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SATURDAY | JULY 18, 2026

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Palestine territories disappearing warning

Tanker seized off Yemen coast LONDON: Armed assailants are believed to have boarded the chemical tanker Asana off the southern coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden yesterday and are in control of the vessel, maritime security sources said. Based on initial assessments, the incident appeared to be related to Somali piracy rather than Yemen’s Houthi militia. The small tanker, which had no confirmed flag, had listed the Somali port of Bosaso as its next destination, ship tracking data showed. Efforts were under way to assist the Asan a tanker and determine the circumstances of what happened, said an official with the European Union’s Aspides naval mission. A South Korean warship was in the area, the official told Reuters. “Details regarding the assailants, the circumstances of the boarding, and the status of the vessel and crew remain unclear,” British maritime risk management group Vanguard said. The vessel issued a distress call at 0620 GMT (2.20pm in Malaysia) yesterday and did not have a security team when the incident occurred, security group Ambrey said, adding the assailants were suspected to be part of a pirate action group. – Reuters Two dead after thunderstorms PARIS: At least two people died as violent thunderstorms hit France overnight following a prolonged heatwave, and 53,000 households were left without power yesterday, French authorities said. One woman died after a tree fell on her in Saint-Victurnien, in the Haute Vienne department on Thursday evening, the local mayor said. A man was found dead late on Thursday in a workshop that caught fire after being struck by lightning in Dolomieu to the east.

previous mission in 2023. The two former leaders warned that continued settlement expansion would result in “Palestine disappearing before our eyes”. Since taking office, Netanyahu’s government has approved the establishment of 102 settlements in the West Bank, according to Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now. And since the start of the Gaza war in 2023, the United Nations has reported a sharp rise in settler violence, while some Israeli ministers continue to call for the annexation of all or part of the occupied West Bank. Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, among some three million Palestinians. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. During their visit, the two former leaders met Israeli President Isaac Herzog. “We disagreed on a number of points,” said Robinson. – AFP

Helen Clark comes after they visited Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan and Lebanon. They said in a statement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was seeking “to make Palestine disappear physically, economically, culturally and politically”. Speaking to journalists in Jerusalem on Thursday, they said the international community must do more to end Israeli “impunity” in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which Palestinians seek as the future capital of a sovereign state.

“I think if we were to summarise the key message that we’ve heard across civil society, both in the West Bank and here, as to what are they looking for, it’s accountability and no impunity,” said Clark. Robinson said she was “ashamed” that the European Union had not taken a firmer stance on the issue, calling for Brussels to suspend the trade component of its association agreement with Israel and to ban the trade of products from Israeli settlements. The two leaders said they had observed a severe deterioration of the situation in the West Bank since a

o Elders group of leaders raises alarm

TEL AVIV: Two former heads of government from the Elders group of international figures founded by Nelson Mandela yesterday warned of the potential disappearance of the Palestinian territories and called for an end to what they called Israeli “impunity”. The call from former Ireland president Mary Robinson and former New Zealand prime minister

Palestinians inspecting on Thursday the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip. – REUTERSPIC

Grid operator Enedis said 53,000 households were left without power, with cuts mainly affecting the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes area in the southeast and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine in the southwest. – Reuters Russia fines anti-war politician over symbols DOLGOPRUDNY: A Russian court fined politician paramedics performed a cardiogram on him in court over extreme high blood pressure.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar report attacks KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait reported an Iranian attack on a power and water plant yesterday, while Bahrain and Qatar also said they had intercepted missiles after the US bombed Iran for the sixth consecutive night.

opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Before the hearing, Nadezhdin, who has heart problems, took a reading of his blood pressure, which appeared to be at extreme hypertensive levels, according to an AFP reporter in the courtroom. Paramedic staff entered the room and performed a cardiogram on him around noon, around an hour after lawyers called for an ambulance. Despite his lawyers’ pleas, the judge did not defer the verdict, finding him guilty of displaying “extremist symbol” and issuing him a US$13 fine. The maximum sentence for the offence is 15 days in prison. Nadezhdin had called the case against him “nonsense” and warned he would “simply die” if imprisoned over the charge. “I’m glad to be alive,” he said following the verdict. – AFP

Boris Nadezhdin US$13 (RM53) for using “extremist symbols”, delivering the verdict after

support centres of the ‘terrorist’ and ‘child-killing’ US military”, state TV reported. “The attacks were in response to the crimes of the arrogant enemy and in revenge for the blood of the martyrs of the homeland,” it added. Elsewhere, the Bahraini military stated that it had “intercepted several Iranian aerial attacks”. An AFP journalist in Manama, the kingdom’s capital, reported hearing several explosions overnight after warning sirens were triggered. Iranian state media reported that Tehran had targeted US helicopters and planes at an airbase. In Qatar, the Defence Ministry said the army intercepted a missile attack. A child was injured by falling debris. – AFP

The 63-year-old, an outspoken critic of the Ukraine war, faced the charges over a 2023 video he reposted showing an image of the late

“One of the power and water distillation plants was the target of an attack ... resulting in a fire, damage, and the impairment of several production units,” the Kuwaiti Electricity Ministry said. It called on users “to ration their electricity consumption during this exceptional period”. The Gulf state earlier said it was facing “drone and missile attacks”. Iran said that in response to the US strikes it had sent drones to Kuwait to target “the deployment sites of US forces and the logistical

Nadezhdin receives medical attention during the court hearing. – AFPPIC