| | | | | | | Hello. Today we're taking a closer look at Yemen after the US and the UK struck Houthi targets overnight. My colleagues cover the latest developments, but our explainers will also help you understand the bigger picture in the Middle East. I also have reports on Ecuador, India, Cape Verde, and a rowing boat from hell. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | US and UK launch airstrikes on Yemen |  | | Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said five members of the group had been killed. Credit: EPA |
| | The Middle East is entering a period of greater uncertainty after the US and the UK launched military strikes on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen. More than 60 targets in 16 locations have been hit, according to the US Air Force. The coalition, backed by the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Bahrain, is looking to weaken the Iran-backed group, which has been attacking commercial vessels on the Red Sea since the start of the war in Gaza, in support of its Hamas allies. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the strikes as "limited, necessary and proportionate". But it seems unlikely they will dissuade the Houthis from further attacks on global shipping, says our security correspondent Frank Gardner. The Houthis withstood years of Saudi bombing after the group’s illegal takeover of much of Yemen almost a decade ago. Now the region awaits the Houthis' response. Their deputy foreign minister Hussein al-Izzi said the US and UK would "pay a heavy price" for this "blatant aggression". | | | | |
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| | | | | | World headlines | | • | Israel-Gaza war: The families of the two Palestinian journalists killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza have rejected as "fabricated" and "false" a new claim from Israel's military that they were "terrorists". | | • | In Ukraine: MPs have refused to consider a conscription bill that proposed a crackdown on draft dodgers, calling some punishment measures unconstitutional. | | • | Post Office scandal: The BBC reveals that the Post Office threatened and lied to its reporters in 2015, in a failed effort to suppress key evidence that helped clear postmasters in the Horizon scandal. | | • | Good news: Cape Verde has been declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization, making it the first sub-Saharan African country to be free of the disease in 50 years. | | • | Streaming controversy: An Indian film criticised for "hurting Hindu religious sentiments" has been removed from Netflix, days after it began streaming. Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food features a woman from the Brahmin caste eating meat against her family's religious beliefs. |
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| AT THE SCENE |  Guayaquil, Ecuador | | Returning to normal after gang violence | | The spectre of the drug-gang violence remains in Ecuador's biggest city, after armed men stormed the streets and went as far as attacking a TV studio and its staff live on air. Dozens of prison guards are still hostages. |  | | Will Grant, Central America correspondent |
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| | Dina Moreno can't afford to stay home any longer. She sells mobile phone accessories at Guayaquil's biggest covered market and, like many of her fellow stallholders, has ventured out to open her business and get back to work. "I've never seen anything like it," she recalls with a shudder. "When we saw what was happening at the TV station and we heard gunshots, everyone went crazy and started shutting up their shops and trying to get home." |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | Why English divides India's Silicon Valley |  | | Karnataka Rakshana Vedike activists recently damaged several billboards in Bengaluru. Credit: PTI |
| | India is home to more than 300 languages. But English is getting more prominence as a lingua franca in places such as Bengaluru, where people come from all over the country to work in the IT industry. Now, linguistic tensions have risen in such a way that local nationalist activists, who defend the use of Kannada language, are taking down signs and billboards in English. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Strange bedfellows | | Sharing a bed did not always have the same connotations that it does today. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | So, you're halfway across the Atlantic Ocean in a rowing boat when a huge marlin skewers your hull... what's your next move? Well, you plug the hole with a champagne bottle, obviously. It might sound implausible but that's how one team taking part in a competition called The World's Toughest Row say they handled the situation. And they have the pictures to illustrate their "terrifying" tale. |
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– Jules |
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