Missiles from Yemen target Israel despite US threats
NewsFeed At least two missiles launched from Yemen triggered warning sirens in Israel and the occupied West Bank on Thursday. The Israeli military says both were intercepted. The Houthis claimed responsibility for at least one of them and have said they will increase attacks in response to US strikes on Sanaa. Published On 20 Mar 202520 Mar 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
Thousands mourn victims of North Macedonia nightclub fire
Ceremonies held across the country, but main funeral was in Kocani, where 30 victims were buried. Thousands of mourners have flocked to funerals in North Macedonia for the dozens of victims of last weekend’s devastating nightclub fire. The fire broke out during a concert by the hip-hop duo DNK at the Pulse nightclub in the town of Kocani about 3am (02:00 GMT) on Sunday when sparks from flares set the ceiling alight. At least 59 people were killed and 155 were injured in the fire, triggering an outpouring of grief in the Balkan country. Burials were held in several cities and towns, but the main funeral was in Kocani, a town of about 25,000 people located 100km (62 miles) east of the capital Skopje, where 30 of the victims were buried. Thousands of mourners walked solemnly along dirt paths to newly dug graves marked with paper signs. Many carried baskets of white flowers or clutched photographs of their loved ones. Many wore T-shirts and badges with pictures and names of the deceased. People attend a funeral ceremony for the victims of a fire at the Pulse nightclub, in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia [Valdrin Xhemaj/Reuters] Several people overcome by grief required medical attention. A weeping man rested his head on the edge of one of the coffins. Advertisement Ana Kostadinovska, a backing vocalist for the band DNA, who survived the fire, wrote in an online post: “A part of my second family has left. Along with them, my soul. “All that remains is ashes and emptiness … and who would have thought that emptiness could hurt so much,” she wrote. The fire, and emerging stories of the harrowing scenes at the nightclub, have triggered an outpouring of grief and protests, led mostly by young people. Thursday’s religious service at the cemetery in Kocani was led by clergy from the country’s Orthodox Church, while Red Cross and emergency personnel were present to support grieving families. Workers prepare graves for a funeral ceremony at a cemetery, following a fire at Pulse nightclub that resulted in dozens of deaths, in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia [Valdrin Xhemaj/Reuters] Before the funerals, the country’s spiritual leader, Orthodox Archbishop Stefan, called for national unity in prayer for the victims and their families. “We pray constantly for the salvation of the innocent victims, holding memorial services for the deceased and offering prayers for the healing of the injured, as well as for the comfort of their families and loved ones,” he said. “National solidarity and unity are most needed in such difficult times,” he added. “We call on all the faithful to preserve peace within ourselves and peace among ourselves, and, praying diligently, to mourn with dignity.” Stefan presided over the Kocani funerals. Separate funeral services took place in the capital, Skopje, and five other towns – several neighbouring Kocani – where many businesses closed as a sign of respect. Advertisement Public tributes were also made for Ile Gocevski, a Kocani ambulance driver who died of apparent heart failure after completing 11 hospital runs on the night of the fire. Families and friends attend a joint funeral for the victims of the fire that erupted at the Pulse nightclub in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia [Fatos Bytyci/Reuters] The investigation into the tragedy continues to widen. Seven police officers are among more than 20 people detained as authorities probe the lack of fire safety measures at the Pulse nightclub, as well as allegations that the club’s permits had been obtained illegally. Health Minister Arben Taravari said 72 people remain hospitalised across the country, while 101 patients are receiving treatment abroad. He described the condition of those being treated for burns, smoke inhalation, and trampling injuries as “stable or improved”, easing earlier concerns that the death toll could rise further. The ministry on Thursday released the names of the 59 victims. They included 41 who were in their 20s or younger and three 17-year-olds. Adblock test (Why?)
Netanyahu never planned to “Abandon Gaza Militarily”
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Netanyahu on Gaza
Israel targeting West Bank refugee camps is ethnic cleansing, analyst
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Israel’s targeting of refugee camps to “end the Palestinian refugee issue” is part of plans to ethnically cleanse.
