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U.S. Navy warship responds to Red Sea attacks on commercial ships claimed by Houthi rebels AxiosView Full Coverage on Google News
PADANG, Indonesia -- Indonesia’s Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province erupted Sunday, spewing white-and-gray ash plumes more than 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) into the air and sending hot ash clouds several miles away.
There were no immediate report of casualties, said Ahmad Rifandi, an official with Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center at the Marapi monitoring post. The two routes for climbers were closed after the eruption and villagers living on the slopes of the mountain were advised to stay 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the crater’s mouth because of potential lava.
About 70 climbers started their way up the nearly 2,900-meter (9,480-foot) mountain on Saturday and became stranded. So far, 28 have been successfully evacuated with the rest still awaiting rescue, said Dian Indriati, the acting head of North Sumatra’s conservation agency.
A video on social media shows the climbers were evacuated to a shelter, their faces and hair smeared with volcanic dust and rain.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said several villages were blanketed with falling ash, blocking out the sun in many areas. Authorities distributed masks and urged residents to wear eyeglasses to protect them from volcanic ash, he said.
About 1,400 people live on Marapi's slopes in Rubai and Gobah Cumantiang, the nearest villages about 5 to 6 kilometers (3.1 to 3.7 miles) from the peak.
Marapi's alert level was maintained at the third-highest of four levels, Abdul Muhari said, and confirmed that authorities had been closely monitoring the volcano after sensors picked up increasing activity in recent weeks.
Marapi has been active since January when it also erupted without causing casualties. It is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
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Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
RIYADH, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Britain's Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) on Sunday said that it has received reports of a drone attack in the Red Sea's Bab al-Mandab strait.
UKMTO had earlier reported drone activity that originated from Yemen, as well as a possible explosion, and called on vessels in the vicinity to exercise caution.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports.
The reported incident follows a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since war broke out between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7.
An Israeli-linked cargo ship was seized last month by the Houthi group, an ally of Iran. The group, which controls most of Yemen's Red Sea coast, had previously fired ballistic missiles and armed drones at Israel and vowed to target more Israeli vessels.
There was no immediate comment from the Houthis on Sunday.
Last week a U.S. Navy warship responded to a distress call from an Israeli-managed commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden after it had been seized by armed individuals.
Reporting by Ahmed Elimam Writing by Aziz El Yaakoubi Editing by David Goodman and Bernadette Baum
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A SpaceX rocket has launched South Korea’s first military spy satellite, intensifying a space race on the peninsula after Pyongyang launched its own first surveillance satellite last week.
Seoul’s reconnaissance satellite, carried by one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, lifted off from the Vandenberg US Space Force Base in California at 10.19am local time on Friday.
The rocket was emblazoned with the word “KOREA” across it.
The Yohnap news agency reported that the satellite successfully reached orbit soon after.
“The Falcon 9 lifted off at 10.19am and sent the reconnaissance satellite into orbit approximately four minutes after the launch,” Yonhap said, citing South Korea’s defence ministry.
Reaching orbit would mean that South Korea has acquired its first domestically built spy satellite to monitor nuclear-armed North Korea.
Seoul plans to launch four additional spy satellites by the end of 2025 to bolster its reconnaissance capacity over the North.
Set to orbit between 400km and 600km above Earth, Seoul’s satellite is capable of detecting an object as small as 30cm, according to Yonhap.
“Considering resolution and its capacity for Earth observation … our satellite technology ranks in the top five globally,” the defence ministry official said, as quoted by Yonhap.
The launch comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang successfully put its own spy satellite into orbit.
“Until now, South Korea has relied heavily on US-run spy satellites” when it came to monitoring the North, said Choi Gi-il, professor of military studies at Sangji University.
While the South had “succeeded in the launch of a military communications satellite, it has taken much longer for a reconnaissance satellite due to higher technological hurdles”, he said.
