The Yemeni Naval Forces managed to capture an Israeli ship in the depths of the Red Sea.
Reportedly, 52 people aboard the Israeli ship, presumably a vehicle carrier, were detained, Al Mayadeen's sources added, revealing that the Yemeni Armed Forces were working on revealing their identities and nationalities.
"Await what will warm your hearts," a Yemeni military source said, confirming.
Commenting on the situation, the Yemeni Armed Forces said they would release a statement on the matter within a few hours.
"It seems that the ship captured by the Yemenis is owned by Israeli businessman Rami Ungar," Israeli media said in the wake of the incident. "The ship was carrying vehicles, as it was making its way from a port in southern Turkey to a port in Western India."
An Israeli occupation forces spokesperson described the event as "a very dangerous development."
Ansar Allah threatened and fulfilled its threats against "Israel", Israeli media said.
Earlier on Sunday, Ansar Allah spokesperson Yahya Saree said the army would target all ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or ones bearing the Israeli flag, calling on countries to withdraw their citizens operating on such ships.
مشاهد للعملية العسكرية النوعية للقوات البحرية اليمنية على السفينة الإسرائيلية والسيطرة عليها واقتيادها إلى الساحل اليمني - 19-11-2023م pic.twitter.com/xukot1li7g
A British-Muslim mother was recently banned from
traveling to Egypt with her baby daughter, over fears that her
one-year-old child might be subjected to female genital mutilation.
The
mother converted to Islam after meeting her husband, an Egyptian
national, in his native country. She planned to take her newborn baby to
the North African country to see her father and his family.
However,
UK Judge Justice Allison Russell issued a Female Genital Mutilation
Protection Order, effectively banning the mother from traveling outside
the UK with her daughter until 2032. She ordered that the child's
passport be retained by the court till then.
Russell said the father viewed FGM as part of "Egyptian culture and tradition," according to The Daily Mail. Despite
the fact that he also believes the procedure should be legalized, the
father said that he does not intend to subject his daughter to the
procedure.
"It is not intended that the girl should
not be able to see her father or members of the paternal family and the
court would encourage the father and his family to visit her in
England," Russell added.
Egypt Female Genital Mutilation Worse Than Ever Despite Ban
FGM is a criminal offense in the UK, however it is a common practice in Egypt
FGM,
which is defined as a "partial or total removal of external genitalia
or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons" by
the World Health Organization (WHO), is extremely common in Egypt. According to a 2014 survey, 92 percent of Egyptian women aged between 15 and 49 have been circumcised.
This can lead to worrisome side effects, including severe physical pain, bleeding, and the risk of wound infections.
The practice has also been revealed to cause a delay in women's sexual response cycle.
Earlier
this year, the spokesperson of Egypt's primary Forensic Medicine
Department, Dr. Hesham Abdel Hamid, revealed that 70 to 80 percent of
all Egyptian women cannot orgasm due to the practice.
Zabbaleen: Trash Town. A whole community in Egypt that lives on rubbish
Tens of thousands of people live in Zabbaleen, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, they all make a living out of recycling the entire capital city’s refuse. Their whole town is practically a giant dump and it provides them with almost everything they need: from kids’ toys to fodder for livestock. Even their pigs play an important part in recycling food waste. Most important of all though, the dump provides livelihoods for the people of Zabbaleen. Every one of the rubbish collectors plays their own part, gathering, transporting or sorting the rubbish. Collectively, everyone in the community performs a highly efficient job of recycling Cairo’s refuse. This allows the trash town to be self-sufficient and largely independent from the rest of the city. The place has its own rules, everyone is allocated their own patch of Cairo, no one would think of collecting from someone else’s area
UNICEF warns that Yemen’s children are paying the heaviest price for living life in a war zone
A child in Yemen dies every 10 minutes as
humanitarian aid funding falls short, U.N. says
AND NO ONE CARE ABOUT YEMEN
--------------
The future has never been so bleak for the children of Yemen. Images from the past few months show a country teetering on the brink of famine.
As the conflict enters its third year this week, the UN children’s agency says the youngest and most vulnerable are paying the heaviest price.
According to UNICEF’s latest estimates one child dies every 10 minutes from preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections.
Attacks on hospitals and clinics have risen by a third, leaving the health system on the verge of collapse.
