15/09/2026

TUESDAY | SEPT 15, 2026

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NAZA directors risk losing citizenship TEL AVIV: Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar called on Sunday for the directors of an Israeli-made Gaza documentary to be stripped of citizenship, accusing them of “treason against the state”. In NAZA , Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor spoke to 24 military or intelligence whistleblowers who outlined the AI-powered targeting systems used to bombard Gaza. The 80-minute documentary won a special jury prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Zohar accused the directors of being willing to “harm their homeland to receive applause from antisemites”. “I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state,” he said on X. Other Israeli ministers also took aim at the directors, who won an Oscar in 2025 for their film No Other Land about Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank. “You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to the entire people of Israel. Go away!” far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on X. “I am certain that your friends, that is to say our enemies Hamas in Gaza, will welcome you with open arms,” said the minister. The revocation of nationality is legally possible in Israel, although it is rarely applied. In 2022, the Supreme Court confirmed that the state may strip people of their nationality if they have failed to show “loyalty”, for example by committing acts of espionage or treason. The law was also expanded in 2023 to apply to people convicted of “terrorism”. The law requires the interior minister to submit the revocation request, the justice minister to approve it and judges to validate it. – AFP Push to remove top Kyiv prosecutor KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukrainian lawmakers yesterday to swiftly support the removal of Ukraine’s prosecutor general as tensions escalated over anti-corruption investigations. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko resigned his post last week after a corruption investigation reached his office. He was not charged with a crime or named a suspect in any investigation, but anti-corruption authorities had accused a subordinate of helping run a fraud ring. Relations between Ukraine’s anti corruption watchdogs and other law enforcement agencies have been strained over the past year, and Kravchenko said yesterday that he had signed a “suspicion notice” against the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu), one of the bodies investigating his office. He alleged that Nabu head Semen Kryvonos had forged official documents to obtain “an unlawful benefit on an exceptionally large scale”and accused him of a fictional adoption to “evade legal liability in court”. Nabu and Sapo, the other anti-graft agency involved in the probe that led to the prosecutor general’s resignation, said that Kravchenko’s statement was another step in a “systematic attack on independent anti-corruption bodies”. They denied the allegations and said that Kryvonos had not been formally charged. Under Ukrainian law, Zelensky needs to submit a formal request for parliament to accept Kravchenko’s resignation. Parliament was expected to hold a vote today. – Reuters

STOCKHOLM: Sweden faced political uncertainty yesterday, after an election thriller that saw the leftwing opposition holding a slim lead with votes still left to count. Sunday’s election also served up a surprise setback to the far right Sweden Democrats, who lost ground for the first time since entering parliament 16 years ago. The leader of the left-wing opposition, Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats, and outgoing conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson have each said they want to explore coalition options to secure power. While the left-wing held a slim lead, the bloc was expected to face thorny negotiations to form a government, with the talks expected to drag for several weeks. Parliament can vote on a new prime minister on Sept 29 at the earliest. After the 2022 election, it took 37 days to form a government, much shorter than the 134 days it took to do so in 2018. Political analyst Mats Knutson at public broadcaster SVT said both blocs were likely to end up in a “stalemate that paves the way for a long and troublesome process of forming a government, which could end in a snap election”. “One or several parties may have to abandon red lines,” he said. With 95% of votes counted yesterday, the four opposition parties held a three-seat majority in the 349-seat parliament over Kristersson’s right-wing alliance. But observers warned that those results could still change, with some votes only due to be counted tomorrow. “The situation is really tight, and it’s been more and more polarised in Sweden the last years,” said 48 year-old construction worker Mikko Duvaldt. “It’s going to be a tough situation for each side to form a government.” If the left-wing majority is confirmed, Andersson, a staunch defender of Sweden’s welfare state, will attempt to form a government with the three other parties on the left: the Greens, the left and the centre. But the bloc is fractured by deep ideological differences. The centre has said it would refuse to support any government including the left, and the left has said it would not support any government of which it is not a member. Kristersson is expected to court the Centre Party, which until 2019 had been part of the right-wing

Andersson claps as voting results are announced in Stockholm. – REUTERSPIC

Sweden faces political uncertainty

o Parties explore coalition options

bloc, to try to build a majority on his side. “I will examine whether there are any possibilities within this non-socialist parliamentary majority to find some workable constellation,” Kristersson said on election night. Annika Freden, associate professor in political science at Lund University, said Kristersson could expect to get the cold shoulder from the centre. “Kristersson reaching out to the centre is expected, but the centre is opposed to entering into an alliance with the far right so nothing will come of it,” she said. She said the parties would do everything in their power to avoid a new vote. The negotiations on the left will be about “how much they can get through and will determine if and when the red lines are relaxed”. “In Sweden we have a culture of

Kristersson (right) leaving the prime minister’s official residence Sager House yesterday. – PHOTO BY CLAUDIO BRESCIANI/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFPPIC

migration and crime are now part of mainstream politics. “Migration issues were strongest in 2015-2016 and now many parties are in favour of restrictions and the Democrats haven’t succeeded in being strong on other issues,” Freden told AFP.

negotiation, and there is a strong reluctance to call a snap election.” The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party fell to 17.6% from more than 20% four years ago, relegating it to third place. Observers attributed the drop to the fact that strict policies on

Houthis target Saudi base, Iran denies involvement SANAA: Yemen’s Houthis launched a fresh barrage of missile and drone attacks on Saudi military targets yesterday, as Iran denied any involvement in the country’s revived civil war. The group, fighting the Saudi left fires burning for a “long time”. The Bab al-Mandab waterway has become essential for Saudi oil exports, with Iran continuing to block the Hormuz strait as part of the Middle East war, but the Houthis have declared a maritime blockade on Riyadh. “axis of resistance, but analysts dispute the extent to which Iran is behind the renewed fighting. “Iran does not interfere in Yemeni affairs,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters yesterday, saying the Houthis are “entirely independent actors who make their decisions based on their own interests”. bursting back into life in July. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group’s latest strikes targeted “fighter jet hangars, radars, runways, ammunition depots” at King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, in retaliation for airstrikes by Riyadh.

backed, internationally recognised government, last week seized control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The Houthis said they fired drones and missiles at the kingdom, prompting the Saudi Civil Defence to issue brief alerts in the cities of Khamis Mushait and Abha. A Khamis Mushait resident told AFP he heard “intense blasts” which

He accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out more than 300 airstrikes in the past five days. Yemeni government forces on Sunday said they had recaptured positions in the southwestern province of Taiz from Houthi fighters and carried out airstrikes, telling Saba news agency they killed at least 10 gunmen. – AFP

The renewed fighting in Yemen comes as the wider regional war remains stalemated. A proposed meeting between Gulf states and Iran over the future of Hormuz was postponed, with Tehran accusing Riyadh of using Yemen as a “pretext” to delay the talks. Tehran has long supported the Houthis, a member of its anti-Israel

The Houthi offensive has sent oil prices soaring once again, with the lengthy route through the Suez Canal and around Africa now the only secure route for Saudi oil to reach key Asian markets. Yemen’s prolonged civil war had been dormant for four years before