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US President Donald Trump’s decision to re-designate Yemen’s Huthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organisation could have deep implications for aid and the peace process in the war-shattered country.The Iran-backed Huthis, who control much of Yemen, have fired on Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, prompting reprisal strikes from US, Israeli and British forces. Already the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country before the war broke out a decade ago, Yemen is now suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with about two-thirds of its 34 million people in need of aid.Former US president Joe Biden removed the Huthis from the foreign terrorist list after humanitarian groups protested that they could not get aid to Yemen’s needy without dealing with the rebels.Meanwhile, fighting has largely stopped since the United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 2022, but the peace process has stalled and risks disintegrating if tensions rise. AFP examines the US designation and its potential consequences. – What does the new designation mean? -Trump intends to return the Huthis to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), where he placed them during his first term. A year ago under Biden, they were placed on the less-severe list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) groups, which still had the effect of freezing their assets and cutting off sources of financing.The re-designation could take several weeks. Presuming it is successful, anyone who engages or works with the Huthis, whose territory is home to most of Yemen’s population, will risk being prosecuted by the United States. “Unlike SDGT, FTO restrictions encompass even indirect forms of contact or meetings with the group, which may be penalised if deemed supportive,” said Mohammed Al-Basha of the Basha Report, a US-based risk advisory. “This expanded and more punitive framework not only cuts off financial lifelines but also significantly undermines the group’s operational capabilities, international mobility, and legitimacy.”According to Elisabeth Kendall, director of Girton College at the University of Cambridge, Trump intends to adopt a “zero-tolerance policy regarding Huthi aggression, irrespective of the potential repercussions for civilians”.”The debate is not about whether the FTO designation is merited. Most Western analysts agree that it is,” Kendall told AFP.”The debate is about whether it will pressure the Huthis and ultimately help halt their attacks. This is less clear.”- How will it affect Yemen’s people? -Although Biden’s downgrade in the Huthis’ terror rating followed an outcry from aid agencies, humanitarian groups have so far remained quiet about Trump’s order. It is nonetheless likely that projects receiving US aid will be scaled down or suspended.Abdulghani al-Iryani, a researcher at the Sanaa Center For Strategic Studies, an independent think-tank, said: “It will cause immense difficulties in providing humanitarian assistance.”The punishment is not going to be just on areas that the Huthis control, while they are of course the majority of the Yemeni population, but it will even affect the others who are under government control.”Iryani said Sanaa’s banks would go bust, harming depositors all over the country, and that Yemen’s wheat suppliers were likely to suspend their contracts, as they did the first time the Huthis were placed on the FTO list.”It’s just a mess,” he said. “Maybe in the long term, this will break the backbone of the Huthis, but I think famine will set in well before the Huthis’ backbone is broken.” – What about the peace process? -The Huthis have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition that backs the ousted government, in a war that has been mainly on hold since the 2022 ceasefire. But after the warring parties committed to a peace process in December 2023, momentum has stalled, with the Huthis raising tensions by attacking Israel and harassing the Red Sea shipping corridor during the Gaza war.Iryani said the new designation “kills any prospect” of peace talks, adding that previously, “at least, there was the chance of starting again with a proper structure for negotiations. But now, we can’t even talk to them.” Basha concurred that the redesignation raises the risk of conflict reigniting in Yemen.”The Huthis are likely to interpret the FTO designation as a declaration of war, potentially resuming maritime attacks on US commercial and naval assets by March,” he said.”Should a US Navy warship be struck and sailors harmed, the situation could escalate rapidly, leading to a protracted conflict.”But Ibrahim Jalal, a non-resident scholar at the  Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, said the FTO listing could point to a new direction for Yemen.”If the decision… is part of a comprehensive strategy, the Yemeni government and its partners must seize the historic opportunity to impose a national project that strengthens the pillars of peace and stability,” he posted on X.

Residents of the Afghan capital have complained of rising food prices as the local currency lost value against the US dollar in recent days. The currency fell to around 80 Afghanis to the dollar on Monday after hovering around 70 in recent weeks.Kabul residents have reported rising prices of basic goods and are concerned they will …

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The tech-rich Nasdaq tumbled early Monday as traders around Wall Street and other global bourses reacted to the emergence of a low-cost Chinese generative AI venture that has apparently overtaken US companies.DeepSeek, which was developed by a start-up based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, has shown the ability to match the capacity of …