While attacks on schools have more than quadrupled in the last year, forcing thousands to stay away from the classroom.
Future generations caught up in the fighting between Iranian-backed rebels and the Saudi-led coalition are at great risk, if no solution is found to the conflict
Buying a SIM card for your phone in Yemen entails giving a copy of the picture page and visa stamp of your passport to the store-owner which he presumably passes along to the appropriate authorities, and filling out an application form which must be stamped with your left thumbprint. A phone call is then made to some mysterious entity and only then do you get your cellphone number. One assumes in these disturbing times, that the Yemeni government wants to keep tabs on who’s who. (It is interesting to note which countries keep close tabs on such things. In Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria you pay cash and trundle off with the new SIM and phone number, nary a piece of paperwork in sight. In Tunisia, Libya and Yemen your passport is required and recorded. I cannot quite find the common thread there.....) The good news is that the SIM card and a charge card costs the grand total of $12. Email is also very cheap here at 50 cents an hour (100 Yemeni Riyals) for relatively fast connection, with internet cafes everywhere in the major cities.
A view of Old Sana'a from the rooftop of one of the city's many samsarahs.
Sana’a has a long history. It is said to have been founded by Shem, son of Noah. Arabs are descended from Shem, hence the term Semitic......Arabs, like their Jewish brethren, are a Semitic people - a little known fact, especially in the US where the term ‘Semitic’ has come to be associated exclusively with Jews - an absurd, but by now well-established, nonsense.
Yemenis or South Arabians, are often considered to be ‘pure’ Arabs, being descended from Qahtan, (associated with Joktan a descendant of Shem, in the book of Genesis), while ‘northern Arabians’ are descended from Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar. (Adnan, who was mentioned in an earlier post as father of north Arabians, is a descendant of Ishmael.) The term ‘Arab’ seems to have been recorded in written records for the first time in Assyrian texts dating back to 853BC. There may be frequent reference to lineage in the coming posts and this is because it is extremely important in Bedouin or 'pure' Arab culture. But as Ibn Battuta would say, "but we will talk of this later."
Like other areas of the Arabian peninsula, Christianity was well established in Yemen by the mid-4th century but the last Himyarite King, Dhu Nuwas, who ruled from 495-525AD converted to Judaism and began to persecute Christians, culminating in the massacre of the entire Christian population of Najran, now in SW Saudi Arabia. The Byzantines, both affronted and powerless, asked their fellow Christian Ethiopians to attack Yemen to protect the remnants of the Christians, which they did under the Axumite General, Abraha. He destroyed the Himyarite regime and installed himself as ruler, but the Yemenis asked the Persians for help in ousting the Ethiopians, and by 575AD they were installed as governors.
Another view of the unique and magnificent architecture of the old City of Sana'a
Judaism has lengthy roots in Yemen and although it is not known exactly when it was established, it is assumed that after the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, some Jews made their way south to Yemen. Until 1948, there was a strong Jewish community but today the numbers are reduced to only a few hundred, mainly in the north in Sa’ada. Christianity did not fare so well - one of the reasons it did not take root long enough to survive in depth the coming of Islam, was the Byzantine Church’s heavy handedness in dealing with what it considered its heretical elements, i.e. the monotheistic creed that was embraced by many of the Eastern churches. When the Muslims marched out of Arabia into neighboring lands not requiring - indeed initially not even wanting - their subjects to convert, paradoxically many elected not only to live under Muslim rule which was more benign than that of Constantinople, but to convert. (The benefit of conversion was exemption from the tax that all non-Muslims paid.)
But back to present-day Sana’a. The open-air medieval souk is the heart of old Sana’a. Now called Souk al-Milh, or Salt Souk, this name used to refer only to the segment of the souk designated for that trade - in years gone by 40 trades were conducted in the souk.
Creating some small metal part the old-fashioned way - no protective clothing in sight...
Nowadays you can still find metalworkers, jambiya makers, carpenters and potters at work in their tiny shops while in the retail section of the souk are spices, dates, tobacco, coffee, tea, perfumes, incense, silver, jambiyyas and embroidered belts, basketry, jewelry, textiles, and household items. In former times goods arrived on camelback to a samsarah or khan where they were bought from local merchants - some of those samsarahs have been converted into art galleries although a few are still used for storage.
