September 16th, 20210DEARBORN — The tragic kidnapping, torture and murder in Yemen of Abdulmalek Alsanabani, a Yemeni student who resided in California, sparked outrage and protests in the U.S. and Yemen this week.
Alsanabani was a 25-year-old living in Fresno, California and had decided to take an often dangerous journey across the south of Yemen to...
July 22nd, 20210MT. ARAFAT — Thousands of face-masked Muslims gathered on Saudi Arabia's Mount Arafat on Monday, praying for an end to the pandemic and faster vaccination as the annual haj pilgrimage reached its climax.
Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, has barred worshippers from abroad for a second year running and...
July 8th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman said he held "a great meeting" on Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which they explored strengthening U.S.-Saudi ties and reviewed regional developments.
Prince Khalid, the brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto...
June 24th, 20210YEMEN — On Thursday, the U.S. called on the international community, especially regional countries, to fulfill their pledges to increase funding for humanitarian assistance to Yemen and warned that aid programs could otherwise be forced to close.
U.S. Special Envoy to Yemen Timothy Lenderking told a webinar sponsored by the...
May 29th, 20210A Danish pension fund, which prides itself on being the world's strictest on human rights violations, says it is considering adding Israel to a long list of countries it excludes following this month's conflict with Palestinians.
The $22 billion Akademiker looks after the pensions of Denmark's teachers and university lecturers and has...
May 5th, 20210RIYADH – Saudi Arabia is considering barring overseas pilgrims from the annual Hajj for the second year running as COVID-19 cases rise globally and worries grow about the emergence of new variants, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Such a move would restrict the pilgrimage to Mecca, a once in a lifetime duty...
April 28th, 20210BEIRUT — Samir Sfeir, a well-known Lebanese music composer, is believed to be detained in Saudi Arabia for unknown reasons, according to local media and international news sources.
Sfeir has sung about Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun and is said to be close to the president’s party. He is from Ajaltoun, Lebanon.
The Lebanese...
April 9th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — Metro Detroit Yemeni and other activists have been leading a hunger strike for 11 days in front of the White House, protesting the U.S.-backed Saudi blockade during an ongoing six year war in Yemen. The Yemeni Liberation Movement (YLM) is calling for the Biden-Harris administration to withdraw all material and...
April 6th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) joined Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) in leading 76 of their congressional colleagues to call for the Biden administration to publicly increase pressure on Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade on Yemen immediately, unilaterally and...
April 6th, 20210- From contributor Laura Albast
Activists from the Yemeni Liberation Movement (YLM) and other organizations held a rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. They carried banners calling for an end to the U.S.-backed Saudi blockade on the embattled country.
The five Michigan natives leading the action staged a...
April 2nd, 20210Yemen received a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines this week, after the country’s internationally recognized government declared a national health emergency.
Though the actual figures are believed to be much higher, Yemen’s emergency coronavirus committee has recorded more than 4,100 coronavirus infections and 864 deaths so far. The...
March 26th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Special Envoy Tim Lenderking was scheduled to travel to the Middle East on Thursday, to press a plan for a ceasefire in Yemen, talks on settling its civil war and an end to the humanitarian catastrophe that it has caused, the U.S. State Department announced.
Lenderking’s trip was expected to include...
March 1st, 20210SANAA — Unable to find work, Ahmed Farea has sold everything, including his wife’s gold, to feed and house two young daughters in one small room.
Elsewhere in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, widow Mona Muhammad has work, but struggles to buy anything more nutritious than rice for her four children amid high prices.
And in a nearby...
February 25th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) is joining dozens of lawmakers in urging transparency from the Biden administration regarding U.S. involvement in the Saudi/UAE-led coalition’s war in Yemen as the U.S. ends its support for "offensive" operations.
In a letter expressing their strong support for President...
February 4th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, President Biden declared a halt to U.S. support for a Saudi Arabia-led military campaign in Yemen, demanding that the more than six-year war, widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, “has to end.”
Biden also named veteran U.S. diplomat Timothy Lenderking as the U.S. special...
January 14th, 20210NEW YORK — On Thursday, three top United Nations officials all called on the United States to revoke its decision to designate Yemen’s Houthis a foreign terrorist organization, warning it would push the country into a large-scale famine and chill peace efforts.
U.N. Yemen mediator Martin Griffiths, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock and...
December 30th, 20200YEMEN - As the newly formed government arrived at Aden Airport in Yemen, several explosions went off, killing at least 22 and injuring more than 50 people.
https://youtu.be/KN2bmuo5CKQ
Above: Deadly explosions hit Yemen's Aden Airport as newly formed government arrives (viewer discretion advised)
All of the Cabinet members are safe,...
November 26th, 20200RIYADH — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman earlier this week, despite a denial of the meeting by Israeli officials.
On the discussion table was a country that has played the role of boogeyman for both Israel and its allies in the U.S. government: Iran. The two leaders talked...
June 15th, 20200NEW YORK — On Monday U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres removed a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition from a U.N. blacklist. The coalition was condemned and was on the list for several years for killing and injuring children in Yemen.
Reuters reports that Guterres wrote in his annual report to the U.N. Security Council on...
May 8th, 20202This week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, urging him to increase "diplomatic action by the United States to renew the expiring United Nations arms embargo against Iran and United Nations travel restrictions on those Iranian individuals involved...
March 19th, 20200RIYADH — On Thursday, Saudi Arabia suspended Muslims from conducting their five daily prayers and the weekly Friday prayer in the overflow area just outside the walls of the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
On Tuesday, the Kingdom said it will no longer allow Muslims to conduct prayers...
March 4th, 20200RIYADH - Saudi Arabia has extended its suspension of travel to the holy sites of Mecca and Medina from foreigners to Saudi citizens and residents, after it reported its first case of the novel coronavirus in an individual who failed to disclose he had travelled to Iran before entering the country.
“Based on the recommendations of...
February 28th, 20200DUBAI - Coronavirus cases have now been confirmed in at least nine countries in the Middle East, with the largest number of deaths in Iran, and six countries reporting first infections this past week.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the first country in the Middle East to report a confirmed case of the virus, officially known as...
January 13th, 20200WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Saudi Arabia will withdraw 21 cadets receiving military training in the United States following a U.S. investigation into a Saudi officer’s fatal shooting of three Americans at a Florida naval base that Attorney General William Barr branded an act of terrorism on Monday.
The Dec. 6 attack further complicated...
September 20th, 20190TEHRAN/RIYADH — Any U.S. or Saudi military strike against Iran would bring “all-out war”, Tehran said on Thursday, keeping up a drumbeat of warnings to its adversaries after they accused the Islamic Republic of a strike on Saudi oil facilities.
The United States has been discussing with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies’...
August 26th, 20190VALETTA, MALTA — The number of Saudi Arabian nationals applying for asylum in the European Union has increased by 106 percent in the first six months of 2019 alone, according to official figures released last week by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).
The latest data shows that 101 Saudis applied for asylum in the EU during...
May 31st, 20190MECCA — Saudi Arabia’s king told an emergency Arab summit on Thursday that decisive action was needed to stop Iranian “escalations” in the region following attacks on Gulf oil assets, as American officials said a U.S. military deployment had deterred Tehran.
King Salman had opened an earlier meeting of Arab Gulf leaders with a...
May 24th, 20190DUBAI — On Thursday, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement launched a drone attack on a Patriot missile battery in the airport of the Saudi city of Najran near the Yemeni border, the group’s Al-Masirah TV said on Thursday.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said the drone was intercepted and destroyed by the...