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Conakry — Guinea has handed over a plot of land to thousands forcibly evicted by previous governments, with some of the victims having waited more than 25 years for compensation.   More than 20,000 people were displaced when the government of former president Alpha Conde demolished the Kaporo-Rails, Kipe 2, Dimesse, and Dar Es Salam neighborhoods of the capital Conakry between February and May 2019, according to Human Rights Watch.   The government said the land belonged to the state and would be used for official buildings.   A previous round of demolitions took place in the same area of Conakry in 1998, under the rule of president Lansana Conte.    At a jubilant ceremony on Saturday, the associations representing the victims received the land deeds for a 258-hectare (638-acre) plot in Wonkifong, some 60 kilometers (40 miles) from Conakry, an AFP journalist saw.   The land will be managed by the state-owned company SONAPI, which will be responsible for developing the site and rehousing the victims.   "We are taking a concrete step towards healing the wounds of the past for 2,683 households, while laying the foundations for a shared future," the managing director of SONAPI, Maimouna Laure Mah Barry, said in a statement.    The spokesman for the victims, Samba Sow, said the event marked "the reparation of a 26-year-old injustice for those who were evicted in 1998 and five years for those evicted in 2019."   "Thousands of homes, schools, markets and places of worship were destroyed in flagrant violation of the laws of our country. The lives of several thousand families have been destroyed," he added.   Sow called on current head of state, junta leader General Mamady Doumbouya, to set up a compensation fund for the victims.    The ceremony was attended by General Amara Camara, a junta spokesman, who said the president was "resolutely committed to drying the tears of all the sons and daughters of this country."   The West African state has been ruled by a military junta led by Doumbouya since a coup in September 2021 toppled civilian president Conde. 

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Washington — The Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut for more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the U.S. presidential election.    Senior officials at the U.S. central bank including Fed chair Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank's long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool.    The Fed, which has a dual mandate from Congress to act independently to ensure both stable prices and maximum sustainable employment, has repeatedly stressed it will make its decision on rate cuts based solely on the economic data.   But a cut on Wednesday could still cause headaches for Powell, as it would land shortly before the election, in which former Republican president Donald Trump is running against the current Democratic vice president, Kamala Harris.  "As much as I think the Fed tries to say that they're not a political animal, we are in a really wild cycle right now," Alicia Modestino, an associate professor of economics at Northeastern University, told AFP.    How big a cut?  The debate among policymakers on Tuesday and Wednesday this week will likely center on whether to move by 25 or 50 basis points.    However, a rate cut of any size would be the Fed's first since March 2020, when it slashed rates to near-zero in order to support the US economy through the Covid-19 pandemic.   The Fed started hiking rates in 2022 in response to a surge in inflation, fueled largely by a post-pandemic supply crunch and the war in Ukraine.    It has held its key lending rate at a two-decade high of between 5.25 and 5.50 percent for the past 14 months, waiting for economic conditions to improve.    Now, with inflation falling, the labor market cooling, and the US economy still growing, policymakers have decided that conditions are ripe for a cut.    Policymakers are left with a choice: making a small 25 basis point cut to ease into things, or a more aggressive cut of 50 basis points, which would be helpful for the labor market but could also risk reigniting inflation.    "I think that in advance of the November meeting, there's not quite enough data to say we're in jeopardy on the employment side," said Modestino, who was previously a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.     Analysts see the smaller cut as a safe bet.    "We expect the Fed to cut by 25bp [basis points]," economists at Bank of America wrote in a recent note to clients.    "The Fed likes predictability," Modestino from Northeastern said. "It's good for markets, good for consumers, good for workers."    "So a 25 basis point cut now, followed up by another 25 basis point cut in November after the next round of economic data, offers a somewhat smoother glide path for the economy," she added.     How many cuts?   While analysts overwhelmingly expect the Fed to start cutting in September, there is less clarity about what comes next.    Economists at some banks, including Goldman Sachs, expect cuts totaling 75 basis points over the last three meetings of the year, while others see more aggressive cuts, like economists at Citi, who have 125 basis points of easing as their base case.    "The continued softening of the labor market is likely to provoke larger-sized cuts if not at this FOMC meeting then in November and December," the Citi economists wrote in a recent note to clients, referring to the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).    The Fed will shed some light on the issue on Wednesday, when it publishes the updated economic forecasts of its 19-member FOMC — including their rate cut expectations.   In June, FOMC members sharply reduced the number of cuts they had penciled in for this year from a median of three down to just one amid a small uptick in inflation.      But as inflation has fallen and the labor market has weakened, expectations of more cuts have grown.   Traders also see a greater-than 99 percent chance of at least four more cuts in 2025, which would bring the Fed's key lending rate down to between 3.5 and 3.75 percent — 175 basis points below current levels. 

