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CAIRO: A Netherlands-flagged general cargo ship was struck by an unknown projectile on Monday about 120 nautical miles southeast of Yemen’s port city of Aden, according to maritime security firms.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said military authorities reported the incident, without giving details on the source of the attack.
Private maritime security company Ambrey confirmed the vessel had come under attack in the same area.
LONDON: New Zealand’s failure to recognize Palestinian statehood has been met with criticism across the country from politicians and activists.
The government was expected to recognize Palestine in line with the likes of the UK, Canada and Australia at the UN General Assembly in New York. However, Foreign Minister Winston Peters did not take that step in his address on Saturday.
“With a war raging, Hamas remaining the de facto government of Gaza and no clarity on next steps, too many questions remain about the future state of Palestine for it to be prudent for New Zealand to announce recognition at this time,” he said.
It came as a surprise to many after Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s previous assertion that recognition by New Zealand was a matter of “when, not if.”
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark criticized the decision not to recognize Palestine, saying it places New Zealand “very much on the wrong side of history.”
She told broadcaster RNZ: “As more and more countries move to see that the recognition of Palestine is part of a process of moving towards a solution, New Zealand is lagging behind for reasons which make very little sense at all.”
Elsewhere, members of Protestant and Roman Catholic clergies chained themselves to the immigration minister’s office in protest.
Earlier this month, thousands took to the streets of Auckland to demand that the coalition government recognize Palestinian statehood.
The Justice for Palestine human rights group said the inaction shows that New Zealand is “a country confused about its position in the world.”
The Green Party called the government’s position “a stain.”
Labour foreign affairs spokesperson Peeni Henare said: “Recognition of Palestine and sanctions on Israel send a clear message to Israel and the world: New Zealand will not stand by while Israel disregards human life and dignity, and international law.”
He added: “Luxon had a chance to stand up for what is right, but he failed.”
Palestine has now been recognized by 157 of the 193 UN member states.
DEARBORN: A former contractor for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Sunday said it was established by Israel to “weaponize food distribution” to force Palestinians to leave the enclave.
Anthony Aguilar, a decorated former US Army Green Beret, quit the GHF after seeing how the system was being used to kill Palestinians, not feed them.
He told the annual convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, Michigan, that Israel uses a notorious Islamophobic American biker gang, the Infidels Motorcycle Club, consisting of former military veterans as security to achieve its goals.
Aguilar was a panelist alongside Hani Almadhoun, senior director of philanthropy for the UN Relief and Works Agency, who detailed how Israeli soldiers targeted and murdered more than 200 members of his family in Gaza. Mara Kronenfeld, UNRWA executive director, was the moderator.
The GHF operates like the mafia, Aguilar said, “but the mafia at least has principles. They don't kill children.”
He added: “The security apparatus in Gaza is under the authority and leadership of the national president of the Infidels Motorcycle Club.
“These are individuals that brandish Crusader tattoos on their bodies, 1095 on their bodies for the First Crusade … They see their presence there as a modern-day crusade. They call it a pilgrimage.”
The GHF “wasn’t created to provide humanitarian aid,” Aguilar said. “It was created so that the Israeli government can control it to implement genocide under the banner of the US.”
The Infidels Motorcycle Club, he added, “are individuals who’ve been fully armed with automatic weapons and machine guns and tear gas and stun grenades, who go into Gaza to supposedly deliver food, but who have a charter … based on fighting jihad and eliminating all Muslims from the earth. That’s their charter. That’s why they exist as an organization.”
Aguilar said what he saw during the three months he was a contractor for the GHF was “simply indescribable” and “left me speechless.”
He added: “In and around and outside these (distribution) sites, thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). And those that aren’t picked up, or those that aren’t taken to hospital, or those that don’t survive, whose bodies are left outside of these sites, are buried by bulldozers that come in afterward.
“The US has a direct hand in that. That’s the ugly truth that the GHF and the Israeli government will try to hide because it is so abhorrent.”
Aguilar said: “What’s happening in Gaza isn’t war. It’s annihilation, it’s oppression and it’s tyranny.” The “genocide,” he added, “is being conducted through the weaponization of food, denying human beings water, forced displacement, intentional targeting and indiscriminate killing. Palestinians aren’t dying, they’re being killed. It’s by design. Israel is intent on doing this.”
Almadhoun said he tries to overcome his grief by overseeing the Gaza Soup Kitchen, which brings food to homeless civilians.
He said he saw young children approach GHF sites seeking food only to be shot and killed by Israeli soldiers.
Kronenfeld said UNRWA was running 400 sites in Gaza that, in addition to distributing food to the needy, also provided medical and educational support to civilians. Those sites were closed and replaced by five GHF sites.
“UNRWA has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of aid, enough to feed a million people right now, just feet beyond the border. That’s not been allowed in,” she said, adding that the agency has become the primary source of medical care since Israel destroyed Gaza’s hospitals. More than 2,200 people have been killed at the five GHF sites, she said.
