Albares has called for the immediate release of Saif Abu Keshek, who is under Israeli detention along with Brazilian activist Thiago \u00c1vila.<\/p>\n
The Israeli foreign ministry said earlier today (see post at 11:45<\/a>) that both men have been brought to Israel for questioning. They were detained along with more than 170 others from the flotilla when its vessels were intercepted off the coast of Crete on Wednesday. The other activists have since been released.<\/p>\n Speaking to Spanish RAC 1 radio<\/a>, Albares said Keshek\u2019s arrest was an \u201cillegal detention outside the jurisdiction of Israel\u201d and demanded that he be released \u201cimmediately\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course it is a kidnapping,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a010.58 EDT<\/p>\n The polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has denounced the \u201congoing disintegration\u201d of Nato amid a rift within the alliance over the US-Israeli war against Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cThe greatest threat to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance. We must all do what it takes to reverse this disastrous trend,\u201d Tusk wrote on X.<\/p>\n His remarks came hours after the US announced its decision to withdraw approximately 5,000 troops from Germany<\/a>, following a spat between US president Donald Trump and German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday that Iran was \u201chumiliating\u201d Washington.<\/p>\n Trump also voiced his anger at Italy and Spain over their refusal to allow US military planes to use their bases, saying he \u201cprobably will\u201d pull American forces out of these countries.<\/p>\n \u201cItaly has not been of any help to us, and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible,\u201d he told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Edward Helmore<\/p>\n Spirit Airlines ceases operations and US transportation secretary announces measures to help passengers<\/p>\n The US secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, has announced a series of measures to help Spirit Airlines passengers following the low-cost airline\u2019s collapse early on Saturday after running out of cash and the failure of rescue talks with the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n A departure board displays cancelled flights informing passengers of the shutdown of Spirit Airlines at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, in New York City. Photograph: David Dee Delgado\/Reuters<\/p>\n Spirit once operated hundreds of daily flights on its bright yellow planes and employed about 17,000 people, but early on Saturday it announced that after 34 years in business it had \u201cwith great disappointment \u2026 started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately\u201d.<\/p>\n The company had struggled to make a deal with its creditors and secure funding to maintain operations after shuttling in and out of bankruptcy twice in recent years. But the sharp rise in jet fuel prices since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran<\/a> effectively sealed the fate of the airline.<\/p>\n Read the full report here:<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a009.58 EDT<\/p>\n The official Lebanese National News Agency has reported three more deaths from Israeli airstrikes in the southern Nabatieh district.<\/p>\n This brings today\u2019s death toll in southern Lebanon<\/a> to at least 10.<\/p>\n Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it launched drone attacks against \u201ca gathering of Israeli enemy army soldiers\u201d in the town of Bayada in southern Lebanon, according to a statement on its Telegram channel. The group said it carried out the strikes \u201cin response to the Israeli enemy\u2019s violation of the ceasefire and the attacks that targeted villages in southern Lebanon\u201d.<\/p>\n Rescue personnel clear rubble from buildings destroyed in the southern Lebanese town of Habboush, Nabatieh, following Israeli strikes. Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued its own statement on the Hezbollah attacks, saying: \u201cShortly ago, the air force successfully intercepted a rocket launched toward IDF forces operating in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n \u201cIn several additional incidents today, the terrorist organisation Hezbollah launched rockets and explosive drones that fell near the area where IDF forces are operating in southern Lebanon, with no casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Trump says US navy like \u2018pirates\u2019 while seizing a ship in Iranian blockade<\/p>\n Donald Trump has said the US navy acted \u201clike pirates\u201d as he described an operation seizing a ship amid the tit-for-tat American blockade of Iranian ports.<\/p>\n \u201cWe \u2026 land on top of it and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It\u2019s a very profitable business,\u201d said Trump at a rally in Florida on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re like pirates,\u201d he added to cheers from the crowd. \u201cWe\u2019re sort of like pirates. But we\u2019re not playing games.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s comparison of US naval activity to piracy comes as legal experts raise alarms about Iran\u2019s blockade of the vital strait of Hormuz<\/a> and its plans to charge a fee for ships passing through it.<\/p>\n Read the full report here:<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n As we reported earlier (see post at 11:15<\/a>) the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said suspicious activity had been reported near the port of Mukalla in Yemen.<\/p>\n UKMTO said a bulk carrier reported a suspicious approach by a skiff accompanied by a fishing vessel 84 nautical miles southwest of the port of Mukalla on the southern Yemen coast.