AMMAN — Jordan's King Abdullah has designated key palace aide Jafar Hassan as prime minister after the government resigned on Sunday, the royal court said, days after a parliamentary election in which the Islamist opposition made some gains in the U.S.-allied kingdom.  Hassan, now head of King Abdullah's office and a former planning minister, replaces Bisher Khasawneh, a veteran diplomat and former palace adviser who was appointed nearly four years ago, a royal court statement said.  Khasawneh will stay on in a caretaker capacity until the formation of a new cabinet, the statement said.  Harvard-educated Hassan, a widely respected technocrat, will face the challenges of mitigating the impact of the Gaza war on the kingdom's economy, hard-hit by curbs to investment and a sharp drop in tourism.  The outgoing prime minister had sought to drive reforms pushed by King Abdullah to help reverse a decade of sluggish growth, hovering at around 2%, that was worsened by the pandemic and conflict in neighboring Iraq and Syria.   The traditional conservative establishment had long been blamed for obstructing a modernization drive advocated by the Western-leaning monarch, fearing liberal reforms would erode their grip on power.  Politicians say a key task ahead is accelerating IMF-guided reforms and reining in more than $50 billion in public debt in a country with high unemployment and whose stability is supported by billions of dollars of foreign aid from Western donors.  The Muslim Brotherhood opposition and ideological allies of Palestinian militant group Hamas made significant gains in Tuesday's election, boosted by anger over Israel's war in Gaza.  The Islamists won 31 seats, the most since parliamentary life was revived in 1989 after decades of martial law, leaving them the largest political grouping in parliament.  In a country where anti-Israel sentiment runs high, they have led some of the largest protests in the region in support of Hamas, which their opponents say allowed them to increase their popularity.  Although the new composition of the 138-member parliament retains a pro-government majority, the more vocal Islamist-led opposition could challenge IMF-backed free-market reforms and foreign policy, diplomats and officials say.  Under Jordan's constitution, most powers still rest with the king, who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament. The assembly can force a cabinet to resign by a vote of no confidence. 