After the North’s successful launch of its own spy satellite, Choi said, “the South Korean government needs to demonstrate it can also pull this off”.
Experts have said putting a working reconnaissance satellite into orbit would improve North Korea’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly over South Korea, and provide crucial data in any military conflict.
Since last week’s launch, the North has claimed its new eye in the sky has already provided images of major US and South Korean military sites – as well as photos of the Italian capital, Rome.
It has not yet disclosed any of the satellite imagery it claims to possess.
The North’s launch of “Malligyong-1” was Pyongyang’s third attempt at putting such a satellite in orbit, after two failures in May and August.
Seoul has said the North received technical help from Moscow, in return for supplying weapons for use in Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Sigal Manzuri, whose daughters Norelle and Roya were killed in the Hamas-led attack on the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, embraces one of their friends. Surrounding them are photos of people killed and taken hostage by Hamas militants, displayed at the site as DJs spin music to commemorate victims, near Kibbutz Re'im, Tuesday. Maya Levin for NPR
RE'IM, Israel — In a small clearing in a eucalyptus forest, a lone DJ on a stage blasts out pulsing electronic music that punctuates the otherwise quiet landscape.
There are no concertgoers. His crowd is a sea of poster-board faces atop poles. These are the faces of the 364 young people killed by Hamas-led militants last month in an attack on a rave party in Israel's Negev Desert. There are also pictures of dozens of people Hamas seized as hostages that same day.
The memorial event took place Tuesday at the exact spot of the Nova festival massacre, to commemorate those whose lives were cut short and upended on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took more than 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
"It's just our small way to tell the world what happened here," says Ilana Frenkel, one of the event's organizers. "The size of the horror is more than anyone can imagine. This is the beginning of explaining how horrible it was."
Asher Swissa, AKA DJ Skazi, performed at the commemoration event. Maya Levin for NPR
Armed Israeli soldiers mill about. The scores of charred cars that were set afire during the attack have all been hauled away, and the burnt road is being repaved. But there are still a few mangled beach chairs and broken coolers lying in the surrounding fields and eucalyptus forest.
The memorial event, held a couple of miles from the Gaza Strip, was hastily put together as the Israeli army only gave clearance a few days earlier. Five well-known Israeli DJs played music throughout the day, while pictures of the Oct. 7 attack victims were projected on screens.
Asher Swissa, whose DJ name is Skazi, opened the event.
"This was not only a massacre of people," he says. "It was a massacre of music, of freedom, of something much more bigger than us."
Swissa, a trance producer with a global following, was out of the country on Oct. 7. But he says it was extremely important to be here now for the memorial.
A DJ plays music among hundreds of photos showing people taken captive or killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. Maya Levin for NPR
"I'd say I played many festivals in my life — including internationally. I've been all over the world. But I never felt what I feel here in this moment. I feel sadness," he says. "Deep sadness."
Swissa says Israel is known the world over for its rave events and what's called psytrance, or psychedelic trance, music. The Nova rave party is held every year in different venues around Israel.
Swissa hadn't been sure how he would open the tribute, but says he knew as soon as he got here.
"Im Nin'alu" is one of his most famous mixes that he recorded with artist Mor Avrahami.
Based on a Hebrew poem written by a 17th century Yemeni rabbi, Swissa says the song was fitting for a place where so many people were killed.
The memorial rave lasted throughout the day, giving anyone who wished the opportunity to come.
"This is holy ground for us, and we came back to close the circle," says Bar Markos, 31, who managed to escape the Re'im attack with his twin brother. Maya Levin for NPR
Thirty-one-year-old Bar Markos showed up with his twin brother, Dor. They were among the ravers who escaped on Oct. 7.
"This is holy ground for us," Bar Markos says. "We came back to close the circle."
Markos says Hamas blocked the the road out on the day of the attack. The brothers escaped in their car on other dirt roads, and planned to leave the memorial the same way, to get some closure.