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Masses of displaced Palestinians began streaming towards the north of the war-battered Gaza Strip on Monday after Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal for the release of another six hostages.Also on Monday, the Israeli government said eight of the hostages held in Gaza who were due for release in the first phase of the truce are dead.The fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas is intended to bring an end to the more than 15-month war that began with the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.Israel had been preventing Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the terms of the truce, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late Sunday they would be allowed to pass after a new agreement was reached.Hamas had said blocking the returns amounted to a truce violation.Crowds began making their way north along a coastal road on foot Monday morning, carrying what belongings they could, AFPTV images showed.”This is the happiest day of my life,” said Lamees al-Iwady, a 22-year-old who returned to Gaza City on Monday after being displaced several times.”I feel as though my soul and life have returned to me,” she said. “We will rebuild our homes, even if it’s with mud and sand.”A Gaza security official told AFP that “more than 200,000 displaced people have returned to Gaza and North Gaza” in the first two hours of the day.With the joy of return came the shock of the extent of the destruction wrought by more than a year of war.According to the Hamas-run government media office, 135,000 tents and caravans are needed in Gaza City and the north to shelter returning families.Still, Hamas called the return “a victory” for Palestinians that “signals the failure and defeat of the plans for occupation and displacement”.The comments came after US President Donald Trump floated an idea to “clean out” Gaza and resettle Palestinians in Jordan and Egypt, drawing condemnation from regional leaders.President Mahmud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, issued a “strong rejection and condemnation of any projects” aimed at displacing Palestinians from Gaza, his office said.- Jordan, Egypt reject displacement -For Palestinians, any attempt to move them from Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.”We say to Trump and the whole world: we will not leave Palestine or Gaza, no matter what happens,” said displaced Gaza resident Rashad al-Naji.Trump had suggested the idea to reporters on Saturday: “You’re talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.”Moving Gaza’s inhabitants — who number 2.4 million — could be done “temporarily or could be long term”, he said.Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — who opposed the truce and has voiced support for re-establishing Israeli settlements in Gaza — called Trump’s suggestion “a great idea”.The Arab League rejected it, warning against “attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land”, saying their forced displacement could “only be called ethnic cleansing”.Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said “our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians is firm and will not change. Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians.”Egypt’s foreign ministry said it rejected any infringement of Palestinians’ “inalienable rights”.- More exchanges -Israel had said it would prevent Palestinians’ passage to the north until the release of Arbel Yehud, a civilian woman hostage who it maintained should have been freed on Saturday.But Netanyahu’s office later said a deal had been reached for the release of three hostages on Thursday, including Yehud, as well as another three on Saturday.Hamas confirmed the agreement in its own statement Monday.During the first phase of the Gaza truce, 33 hostages are supposed to be freed in staggered releases over six weeks in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held by the Israelis.The second such swap, on Saturday, saw four Israeli women hostages, all soldiers, exchanged for 200 prisoners, all Palestinian except for one Jordanian, during the truce which is now in its second week.”We want the agreement to continue and for them to bring our children back as quickly as possible — and all at once,” said Dani Miran, whose hostage son Omri is not slated for release during the first phase.On Monday, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said eight of the hostages due for release in the first phase of the truce are dead.”The families have been informed of the situation of their relatives,” he said, without disclosing their names.Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, 87 remain in Gaza, including 34 Israel says are dead.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 47,317 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.burs-ser/IT

Two Iranian men convicted of membership of the People’s Mujahedin opposition group, outlawed by the Islamic republic, are at imminent risk of execution after being transferred to a different prison, the organisation and activists said on Monday.The men, Behrouz Ehsani, 69, and Mehdi Hassani, 48, a father of three, were moved without prior notice on Sunday from Evin prison in Tehran to Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj outside the capital, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the political wing of the People’s Mujahedin, said in a statement.Inmates have in recent times rarely been executed inside Evin, but Ghezel Hesar has in recent years become notorious as a place of execution.The two men were convicted in September last year, in sentences upheld in January, of the capital crimes of “rebellion” and “corruption on earth” for membership of the People’s Mujahedin, collecting classified information and conspiring against national security.Rights groups have also highlighted the case, with Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) saying that after the transfer they were at risk of “imminent” execution and calling for an “urgent response from the international community to save their lives”.Amnesty International has said they were subjected to “torture and other ill-treatment” in jail and their trial by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran was “grossly unfair”.The hasty prison transfer raised fears “their executions could be implemented at any time,” Amnesty said on Monday.Rights groups are alarmed at a spike in executions in Iran they say is aimed at instilling fear throughout society, with the United Nations saying at least 901 people were executed in 2024 and at least 73 people executed so far in 2025, according to the IHR.The People’s Mujahedin (PMOI, also known by the Persian acronym MEK), initially supported the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah but rapidly fell out with the new leaders under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.Blamed for a string of attacks against officials in the early 1980s, it went underground inside Iran and thousands of its members were executed in 1988 mass hangings of prisoners.The concern over the risk the two men could be executed comes after two senior Iranian judges, Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghisseh, were shot dead on January 18 in Tehran by an assailant who later killed himself, according to the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.The NCRI has accused both men of being implicated in the 1988 prison massacres when they were senior prosecutors. But the group has not commented on their killing.Meanwhile, six other men convicted of PMOI membership are also a risk of execution after being sentenced to death in an initial verdict in November, according to the group and Amnesty.