Jambiya - the curved dagger no self-respecting Yemeni would step outside his home without.
As for the tower houses of old Sana’a, the most iconic in the country is in Wadi Dahr, Beit al-Hajjar. Located on a limestone outcrop north of the capital it was originally built in the 18th century but was renovated in the 1930s as a summer residence for Imam Yahya. It is still used by the government for official functions.
It has all the components of a traditional tower house; several storeys of gypsum-traced windows, extravagant colored glass qamariyya windows, and shubaq, the protruding encased window ledge used for keeping meat and dairy products cool in the days before refrigeration.
The most famous house in Yemen - Beit al-Hajjar in Wadi Dahr, near the capital.
I had been hospitably entertained in a tower house in the old City currently being rented by a friend - all five storeys of it. Now I was about to go off into the wilds of Yemen with Abdullah Khawlani, driver and trusted friend. It promised to be memorable... Abdullah does not speak much English, although he understands far more than he lets on, and my Arabic is execrable especially when I have to translate pages of text relating to the 14th century, text that dwells on matters most sensible people have long ago left off thinking about. Back on the trail of Ibn Battuta who landed in northern Yemen by boat, I am doing no such thing - I am traveling in a Land Cruiser from Sana’a. But first I had to visit the pharmacy - it is the rainy season, albeit the short one, and as I am going to be spending some time on the coast where the climate is noxious at the best of times and mosquitoes abound, a dose of malaria would be tiresome even if Sana’a does have some perfectly good hospitals now. In Yemen as in many Middle Eastern countries, you can buy most drugs over the counter for a fraction of the cost you pay at home, so here's to $2 Larium and hypnotic dreams......
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh looks down protectively over his flock at Bab Yemen, principal gate of the Old City.
100GB of NASA space photos turned into epic 4K time-lapse
It took over 95,600 NASA photo files taken from the International Space Station and a month of meticulous photo editing to produce this epic high-definition time-lapse video.
The compilation work turned almost 110 Gigabytes of original material into some 40 minutes of raw footage in 4K resolution. Of those Dmitry Pisanko, a Russian photo blogger, selected four minutes of highlights.
Copy of sections of the original glass plates on which Pluto was discovered. The arrows show Pluto's movement against the background stars. Clyde Tombaugh discovered the icy world by blinking the plates back and forth on a machine called a blink comparator.
The science team on the American New Horizons mission to Pluto has released two colour views of the dwarf planet and its biggest moon, Charon.
They were made by combining pictures from the probe’s high-resolution, “black and white” camera, Lorri, and its lower-resolution, colour imager known as Ralph.
The difference in hue between Pluto and Charon is clear.
But what catches the eye are four dark spots on the 2,300km-wide dwarf planet.
Each spot is about 500km across. Quite why they should be so similar in size and spacing is not clear.
Their dominant placing is on the hemisphere that New Horizons will not see during its close flyby on 14 July.
However, there should be ample opportunity to study them in the days leading up to the encounter.
“It’s a real puzzle - we don’t know what the spots are, and we can’t wait to find out,” said New Horizons principal investigator, Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute.
“Also puzzling is the longstanding and dramatic difference in the colours and appearance of Pluto compared to its darker and greyer moon Charon.”
If, as scientists think, Pluto and Charon are the products of a collision between two primitive bodies in the early Solar System, one might expect them to look more similar.
New Horizon’s flyby data will hopefully provide the answer.
The US space agency (Nasa) mission is now closing in on Pluto and its five moons.
The moment of closest approach on the 14th will take place at 11:49 GMT, when the probe is just 12,500km above the surface.
It is moving too fast - at 13.7km/s - to go into orbit, and it will simply scream past the dwarf and its satellites, gathering as much data as it can.
No pictures will be sent back to Earth on the day itself; the spacecraft will be too busy executing its pre-programmed observation campaign.
Instead, the first images from the flyby should be presented on the following day, on 15 July.
Controllers have decided not to alter the course of the probe.
They had been looking for icy debris in the vicinity of Pluto that might pose a collision hazard, but could find nothing obvious.
New Horizons was commanded to make a thruster burn earlier this week, to speed it up ever so slightly.
