(July 15, 2026)
The U.S. State Department is aware of reports that President Donald Trump has given Saudi Arabia the green light to launch military action against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement following attacks on the kingdom, a department spokesperson told MBN in a statement.
(4 min ago)
Explosions are being reported from Iran‘s southwestern Bushehr province, according to the country‘s Mehr news agency.
Iran‘s state broadcaster IRIB said eight explosions were heard in the southern port city, with air defence systems activated as a result.
As conflicts proliferate and risks to civilians mount around the globe, embracing the “responsibility to protect” — an international norm aimed at preventing mass atrocity crimes, such as genocide — is more crucial today than ever before, the General Assembly heard today, in its annual debate on the topic.
“Twenty-one years ago, world leaders made a milestone commitment to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity,” said Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet of Secretary-General António Guterres, who delivered opening remarks on his behalf.
Referring to the outcome of the 2005 World Summit, where Member States agreed to unprecedented new parameters for atrocity prevention, he said States remain primarily responsible for the protection of their populations. “However, in cases where national authorities have failed to do so, Member States undertook a promise — a promise to take collective, decisive and timely action in line with the UN Charter.”
Speaking at a graduation ceremony for Israeli combat officers, Netanyahu and Katz vowed not to withdraw from their “security zones” no matter what “pressures” Israel faces.
“We dominate southern Lebanon, from the summit of the Beaufort [castle], and we will remain as long as required in the security zone,” Netanyahu said. “We do not intend to withdraw from it.”
“The Israeli military will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, in Syria and in Gaza without any time limit,” Katz added.
Trump has thanked China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin for being “neutral” during the US-Israel war on Iran.
“I just want to thank them because they made it a lot better,” Trump said, adding that China was “terrific” and made efforts to help settle the conflict.
Behind the scenes: The Israeli military notified the U.S. Central Command shortly before the Beirut strike, Israeli and U.S. officials say.
It is not clear whether the White House gave it a green light.
What they are saying: Iranian chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf signaled the Israeli strike on Beirut could undermine the U.S.–Iran deal.
In a forceful post on his X account on Sunday, Qalibaf issued a stark warning to the US and Israel, saying their military bases and assets across the region have become legitimate targets after the Israeli regime bombed Beirut‘s southern suburbs.
He said the United States has not been committed to the April ceasefire agreement with Iran and is not serious about dialogue.
„They are neither committed to a ceasefire nor believe in dialogue,“ Qalibaf wrote.
By enforcing a naval blockade and breaching agreements related to Lebanon, he emphasized, they have made it clear that the only language they understand is that of power.
Israel notified the Trump administration before the strike, a U.S. official and two other sources with knowledge tell Axios
Israel is escalating in Gaza “because it knows it will not encounter severe opposition”, and in Lebanon “because so far the world is letting Israel get away with it”.
(May 14, 2026)
Twice this week, U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed interest in turning Venezuela into his country’s 51st state. The latest came via a Truth Social post Tuesday with a map showing the South American country filled with the U.S. flag.
Previous statements doubting Venezuela’s sovereignty over the past 25 years have been met with immediate derision from senior government officials, including the president.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has spoken with Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to address recent Iranian missile and drone strikes, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
During the call, the crown prince conveyed Riyadh’s position on the attacks and reiterated support for the United Arab Emirates.
Qatar’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, has condemned Iranian missile and drone attacks on the United Arab Emirates during a phone call with President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, according to an official statement.
The emir criticised the strikes, saying they targeted civilian sites and infrastructure.
Iran has announced it will not participate in the second round of direct talks with the United States scheduled in Pakistan, amid an already fragile standoff between the two countries.
Iran says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz again, calling the decision a response to a continued blockade of its ports by the United States.
Der Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) zahlt Honorare an Journalisten. Aus Gründen des „Staatswohls“ hält die Bundesregierung Namen und genaue Summen jedoch zurück.
Even as the U.S. and Iran seek to cement a ceasefire, Israel is seizing more territory from its neighbours in preparation for a long, drawn-out conflict across the Middle East.
Israel‘s creation of „buffer zones“ in Gaza, Syria and now Lebanon reflects a strategic shift after the attacks of October 7, 2023, one that puts the country in a semi-permanent state of war, six Israeli military and defence officials told Reuters.
A minority of members from the bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are calling for the findings of a judges‘ report, which found no evidence of misconduct against ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, to be ignored, Middle East Eye can reveal.
MEE reported exclusively on Saturday that the court’s chief prosecutor had been cleared of any wrongdoing by a panel of three senior judges appointed by the bureau of the ASP, the ICC’s governing body, to review the findings of a United Nations investigation into complaints of alleged sexual misconduct.
(March 21, 2026)
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has been cleared of all wrongdoing by a panel of judges appointed to review the findings of a United Nations investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him, Middle East Eye can exclusively reveal.
The highly confidential report by the panel of three judges was submitted to the ICC’s executive oversight body, the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), on 9 March. It will not be made publicly available, and has not been seen by the majority of the court‘s 125 member states.
Yes, but: France, Germany, Italy and Japan have previously all publicly ruled out sending naval vessels to the strait during the war.
Ms. Gabbard does not quickly turn on her allies, and she showed little desire to throw Mr. Kent under the bus or attack him. But she has remained in her position by being a careful student of Mr. Trump, and knows how to stay on his good side. And critiquing the president’s view of the threat from Iran was clearly not the way to keep your job.
So she came up with her line that it is Mr. Trump, not the intelligence community, that determines what constitutes a threat.
„We have taken the decision to accept this request to prevent Iran from firing missiles across the region, killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risk and hitting countries that have not been involved.
„The basis of our decision is the collective self-defence of long-standing friends and allies, and protecting British lives.“
The UK reportedly shot down a missile heading towards a base housing its service personnel in Iraq on Saturday.
Neither Schumer nor Jeffries backed legislation last year aimed at forestalling US military intervention in Iran.
The top Democrats’ responses to Saturday’s US-Israeli attacks on Iran, which Trump said would continue “uninterrupted” even after the killing of the nation’s supreme leader, contrasted sharply with statements of rank-and-file congressional Democrats—and even some members of leadership—who condemned the president for shredding the Constitution and driving the US into another deadly war that the American public opposes.
(February 23, 2026)
Harris herself, in her memoir 107 Days, wrote that former President Joe Biden’s appearance of having issued a “blank check” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hurt her campaign. She also wrote that she pleaded with him to show more empathy for Palestinians, to little avail.
DNC Chair Ken Martin reversed course last year when he said in December that the Democrats would not release the autopsy examining the causes of Harris’s defeat.
(February 23, 2026)
RootsAction, a progressive advocacy group that conducted its own analysis of Democrats’ 2024 loss, said in a statement that the DNC’s refusal to publicize its findings “undermines the goal of defeating Trumpism.” RootsAction’s autopsy, authored by journalist Christopher D. Cook, found “ample evidence that Harris lost many voters, especially young voters, Arab-Americans, and critical support in Michigan and elsewhere, due to the campaign’s failure to shift or even signal a potential shift in policy on Israel and Palestine.”
The DNC’s official autopsy, said RootsAction, “should be made public so Democrats can learn from past errors and win future elections.”