Israel’s national archives announced Monday they were granting public access online to hundreds of thousands of documents from the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, one of the main organisers of the Holocaust.Timed to coincide with International Holocaust Memorial Day, which marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, the national archives uploaded 380,000 pages of “chilling testimony, correspondence, lists and photographs” to their website, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.Eichmann, who fled to Argentina and lived there under a fake identity after World War II, was captured by Israeli spies in 1960 after a years-long manhunt and clandestinely taken to Israel to stand trial.He was found guilty of masterminding the implementation of the “final solution”, the Nazis’ plan to exterminate Jews, and was executed by hanging in 1962, aged 56.The statement called the Eichmann trial papers one of the archives’ “most interesting collections”, including “court files and correspondence between the State Attorney’s Office and (then-prime minister) David Ben-Gurion”.The text of the scanned documents can be searched thanks to optical character recognition (OCR) technology, allowing users to perform advanced searches using keywords, names, events and dates, said the statement from the prime minister’s office, which houses the archives.That will allow Holocaust survivors’ families to find “the personal stories of their loved ones, at times in their own handwriting”, it said.

European and Asian stock markets mostly slid Monday and Wall Street was forecast to open sharply lower on talk that a cheaper Chinese generative AI programme can outperform big-name rivals, notably in the United States.President Donald Trump’s threat to impose huge tariffs on Colombia in retaliation for its refusal to accept deportation flights from the …

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Indebted Chinese property giant Vanke warned Monday of a major loss last year amid a continuing market slump, while also saying its CEO was resigning due to “health reasons”.Beijing has in recent years grappled with a prolonged crisis in the country’s vast real estate sector, once a key pillar of the economy but now beset …

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An unending stream of people marched up the coast of Gaza on Monday, carrying their belongings in plastic bags and repurposed flour sacks through the central city of Nuseirat after Israel reopened access to the territory’s north.Thousands walked up the main coastal road, while hundreds more moved along the nearby beach on the shore of the eastern Mediterranean.More than a week after a ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip, Israel reopened access to the north after striking an agreement for more hostage releases, with Gazans overjoyed at the opportunity to return after being forced from their homes by the fighting. “This day feels like a holiday,” Shadi Adas told AFP, describing hundreds of people chanting “God is greatest” and slogans associated with Eid al-Adha celebrations.”Thousands of people” had gathered along the road to welcome back the displaced returnees, said Adas, who was returning to his home in Gaza City.An Israeli drone could still be heard buzzing in the sky overhead, but it was mostly drowned out by the excited chatter of the crowd.Even after the ceasefire brought a pause to 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip, residents displaced from the territory’s devastated north had found themselves unable to return.Israel said it would not allow access through the so-called Netzarim corridor until Hamas released Arbel Yehud, a hostage held in Gaza since the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.But after Hamas agreed to free Yehud and two other hostages before Friday — in addition to the three scheduled for Saturday — Israel opened passage to the north on Monday morning.- ‘We will rebuild’ -Lamees al-Iwady, a 22-year-old resident of Gaza City who was displaced several times to Gaza’s centre and south, returned to her hometown Monday.”This is the happiest day of my life,” she told AFP. “I feel as though my soul and life have returned to me,” she continued, insisting that her neighbourhood’s destruction was not permanent.”We will rebuild our homes, even if it’s with mud and sand.”A Gaza security official told AFP that “more than 200,000 displaced people have returned to Gaza and North Gaza governorates in the first two hours”.He said that authorities were still waiting for the green light to allow the displaced to cross in their vehicles via Salah al-Din road, Gaza’s main passageway between the north and south.Gaza’s government media office said that “more than 5,500 government employees” were working “to facilitate the return of displaced people” from the territory’s centre and south to Gaza City and the north.Many who manage to return will be greeted by little more than rubble after months of bombing destroyed much of northern Gaza.The government media office said Monday that people in Gaza City and the north needed 135,000 tents and caravans.”The scale and extent of destruction caused by the occupation army in Gaza and North Gaza governorates have exceeded 90 percent,” the office said.Meanwhile, the threat of renewed fighting and bombardments has not disappeared.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Monday that the military would continue to strictly enforce the terms of the ceasefire. “Anyone who breaks the rules or threatens (Israeli) forces will pay a heavy price,” he wrote on X.