He says this is the first time he's listened to music since the attack.
The photos of people taken captive on display to commemorate the Oct. 7 massacre, near Kibbutz Re'im, Tuesday. Maya Levin for NPR
"And this is the first time I've been able to cry," he says. "The music is bringing it out."
Joss Aviv, 24, another of the event's organizers, says from now on, there will always be the Israel that existed before Oct. 7 and the Israel after.
Yarden Guez, 23, looks at photos of people taken captive and killed by Hamas militants at the Nova music festival in southern Israel. Maya Levin for NPR
"This impacts everything," he says, "your trust, and your sense of security. This is the 9/11 of Israel. Everything is compromised. So we're in that shock and revival stage. We're not anywhere near drawing the conclusion or what are the next steps. But when we reach that point, we're going to have a lot to talk about. This impacts everything."
Twenty-three-year-old Yarden Guez is here because she lost many friends at the rave concert. She says the Oct. 7 attack has changed the way she thinks about living together with the Palestinians.
"I used to be very hopeful about what could happen," she says. "I used to think about the future and how we could explain to them that we're trying to fight Hamas, but not them."
But she now believes that's impossible.
As for Markos, his wish is that Israel's close-knit rave community can start dancing together again.
A year before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, a document detailing plans to carry out the assault circulated among Israeli officials, according to the New York Times.
While the approximately 40-page document reviewed by the Times did not mark a specific attack date, methods of the assault aimed at overwhelming Israeli defenses around the Gaza Strip and plans to storm key military bases and cities were reportedly outlined. The document had been code-named “Jericho Wall” by Israeli authorities, and laid out a plan for an onslaught of rockets, drones intended to incapacitate security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to enter Israel via paragliders, motorcylces, and on foot, per the report.
Leaders initially brushed off the attack plans as too complex for Hamas to execute, the Times reported. On Oct. 7, these series of assaults in Israel were carried out and led to the death of 1,200 people and the abduction of 200 hostages.
According to the Times, three months before the attack, a veteran analyst with Israel’s signals intelligence agency warned that Hamas had undergone a training exercise similar to what was detailed in the blueprint. However, according to emails viewed by the publication, her concerns were dismissed by a colonel in the Gaza division.
“I utterly refute that the scenario is imaginary,” the analyst wrote in an email. “It is a plan designed to start a war,” she added. “It’s not just a raid on a village.”
Israel’s Channel 12 on Monday previously reported on the leaked emails from Israeli military’s 8200 cyber-intelligence unit, per The Guardian, which said the source of the warning was a non-commissioned officer (NCO).
In defense of her findings, the NCO said, “They are training, in large forces, for a big event. This is not a parade of power, this is preparation for the real thing.”
Days after the attack in October, Israeli officials told Axios that the night before the assault, Israeli intelligence saw signs of irregular activity among Hamas operatives in Gaza. Although high-level consultations took place that day before, Israeli leaders decided to wait for more intelligence before putting IDF forces around Gaza on high alert, according to Axios. Hamas attacked several hours later.
In their separate report, the Times said that officials privately admitted that had the military considered these warnings seriously and taken steps to fortify the south, Israel could have mitigated or even prevented Hamas’ deadly attack.
The pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas is over, the Israel Defense Forces said a few minutes after 7 a.m. Friday local time, when the pause was due to end. Israel’s military said Hamas had “violated the operational pause and, in addition, fired toward Israeli territory.” The Washington Post could not immediately verify that claim. Hamas said in a subsequent statement that Israel had resumed operations in Gaza. Sirens were ringing in Israeli communities near the Gaza border as Israeli warplanes resumed strikes in Gaza, according to the IDF. The day before, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel had agreed to U.S. demands that it must minimize civilian deaths in Gaza once fighting resumes. On Thursday, eight more hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners were freed.
By David Gritten BBC News Reuters Qatar's foreign ministry said the Israeli prime minister's reported remarks were ...