‘Lunatic’: Trump’s long history of abusing judges who oppose him
United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on his criticism of a federal judge, calling him “radical left” for blocking the deportation of Venezuelan migrants, as his administration ramps up rhetoric against the courts. Trump on Tuesday called for the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg, accusing him of putting the US at risk. “We don’t want vicious, violent, and demented criminals, many of them deranged murderers, in our country,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday. Boasberg, who serves in the federal district court in Washington, DC, has come under attack since he issued an order to block deportation flights on Saturday. The Trump administration has been accused of ignoring Boasberg’s orders by sending several planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador prisons notorious for rights abuses. Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an obscure law meant to target nationals from an enemy nation during wartime. The courts have blocked several of Trump’s executive orders amid little resistance from the Republican-controlled Congress, attracting the wrath of the officials. Advertisement Attorney General Pam Bondi accused the judge of “meddling in our government” while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt believes judges are acting as “judicial activists”. The US president on his part called Boasberg a “radical left lunatic” “appointed by [former president] Barack Hussein Obama”. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has criticised calls to impeach Judge Boasberg, but that has not stopped Trump from attacking the judge. The US president lashed out at Roberts as well, suggesting the Supreme Court itself was compromised by political bias. The latest rhetoric is just one in a series of attacks Trump has launched against judges and courts who challenge his policies or hold him accountable in cases brought against him. Why have Trump and officials from his administration clashed with the judiciary? There’s a troubling pattern of Trump attacking judges and courts in the past. Let’s take a look. A pattern of attacks? Trump’s contempt for the courts predates his presidency but reached new levels during his time in office. Usually, if a ruling went against him, the judge was deemed by Trump biased, incompetent, or part of a left-wing conspiracy. One of the earliest examples came in 2016 when Trump, then a presidential candidate, attacked US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was overseeing fraud lawsuits against his now-defunct Trump University. Trump suggested Curiel was unfit to preside over the case because of his Mexican heritage, calling him a “hater” and implying he could not be fair due to Trump’s hardline stance on immigration. The attack drew widespread condemnation. Advertisement Once in the White House, Trump continued to fight the judiciary. In 2017, when Judge James Robart issued a temporary block on his travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries, Trump labelled him a “so-called judge” and accused him of endangering national security. In 2018, Trump dubbed Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Jon Tigar “an Obama judge” after he ruled that an immigrant could claim asylum regardless of where she entered the country. The same year, Trump attacked the judiciary after an appeals court in California blocked his administration from deporting young immigrants shielded under an Obama-era programme. Trump did not hesitate to also target the Supreme Court when it ruled against him. He was incensed when the court rejected his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump continues to believe that his 2020 presidential election was stolen. In particular, he turned against Chief Justice Roberts, calling him “disgraceful” and “a disappointment”. Did his attacks against the judiciary go up after the end of his first term? As Trump’s legal troubles mounted after his presidency ended in 2020, his attacks on judges became even more personal. Facing multiple indictments ranging from election interference to business fraud, Trump often took to social media to condemn judges overseeing his cases. In his New York civil fraud case, where he was found liable for boosting his net worth, Trump called Judge Arthur Engoron “unhinged” and a “Trump-hating, radical left, Democrat operative”. He mocked his law clerk on social media, saying he was “politically biased and corrupt”, prompting a gag order. Advertisement Despite the restriction, Trump did not hold back. In his federal election interference case, presided over by Judge Tanya Chutkan, Trump labelled her “highly partisan”, “very biased and unfair”, and suggested she was out to get him. His verbal assaults led prosecutors to argue that his rhetoric was endangering the judicial process and potentially inciting threats against judges and court staff. Chutkan had warned Trump against making any “inflammatory statements” before the first hearing. “Your client’s defence is supposed to happen in this courtroom, not on the internet,” Chutkan told Trump’s lawyers, adding that the more anyone made “inflammatory” statements about the case, the greater her urgency would be to quickly move the case to trial. Trump also attacked liberal Supreme Court justices, particularly Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In 2020, Trump demanded that both judges “recuse” themselves from cases involving him, accusing them of bias, particularly after Sotomayor criticised the Trump administration’s frequent appeals to the top court to intervene in lower-court decisions. Trump took to Twitter, which later became X, calling remarks by Sotomayor “highly inappropriate”. His animosity towards Justice Ginsburg was even more pronounced. Before her passing in 2020, Ginsburg had publicly criticised Trump during his 2016 campaign, calling him a “faker” and expressing concern over his presidency. Trump fired back, calling her a “disgrace” to the court and demanding she resign. After her death, he faced backlash for quickly nominating a conservative replacement, Amy Coney Barrett. Advertisement In 2020, Trump attacked Judge Amy Berman Jackson over the conviction of his long-term aide Roger Stone in a witness tempering case. He said Stone’s jury was “tainted’ with anti-Trump bias. The case symbolised political meddling in high-profile cases as Trump used social media to question the judiciary’s fairness. Stone was pardoned in December 2020 at the end of Trump’s first term. Trump’s
1-year-old among victims of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Video shows a Palestinian father’s last moments with his child after his pregnant wife and 1-year-old son were killed.
