee camps: Balata, Jalazone, and Qalandiya. The goal, according to Israeli military sources, is to wrap it up before the October 27th elections.

It's already underway. In August, Israeli forces raided Qalandiya before dawn, blocking morning prayers, demolishing shops, and sealing off entrances with earth mounds. Balata is next in line. It's the largest refugee camp in the West Bank, home to more than 23,000 registered refugees, and has lost close to 200 homes since October 7th.

This isn't a new strategy. It's the same one used up north, where bulldozers carved new roads through Tulkarm to break the camp into blocks and merge it with the surrounding town, effectively erasing its legal status as a refugee camp.

​'Symbolic' UK sanctions on Israel aim to avoid Washington's wrath

UK imposes symbolic sanctions on Israel, avoiding US backlash; move comes amid shift in Labour leadership under PM Andy Burnham, who has offered an apology for Labour's handling of Gaza and prohibited British companies from investing in illegal West Bank settlements.

Reel 3: Real Talk TrackAIPAC

"They authorised a $730 million PR budget to go and rescue their international image."

Cory Archibald and Casey Kennedy, co-founders of Track AIPAC, join Mohamed Hashem in this latest episode of Real Talk on tracking AIPAC's money in US politics - and how the lobby, and the Israeli government responded.

How did the Houthis seize Bab el-Mandeb?

In a lightning offensive, Yemen's Houthi rebels swept down the country's western coast and seized key points around the vital Bab el-Mandeb strait.

But how did Yemen's armed forces collapse so quickly? And what does it mean for the balance of power inside the country?

Wearing a hijab does not mean a woman needs ‘rescuing’| Soumaya Ghannoushi | MEE Opinion

Soumaya Ghannoushi, a writer and expert in Middle East politics, argues that Western narratives about “rescuing” Muslim women often deny them the very agency they claim to defend.

In this Op-ed, Ghannoushi challenges the assumption that wearing the hijab is inherently a sign of oppression, pointing to histories of both compulsory veiling and forced unveiling in countries including Iran, Turkey and Tunisia.

She argues that Muslim women are frequently treated as free to make choices only when those choices conform to a particular idea of liberation, describing this as “paternalism dressed in feminist garb”.

Ghannoushi stresses that women should be free to wear or remove the hijab without coercion, arguing that there is no single experience of “the Muslim woman”.

Houthis release footage of downed Saudi jet

The Houthis say they shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet over Marib province, using a locally made surface-to-air missile, while the jet was carrying out strikes in support of Saudi-backed forces. Footage released by the Houthis' Ansar Allah Media Centre shows burning wreckage in the desert, with fighters posing next to a piece of the plane appearing to show a Saudi flag.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced the downing on Wednesday, framing it as a response to a week of intense Saudi strikes, he says Saudi Arabia has hit Yemen more than 450 times in the past week alone. In the same statement, the group also claimed it targeted a Saudi air base in the south and an oil facility in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu.

Netanyahu calls to strip citizenship of those who 'defame' Israeli army

In a video posted on his social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the stripping of citizenship from those who "defame" the Israeli army.

His comments reflect anger from the Israeli government over the documentary NAZA, which featured soldiers testifying to the commission of war crimes in Gaza.

At least 21 dead after Israeli-hit building collapses in Gaza

A building in Gaza previously hit by Israeli forces collapsed on Wednesday, killing at least 21 people, as dozens more remained trapped under the rubble.

The Palestinian Civil Defence, Gaza's emergency and rescue agency, said the six-storey residential building on al-Sinaa Street in western Gaza City collapsed suddenly while residents were sleeping inside.

More than 10 families, totalling around 80 people, lived in the building, according to residents. 

The Palestinian health ministry said the bodies of 21 people, including 12 children, were recovered, while more than 14 others were rescued with injuries.

Houthis 'don't care' about populations' needs: Mohammed Albasha

With 100,000 Yemenis displaced amid the recent Houthi territorial gains in Yemen and Saudi strikes, an existing humanitarian crisis has only been compounded.

Speaking to MEE Live, Mohammed Albasha of Basha Report, a Yemeni-American analyst, said that he Houthis focus more on generating income for their military operations than meeting the needs of the people.

This, he said, is why those who can choose to flee the areas under Houthi control.