This will ensure the spacecraft reaches a precise point in space and time to carry out the pre-programmed observation sequence.
The probe must spin around to take pictures of all the different targets, and if its navigation is off by even a small amount it will be looking in the wrong direction at the critical moment.
On Thursday, New Horizons was just under 15 million km from Pluto, but 4.7 billion km from Earth.
The vast distance to the probe's home world means a radio signal takes about 4.5 hours from sending to receipt.
Egypt sees sandstorm and earthquake on the same day
Egypt faced treacherous weather conditions Saturday as a sandstorm blanketed the north of the country and a magnitude-5.2 earthquake centered in the Sinai peninsula shook buildings more than 200 miles away in the capital, Cairo.
The epicenter of the quake was 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) southeast of the beachside town of Nuweiba in the Sinai, and about 75 kilometers (46 miles) south of Egypt's border with Israel, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Airports near Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh, along the Mediterranean coast, closed and diverted flights to Cairo due to poor visibility from the day's sandstorm, Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamel said in a statement. Visibility reached as low as 500 meters at the Burg al-Arab airport near Alexandria, he said.
Fierce winds whipped through the capital as many residents took cover from the sand by staying indoors. Others were seen braving the storm wearing surgical masks or covering their faces with clothing, as the wind sent rubbish and dust swirling.
At its peak, the sandstorm covered the capital in a thick orange cloud, dramatically reducing visibility.
In the Red Sea town of Dahab, 68 kilometers (42 miles) south of the epicenter of the quake in the Sinai peninsula, the tremor shook loose clouds of dust that enveloped nearby mountains, according to a witness. The quake appeared to startle local residents and tourists. It also shook the nearby Gaza strip. No serious damage was immediately reported from the earthquake in Egypt or in Gaza.
The Egyptian Ministry of Health said in a statement that there were no reports of deaths or injuries anywhere in Egypt due to the quake.
Israeli media reported that very mild aftershocks of the earthquake were felt in some places in the south of the country, but that no damage or injuries were caused.
The extreme weather conditions provided fodder for social media humor. Some wondered which of the 10 Biblical plagues would come next, while the popular Zamalek football club tweeted that it wasn't actually an earthquake--just preparation for their match tonight.
For every important event in our life it is useful to plan ahead and make needed preparations so that this occasion becomes an unforgettable event. Days are passing quickly as we are fast approaching the month of Ramadan. If you ask most Muslims about last Ramadan, they would tell you it feels very close, like only a few weeks or months ago. Are you waiting for Ramadan and looking forward to its start? Are you happy that Ramadan is nearly here, or are you worried about fasting in the summer? Have you prepared yet your plan and program for the best month of the year?
A Gift From Allah
The month of Ramadan is one of those important occasions that we witness once a year. It is a gift from God. It is a golden opportunity for Muslims to get closer to God by increasing good deeds. Ramadan is the month in which Muslims observe the obligatory fast which has been prescribed by God on those who believe in Him as it was prescribed on previous nations. {O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, even as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may attain piety.} (Al-Baqarah 2: 183) The above verse explains the main purpose of fasting. It is to attain taqwa (God-consciousness) which means that every Muslim must be watchful of everything. He must watch out every word he utters and every action he does. The literal manifestation of fasting is to abstain from food, drink and intimate relations from dawn to sunset. But the real meaning of fasting goes far beyond that. It is about avoiding gossip, backbiting, evil and idle talks, arrogance, lying, breaking promises, dishonesty, severing social ties, etc. Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: "Whoever fails to leave off ruinous speech, and acting on it [during Ramadan], God does not need him to leave off eating and drinking." (Al-Bukhari) Fasting is an excellent training opportunity on self-restraint as the fast teaches patience and perseverance. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said:
The Prophet describes the month of fasting as the month of patience because fasting teaches how to control one's inner self and its desires. Every Muslim should do his best to make the coming month of Ramadan a landmark event this year. Put a target for yourself, like for example having all your sins forgiven by Allah and that you will be saved from Hellfire. Ask yourself are you pleased with what you did last Ramadan? Will this Ramadan be the same as last year? Let this Ramadan be the beginning of real change. Make this Ramadan different from previous ones. Start to practice an act of worship that you never did before, or increase the acts of worship that you used to do before. If you used to read the Quran once during the month of Ramadan, this year read it twice. If you used to do Tarawih (Night prayers) alone, this year perform it in congregation. If you did not give charity, this year make it a daily habit to give to the needy what you can afford, even if it is a small amount. If you did not observe any voluntary fasting since last Ramadan, train yourself to observe fasting during the month of Sha`ban as the Prophet used to do. I would like to also warn of negative preparations for Ramadan which some people do by storing too much food and drink, as if Ramadan is the month for eating not a month for abstaining from food and drink from dawn to sunset. Fasting was prescribed two months before the obligation to fight to gain the rights of the oppressed. Those who are able to control their inner selves and their desires become stronger in the face of those who wrong them until they get back their rights. Early Muslims used to read the Quran a lot in Sha`ban in preparation for Ramadan. They also used to give out in charity in Sha`ban to help the poor and the needy observe fasting during Ramadan. They also used to pray to God to bless the months of Rajab, Sha`ban, and Ramadan. This means that every Muslim should make du`a a strong tool in making the best of Ramadan. Du`a should be recited before Ramadan that you witness this month, during Ramadan that God will accept your du`a for yourself and for others, and after Ramadan that God will accept your fasting and reward you abundantly for it.