In Yemen’s Sanaa, fear and defiance after US bombs
Sanaa, Yemen – Mukhtar Ahmed was riding his bike in northern Sanaa’s al-Jiraf area when the ground trembled beneath him. Thunderous explosions echoed through the air, followed by the sound of terrified screams. It was Saturday just after sunset, a time when people were home for iftar during the holy month of Ramadan “I got off the bike and darted towards an alley. I thought it would be impossible to survive,” the 26-year-old restaurant delivery courier told Al Jazeera. “The sheer terror of those explosions could kill.” Mukhtar had no idea what had caused the deafening roar heard across Yemen’s densely populated capital. But he later came to realise, the United States was bombing Yemen. A wave of American air strikes had killed more than 50 people. The bombs pounded the vicinity of the political office of the Houthi rebel group (officially known as Ansar Allah), the de facto rulers of Yemen’s populous northwest. It marked the beginning of an ongoing US bombing campaign that may usher in a new phase of war and instability for Yemen. Advertisement Who can stop the US? On March 7, a week before the US strikes began, the Houthis gave Israel a four-day deadline to lift its blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. If it did not, the Yemeni group promised to resume attacking Israel-linked ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Those attacks had stopped when the now-broken Gaza ceasefire began in January but for the 15 months before that, the Houthis had paralysed shipping in one of the world’s most important waterways and fired projectiles towards Israel. The United Kingdom and the US launched hundreds of air strikes on what were reportedly Houthi targets, including weapons depots, missile launch pads and airports. Israel has also attacked Yemen. The ostensible purpose of these attacks was to “degrade” the military capabilities of the Iran-allied Houthis. But the renewed US air strikes have hit residential areas where senior Houthi members are believed to reside, showing little regard for civilian lives. Second, the Houthis had not carried out any attacks despite their threat. With this shift under US President Donald Trump, fears of war, shortages, and displacement haunt Yemeni civilians, who have endured years of hardship since the beginning of the country’s civil war in 2014 between the Houthis and Yemen’s Saudi-backed, United Nations-recognised government. The conflict on the ground in Yemen has been largely frozen since 2022 with the Houthis and Saudi Arabia involved in negotiations. But those talks have done little to end the humanitarian crisis in the country, where millions of people are hungry. Advertisement Many Yemenis now believe things are going to get worse, a fear strengthened by Trump’s rhetoric. “Hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before,” the US president said in a threat to the Houthis. And for Mukhtar, he fears Gaza has set a precedent for how bombing campaigns are conducted in the region. “The US is like Israel, and Hamas is like the Houthis,” Mukhtar said, “so if the US-Houthi war continues, the US will do to Sanaa like what Israel has done to Gaza. Who will stop them?” Fear of chaos In a bustling street in Maeen in western Sanaa, Faisal Mohammed carried a blue bag filled with new clothes for his five children, purchased in preparation for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which is expected to fall on March 30. But 38-year-old Faisal says Eid will be overshadowed by the US attacks. He is afraid of what is to come. “The Americans aim to kill Houthi officials who run Sanaa and other provinces,” he said. “Killing the [Houthi] leadership will spark chaos, and this will hurt us.” The Houthis took control of Sanaa in September 2014. Since then, the group has firmly embedded itself and proven itself on the battlefield. But as the US intensifies its attacks on Yemen, the Houthis rivals may see the tide turning in their favour – and that worries Faisal. “Pro-government forces could be motivated by the American air strikes and begin pushing towards Houthi-controlled provinces,” Faisal said. “This will mean an all-out civil war and an additional cycle of misery.” Advertisement Faisal has thought about leaving Sanaa and moving to a safer area. “The Houthis will not surrender, and their Yemeni rivals, if supported by America, will not back down,” Faisal said. “It will be disastrous.” Prices and explosions In Bani Hushaish on the northeastern outskirts of Sanaa, Ali Abdullah filled his gas cylinder at a cooking gas station, but he did not plan to use it. He was stocking up in anticipation of a potential price rise. “We fear sudden price hikes. They are an ugly companion of war,” the 48-year-old told Al Jazeera. Even before the renewed US bombing, Washington’s actions have left Yemen – and particularly its Houthi-controlled regions – in a precarious position. In January, Trump redesignated the Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organisation” (FTO) over their attacks on Red Sea shipping and Israel. “The FTO squeezes the larger economy, limiting access to international financing, making it difficult for traders to acquire letters of credit and insurance to import everything from food, fuel to household goods and beyond,” wrote April Longley Alley, a senior expert on the Gulf and Yemen at the US Institute of Peace. Defiant The Houthis, having ridden out a years-long bombing campaign and motivated by belief in their ultimate victory, are unlikely to back down – at least not in the short term. The group’s supporters massed in Sanaa on Monday in defiance of the US, many of them brandishing firearms. Mohammed, a Houthi fighter who only wanted to give his first name, said the US bombing of Yemen was proof the US is “a habitual aggressor”. Advertisement “Americans seek to intimidate and humiliate us. But that won’t happen,” he said, standing with a rifle on his shoulder near a market in central Sanaa. “We were not born to
Mass protests in Turkiye over arrest of Istanbul mayor
NewsFeed Thousands of people in Turkiye are protesting the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a key rival to President Erdogan, on corruption and terror charges. The government has denied opposition claims that it’s staging ‘a coup’. Published On 20 Mar 202520 Mar 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
US air strikes hit residential area in Yemen’s capital
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Homes and buildings in a residential area in Yemen’s capital were hit in some of the latest air attacks by the US.
Will Trump’s policies pay off or will the US fall into recession?
President Donald Trump wants to restructure the US economy. He’s promising Americans a boom in wealth. President Donald Trump wants to transform the United States into a manufacturing powerhouse. His favourite tool to help him achieve that is tariffs. He believes the measures will help bring revenues and relocate factories to the US. The trade-off is many Americans will have to suffer short-term pain for long-term gain. Consumers are now downbeat on the outlook for the economy, and they are buckling down. Stock markets are flashing warning signs. Despite that, Trump seems intent on pressing ahead with his plans. Could the global shipping industry face a major crisis in the Red Sea? Plus, Ghana’s economic reforms. Adblock test (Why?)