Gulfnews

US fighter jets carried out a series of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen late Saturday evening, according to a US defense official, targeting numerous weapons storage facilities.The facilities housed advanced conventional weapons used to target ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the CNN quoted the official as saying.The US used fighter jets to carry out the attack, he added.The United States formed a multinational coalition in December 2023 to 'protect maritime navigation in the Red Sea' after the Houthi announced attacks on ships linked to the Israeli entity in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza. Houthi's operations were later expanded to target vessels associated with the United States and the United Kingdom following strikes by those countries against Houthi sites in Yemen. source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/694239/international/us-fighter-jets-strike-houthis-targets-in-yemen

US President-elect Donald Trump has ruled out two of his former Cabinet members - former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley - from joining his new administration.'I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation,' Trump said in a post on Truth Social.'I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our country.'Trump is meeting with potential candidates to serve in his administration before his Jan. 20 inauguration as president.Analysts believe that Trump's decision reflects fundamental changes in his team, which indicate he may adopt a different approach in his new term. source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/694236/international/trump-excludes-mike-pompeo-and-nikki-haley-from-new-administration

Firefighters grappling with a blaze that has destroyed at least 130 homes in California said Friday they had made progress in their fight as a turn in the weather offered a break.Hurricane-strength winds this week fuelled an explosion in the Mountain Fire near Camarillo, outside Los Angeles, which grew rapidly to over 20,000 acres.Thousands of people in the path of the inferno were forced to flee, some with only minutes to gather possessions and pets as unpredictable flames leapt from home to home.Robin Wallace told AFP the home she grew up in was destroyed minutes after everyone fled.“We were expecting we’d be able to go back and get some things. But of course, that didn’t work out.“It was completely gone by the afternoon. It went very quickly.”Linda Fefferman said she knew she had to go when she smelled smoke. “I’m trying to load the car with animals and important papers, my oxygen concentrator, and when it got too smoky for me, I knew I had to get out,” she told a local broadcaster....

Authorities cleared uprooted trees and debris in the northern Philippines yesterday as Typhoon Yinxing blew out to sea after pounding the coast overnight, ripping roofs from homes and forcing thousands to seek shelter.But while nearly 30,000 people took cover in government-run facilities in the days and hours before Yinxing made landfall, there were no reported casualties from the typhoon, which came just two weeks after a major storm killed more than 150.Yinxing’s 175km per hour winds knocked down power lines, tore trees from the ground and shattered windows as it slammed into the country’s north coast on Thursday, the national weather agency, residents and rescuers said.Officials reported 242.6 millimetres of rain dumped in a 24-hour window.“Many trees were uprooted. There was also soil erosion in some areas. We are lucky they were not full-blown landslides,” said Cagayan province disaster chief Rueli Rapsing, whose agency has so far reported no casualties.In the province’s Pamplona ...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly backed his government’s contentious 2019 decision to revoke the partial autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, days after the territory’s newly elected lawmakers sought its restoration.“Only the constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar will operate in Kashmir... No power in the world can restore Article 370 (partial autonomy) in Kashmir,” Modi said, referring to one of the founding fathers of the Indian constitution.Modi was speaking at a state election rally in the western state of Maharashtra, where Ambedkar was from.Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked partial autonomy in 2019 and split the state into the two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh - a move that was opposed by many political groups in the region.Jammu and Kashmir held its first local election in a decade in September and October and the newly-elected lawmakers passed a resolution this week seeking the restoration.Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling N...

US President-elect Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles, one of his two campaign managers, as his White House chief of staff, making her the first woman ever to hold this position in any administration.'Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well-deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female chief of staff in the United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud,' Trump said in a statement.'Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,' Trump said.Wiles, 66, was widely credited for running what was seen as Trump's most sophisticated and disciplined campaign yet.She has worked in Republican politics since the late 1970s and went on to become a campaign scheduler on Ronald Reagans 1980 presidential bid, and later in his administration.The Chief of Staff is, historically, the ...

European leaders gathered in Budapest yesterday in search of a joint response to the threats of a new Donald Trump presidency — though the seat of powerhouse Germany was left empty by a deepening political crisis.The leaders of the European Union were joined by others from the United Kingdom to Turkiye, as well as Nato chief Mark Rutte and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, for the meeting of the European Political Community — to be followed by a summit of the 27-nation bloc.“The future of Europe is in our hands,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said as she headed into the talks dominated by Trump’s return to the White House. “We’ve shown that Europe can take responsibility by standing together.”On the agenda: Europe’s security challenges, chief among them Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as conflict in the Middle East, migration, global trade and economic security — issues all thrown into sharp relief by the prospect of a disruptive second Trump presidency.“This ...