Suggestions and Useful Tips For Ramadan
It is said that: “Rajab is the month of planting seeds, Sha`ban is the month of watering the seeds, and Ramadan is the harvest season”. Therefore, think of what you want to harvest in Ramadan and start planting it and taking care of it in Rajab and Sha`ban. A famous du`a of Prophet Muhammad: "Oh Allah give us the blessings of the month of Rajab and Sha`ban and allow us to reach Ramadan." (Ahmad) During Sha`ban remind yourself and your family of the virtues of fasting. Have at least a weekly session with your wife/husband and kids to talk about the significance of fasting. Get a booklet on fasting and read it with your children to make them love fasting. Focus on the virtues of Ramadan, that it is the month during which the Quran was revealed and that this month has the Night of Power which is better than a thousand months. Always remember that in Ramadan rewards are multiplied, the gates of heaven are opened, the gates of hell are shut, and sins are forgiven. Be sure of God’s mercy on Muslims who observe fasting faithfully and avoid committing sins completely. To make Ramadan the best month of the year, remember the following: Strengthen your faith during this month by confirming your belief in the unity of Allah.
Have the intention of pleasing Allah with all your acts of worship. Keep away from the things that nullify your faith. Follow the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad. Feed the poor and the needy. Feel the gift of giving in Ramadan. Before going out for `Eid prayer, make sure to pay Zakat al-Fitr. Perform the daily prayers at their fixed times and in congregation as much as you can. Attend theTarawih prayers constantly and perform extra prayers. Rediscover the power of prayer in Ramadan and concentrate much while praying. Leave this worldly life behind your back once you raise your hands and sayAllahu Akbar (God is the greatest). Visit your family members and relatives. Observe i`tikaf (retreat in the mosque) during the last ten days of Ramadan, if you can. Make the Quran your companion in Ramadan and have the intention to finish reading it at least once. Have the intention to offer sincere repentance to Allah. Have the intention to refine your manners and the way you treat others. Make any dawah effort during Ramadan if you can, like distributing Ramadan-related dawah materials (CDs, booklets, videos, PDF files, etc.). If you have the financial means, make iftar for new Muslims in your community to help them integrate with their fellow Muslims. You can also invite non-Muslims to such events to get to know them and introduce Islam to them through fasting. Make iftar meals and gifts for orphans and marginalized children to make Ramadan a happy occasion for them. Prepare your du`a (supplication) list. Write down the du`a (supplication) that you want to recite throughout the month. You can ask Allah for anything and everything. Choose the proper times and occasions of offering the du`a. The best supplication is during prostration, while offering the late night prayer, in the last days of Ramadan, and during Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Power). Prioritize your list of supplications. Observe the etiquette of making supplication. Start your supplication with praising Allah and sending peace and blessings to the Prophet Muhammad. Face the qiblah (direction) and raise your hands. Be sure that Allah will never let your hands empty when you pray to Him. Do not forget the oppressed people, the people of Syria, and Muslims in Burma (Myanmar). We pray to Allah to allow us to live till next Ramadan, and make it the best Ramadan ever.