The final day of the ADC convention, attended by Arab News, also featured panels on how independent voices are reporting news on Gaza that is being blocked by Israel, and the challenges of humanizing Palestinians.
Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian writer, poet, scholar and librarian from Gaza, also discussed his new book of poetry “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear,” which won the Palestine Book Award and the American Book Award. It is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Walcott Prize for Poetry.
CAIRO: Sudan issued what it described as a “red alert” warning of potential floods in five provinces along the Nile River, citing rising water levels in its two main tributaries, the Blue and White Nile.
The Sudanese irrigation ministry issued the alert Sunday and it remained in effect Monday. The ministry urged residents in Khartoum, River Nile, White Nile, Sennar, and Blue Nile provinces to practice caution as floods may affect agricultural lands and houses.
Some farmers in the River Nile province were forced to quickly sell their onion crops as flooding was reported in lowland areas, which would affect farming, Shendi Now, a Facebook site, reported recently.
The Sudanese irrigation ministry warned Sunday that water flow has been high for four consecutive days as dams in the area discharged excess water. The water levels were expected to decrease throughout the week.
The situation is the result of a man-made error, said Abbas Sharaky, a Professor of Geology and Water Resources at Cairo University.
Ethiopia earlier this month inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa’s largest dam, to boost the economy. The nearly $5 billion dam, located on the Blue Nile tributary of the Nile River near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, will produce more than 5,000 megawatts and is expected to double Ethiopia’s electricity generation capacity, according to officials.
Although Sudan benefits from the dam’s water flow during the agricultural season, “the current situation is causing more harm than good because harvest season almost ended,” Sharaky said. He added that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, also known as the GERD, wasn’t emptied gradually as it stored water during Ethiopia’s rainy season between June and August, which also burdens the dam.
Four turbines that were supposed to help reduce the dam’s reservoir failed to operate, preventing Ethiopia from releasing excess water, which led to excessive water flow into Sudan this week, Sharaky said.
“Ethiopia was stubborn and has repeatedly said that the dam’s turbines are working, but seeing the stored water not decreasing says otherwise,” Sharaky said.
Egypt says Ethiopia has consistently lacked the political will to reach a binding agreement on the dam, undermining the Nile River water rights of Egypt and Sudan.
Ethiopian Water Minister Habtamu Itefa Geleta said during the inauguration of the GERD that flooding had been reduced in Sudan as a result of the dam storing water during the rainy season.
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi man has been sentenced to life in prison for human trafficking after he recruited Iraqis to fight for Russia against Ukraine, court officials said Monday.
The Najaf Criminal Court said in a statement that the convicted man had “formed groups and sent them to fight in foreign countries in exchange for financial compensation” and that the verdict was issued based on Iraq’s anti-human trafficking law.
Iraqi judicial official and a senior security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said the man, who they identified as Risan Falah Kamel, was convicted of recruiting fighters and sending them to fight on the Russian side.
Foreign fighters have joined both sides in the war that began with Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Earlier this year, Ukrainian officials said that significant numbers of Chinese nationals were fighting for Russia’s invading army and that they had gathered detailed intelligence on more than 150 mercenaries Moscow allegedly recruited through social media. China denied the allegations.
American and South Korean officials also say that North Korea has sent thousands of troops and ammunition to help Russia on the battlefield.
Ukraine officials said early on in the war that over 20,000 people from 52 countries had come to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia’s aggression. Ever since, the numbers of foreign fighters in the ranks of the Ukrainian military have been classified.
Last year, Russia military captured a British national fighting with Ukrainian troops who had occupied part of Russia’s Kursk region.
DUBAI: When Wali Khan, a Dubai-based investment banker, visited his doctor seeking stress-relieving medication to cope with a difficult period in his fast-paced life, little did he know he was a few beats away from a full-blown heart attack.
At 40, Khan was mindful of his family’s long history of heart disease and believed he lived a healthier lifestyle than his father, who had suffered his first heart attack at 47. After a routine visit to the hospital for sudden shortness of breath — assumed to be anxiety-related — he discovered he was otherwise asymptomatic.
“(Despite this) my doctor, aware of my family history, insisted on a coronary angiogram,” the Pakistani-Brit told Arab News. The test revealed two blockages that required immediate stenting — a procedure in which a small, expandable tube is inserted into narrowed coronary arteries to keep them open and restore blood flow, preventing a heart attack.
The diagnosis changed his life.
Since undergoing the procedure in 2014, he has quit smoking, made exercise and sleep a priority, and walks an hour most evenings.
“Walking worked better than any medication for stress,” said the father of two, adding that he still visits his cardiologist every three months and continues to take prescribed medication.
“I was trying to find alternative ways of managing stress, but on the way, I discovered that I was living the lifestyle I was supposed to be living,” Khan told Arab News.
Khan, now 52, has since had two more stents — in 2015 and 2022 — but acknowledges that a persistent doctor and immediate access to private healthcare saved his life.