<\/p>\n It remains unclear whether the UKMTO report is connected to the Yemen coast guard\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The Yemen coast guard said the tanker\u2019s location had been identified and efforts were under way to track the ship, take necessary measures to recover it and ensure the safety of its crew, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Yemen says oil tanker hijacked by armed men off Shabwa coast – Reuters<\/p>\n Yemen\u2019s coast guard said an oil tanker had been hijacked off the coast of Shabwa by unidentified armed men who boarded the vessel, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n They seized control of M\/T Eureka and steered it towards the Gulf of Aden in the direction of Somali waters.<\/p>\n We will bring you more as we get it.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The UAE\u2019s aviation authority says air traffic in the country has returned to normal, after precautionary measures implemented on 28 February at the start of the Iran<\/a> war were lifted.<\/p>\n The decision followed a comprehensive assessment of operational and security conditions in coordination with relevant entities, the General Civil Aviation Authority said.<\/p>\n Qatar Airways, meanwhile, said it would resume passenger flights to Baghdad, Basra and Erbil airports in Iraq.<\/p>\n Smoke rising from the Dubai International Airport in March. Photograph: ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.00 EDT<\/p>\n Kevin Rawlinson<\/p>\n Some UK pro-Palestinian demonstrations could be stopped, the prime minister has warned, as Britain\u2019s most senior police officer said the threat to the Jewish \u00adcommunity was greater than it had ever been.<\/p>\n Keir Starmer indicated he wanted the language expressed on some protest marches to be subjected to \u201ctougher action\u201d as he sought to allay the fears of British Jews after a series of attacks on their communities in recent weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you see, when you hear some of those chants \u2013 \u2018globalise the intifada\u2019 the one that I would pick out \u2013 then clearly there should be tougher action in relation to that,\u201d Starmer told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme.<\/p>\n While he said he would not interfere in day-to-day policing, he said \u201cthere are instances\u201d in which he would support stopping some protests altogether.<\/p>\n The prime minister\u2019s comments came as Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police<\/a> commissioner, said a \u201cdangerous and troubling\u201d mix of hate crimes, terrorism and the involvement of hostile states was coming together in the UK to create a terrifying atmosphere for British Jews.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Israeli militants step up West Bank school attacks The Israeli reservist shot 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan in the head just outside the western gate of the Mughayyir boys\u2019 secondary school, where he was studying in ninth grade.<\/p>\n Aws collapsed instantly, bleeding heavily. More shots rang out as his friends ran to his side, picked up his now-limp body and rushed him out of the line of fire, their path along the school wall marked by a trail of their classmate\u2019s blood.<\/p>\n Footage from inside the building showed terrified children and teachers crouched in stairwells, shouting at others to get down. Another video captured the shooter, a reservist in partial military uniform, taking aim at the school from the hillside above.<\/p>\n Chart showing Palestinian deaths in West Bank<\/a><\/p>\n A few minutes later the same man killed the younger brother of an English teacher Waheed Abu Naim, whose family live beside the school. Jihad Abu Naim was 36; his wife is heavily pregnant with the couple\u2019s first child, a girl due this month.<\/p>\n Aws and Abu Naim were shot dead on 21 April amid a wave of settler violence in the occupied West Bank<\/a>, much of which has targeted schools and students in the territory.<\/p>\n Read on here:<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n As we reported earlier, the IDF said it has carried out 50 strikes on Lebanon<\/a> in the past day despite the supposed ceasefire. Here are some the latest images from Lebanon:<\/p>\n Smoke rises after Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjayoun, Lebanon. Photograph: Karamallah Daher\/Reuters Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Mayfadoun in the Nabatieh district. Photograph: AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a>\u2018We love our Americans\u2019: the German town rocked by Trump\u2019s plan to withdraw US troops Despite Donald Trump\u2019s frequent bluster, Nadine Firmont said the US president\u2019s move to pull American troops out of Germany had hit her town like a bombshell.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to tell you I was honestly shocked,\u201d said Firmont, 45, who works at a high school in Landstuhl, south-west Germany<\/a>, the heart of the largest American military community outside the US.<\/p>\n Even with previous drawdowns and discussions of US redeployments, Trump\u2019s angry outburst<\/a> carried a blunt menace that startled Firmont and her neighbours.<\/p>\n Late on Friday, the Pentagon announced<\/a> it would reduce its troop numbers in Germany by 5,000 personnel \u2013 just under 15% of its presence in the country \u2013 in part by not deploying a battalion the Biden administration had planned to relocate there later this year.<\/p>\n Ever since the march of Gen George Patton\u2019s Third Army into the nearby city of Kaiserslautern in spring 1945, Americans have been woven into the fabric of life here.<\/p>\n Read on here:<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Two Gaza aid flotilla activists brought to Israel for questioning, says Israeli foreign ministry<\/p>\n![\"Emma](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Emma_Graham-Harrison,_L.png\")
Emma Graham-Harrison<\/p>\n![\"Deborah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Deborah_Cole_2.png\")
Deborah Cole<\/p>\n