“If I had been in a slower healthcare system, I might have been sent home with a stress diagnosis. It would have been a very different outcome,” he said.
Many people around the world, however, are not as fortunate.
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death globally, claiming far more lives each year than wars.
An estimated 19.8 million people died from CVDs in 2022, making up roughly 32 percent of global deaths, with 85 percent caused by heart attack and stroke.
Over three-quarters of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries.
In the Middle East, Egypt recorded the highest number of cardiovascular deaths in 2021 with 275,665 — accounting for nearly 40 percent of all fatalities in the country — followed by Turkiye (205,740), Iran (169,582), Iraq (87,555), and Yemen (59,153).
Despite this staggering scale, action remains low.
On Sept. 29, the World Heart Federation marks the 25th anniversary of World Heart Day with a campaign to raise people’s awareness of healthy living, while urging governments worldwide to take action by improving access to treatment for high blood pressure and reducing heart health inequalities.
Currently, only 16 the 193 member states of the WHO have developed national strategies or action plans dedicated to heart health, most in Europe and the western Pacific, according to a WHF report.
Dr. Taskeen Khan, a member of the WHF advocacy committee (and no relation to Wali Khan), said the Arab world is facing a rapid epidemiological transition driven by urbanization, changing diets high in salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats, as well as sedentary lifestyles. This creates a high burden of risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, and obesity, which are the primary drivers of CVD.
While individual responsibility plays a role in maintaining health, she said the high death toll also reflects broader policy shortcomings.
“Health systems in the region struggle with treatment access and the data needed to ensure patients are being diagnosed, treated and controlled effectively,” Khan, former technical officer for CVD management portfolio at WHO, told Arab News.
She noted that social determinants, including income, education, and marketing of unhealthy products, also create an environment in which these risk factors thrive.
The disparity between Arab countries is driven by the pace of economic development and subsequent policy response.
“Some countries have been leaders in enacting taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and tobacco, or mandatory limits on salt and trans fats in food. Others lag behind.”
She pointed to successful examples the region can build on: salt-reduction initiatives in Jordan and Egypt; higher tobacco taxes across parts of the GCC; and growing adoption of WHO’s Hearts package to standardize hypertension treatment.
Conflict and instability can also reverse years of progress. Khan said that war and displacement cost patients access to CVD medicines and regular checkups, especially as the focus shifts to emergency response and infectious diseases.
“The result is a silent crisis within a crisis: People survive a conflict only to succumb to a preventable heart disease because the system to manage their condition no longer exists,” she said.
Another worrying trend is the rise of CVD risk in younger people. Childhood and adolescent obesity, pre-diabetes, early hypertension, and high rates of smoking and vaping are fueled by aggressive marketing of unhealthy products and digital lifestyles that reduce physical activity.
For all these factors, Khan said that an effective strategy must be multi-faceted: implementing strong policies to create healthier environments, strengthening primary healthcare systems, and advocating for broader cross-sectoral actions that address the root causes.
WHO guidance underscores those priorities. As part of scaling up action, WHO launched the Global Hearts Initiative to standardize primary-care approaches to hypertension and CVD risk, especially in low and middle-income settings.
The World Heart Federation reported that 80 percent of CVD deaths are preventable. If the world increased effective treatment of high blood pressure from one in five today to one in two, it could prevent 130 million premature deaths.
“Avoidance requires proactive, evidence-based policymaking. It is not inevitable,” Khan said. “Countries can leapfrog by implementing the WHO ‘best buys’ — cost-effective steps like salt reduction and tobacco control — before the burden becomes unmanageable.”
She said that without supportive national policies, clinical interventions have limited reach.
These could include taxes on tobacco, sugar and unhealthy foods; mandatory reformulation to cut salt, sugar and trans fats; clear front-of-pack warning labels; and comprehensive bans on smoking in public places.
Policy matters, but individuals still have agency, she added.
This year’s WHF campaign invites people to undertake some activity for at least 25 minutes daily for 25 days in September, share survivor stories, and sign a global petition urging governments to expand access to lifesaving treatment.
The federation highlights that 30 minutes of daily movement could help tackle up to 80 percent of cases — even as one in three adults, and eight in 10 young people, are not active enough.
“Get your blood pressure and blood sugar checked regularly. Reduce salt intake by cooking more at home and avoiding processed foods. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, as simple as a brisk walk, most days. Don’t smoke, and if you do, seek help to quit. And take your medication as prescribed,” Khan said.
Meanwhile, Wali Khan said that lifestyle changes, particularly adopting effective stress management techniques, can be a game-changer.
“Originally, when you are diagnosed with advanced heart disease at 40, it is depressing. You wonder if you will see 60 or 70,” he said. “But once you start making changes — exercising, walking, sleeping better, being surrounded by a positive and healthy community — you feel better.”
He urged people, particularly those with a family history of cardiovascular issues, to undergo regular checkups before symptoms appear.
“If I could go back in time, I would have adopted a healthier diet in line with WHO guidelines much earlier, and not stressed over the little things in life.”