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DHAKA, Bangladesh — A high-level U.S. delegation met Sunday with the head of Bangladesh's interim government, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, to affirm "dedication to fostering inclusive economic growth," according to the American embassy in Dhaka.  Yunus took over after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country last month amid a mass uprising. She was accused of corruption, violation of human rights and excessive use of force against the protesters.  During her 15-year rule, Hasina enjoyed close relations with India, China and Russia who have heavily invested in the country's infrastructure development, trade and investment. The U.S. has also become the single largest foreign investor in Bangladesh under Hasina.  Yunus on Sunday said he sought U.S. support "to rebuild the country, carry out vital reforms, and bring back stolen assets," his press office said in a statement after he met the delegation at the State Guest House Jamuna in Dhaka.  He told the U.S. representatives his interim administration has moved fast to "reset, reform, and restart" the economy, initiate reforms in financial sectors, and fix institutions such as the judiciary and police, the statement said.  The U.S. delegation, led by Brent Neiman, assistant secretary for International Finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, had representatives from the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Donald Lu, assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, joined the delegation after visiting India.  They met with several officials in Dhaka, including Touhid Hossain, the country's adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The USAID also signed an agreement to provide $202.25 million in aid to Bangladesh.  The U.S. embassy on X underscored how American companies are entrenched in the South Asian country.  "With the right economic reforms in place, the American private sector can help unlock Bangladesh's growth potential through trade and investment," the embassy wrote on its official account.  The delegation also met representatives of the American companies under the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) operating in Bangladesh upon arriving Saturday.  Concerns over safety and lack of order in Bangladesh were relayed by the companies' agents.  AmCham President Syed Ershad Ahmed said at the meeting that while there were improvements after the interim government was installed, "there are some bottlenecks too." Profit repatriation amid the ongoing crisis of U.S. dollars and challenges in the supply chain resulting from congestion at ports were among the issues he raised.  The meeting came as unrest took hold of the country's major garment industry with workers walking out, leaving factories shuttered, as they demanded better benefits including higher wages. The factory owners, the government and workers' leaders are holding meetings to ease the tension.  Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate-induced disasters. The U.S. embassy on its official Facebook page said the United States wanted to help it "mitigate climate risks." 

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DILI, East Timor — It was the farthest trip of his pontificate and one of the longest papal trips ever in terms of days on the road and distance traveled. But Pope Francis, age 87, hobbled by bad knees and bent over with sciatica, appeared to be having the time of his life. With half of East Timor's population gathered at a seaside park, Francis couldn't help but oblige them with a final good night and languid loops in his popemobile, long after the sun had set and the field was lit by cellphone screens. It was late, the heat and humidity had turned Tasitolu park into something of a sauna, and most of the journalists had already gone back to their air-conditioned hotel to watch the Mass on TV. But there was Francis, defying the doubters who had questioned if he could, would or should make such an arduous trip to Asia given everything that could go wrong. "How many children you have!" Francis marveled to the crowd of 600,000, which amounted to the biggest-ever turnout for a papal event as a proportion of the population. "A people that teaches its children to smile is a people that has a future." The moment seemed to serve as proof that, despite his age, ailments and seven hours of jet lag, Pope Francis still could pope, still likes to pope and has it in him to pope like he used to at the start of his pontificate. That's never truer than when he's in his element: in the peripheries of the world, among people forgotten by the big powers, where he can go off-script to respond to the spirit of the moment. And it was certainly the case on his 11-day trip through Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, during which he clocked nearly 33,000 kilometers (20,505 miles) in air travel alone. It was a trip that he had originally planned to make in 2020 but COVID-19 intervened. Four years and a handful of hospitalizations later (for intestinal and pulmonary problems), Francis finally pulled it off. He seemed to relish getting out of the Vatican and away from the weighty grind of the Holy See after being cooped up all year, much of it battling a long bout of bronchitis. Francis does tend to rally during foreign trips, though he usually sticks to a script when he's in the protocol meetings with heads of state, dutifully delivering speeches that were written in advance by Vatican diplomats. But when he's meeting with young people or local priests and nuns, he tends to show his true colors. He'll ditch his prepared remarks and speak off-the-cuff, often engaging in back-and-forth banter with the faithful to make sure his message has stuck. Doing so thrills the crowd, terrorizes his translators and complicates the work of journalists, but you always know Francis is enjoying himself and feels energized when he goes rogue. And he went rogue plenty of times in Asia — and on the in-flight press conference coming back to Rome, during which he urged American Catholics to vote for who they think is the "lesser evil" for president. Francis started in Indonesia, arguably the most delicate destination on his itinerary given the country is home to the world's largest Muslim population. The Vatican would be loathe to say or do anything that might cause offense. And yet from his very first encounter with President Joko Widodo, Francis appeared in a feisty mood, praising Indonesia's relatively high birthrate while lamenting that in the West, "some prefer a cat or a little dog." Francis has frequently made the same demographic quip at home in Italy, which has one of the world's lowest birthrates. But the high-profile trip meant that his trademark sarcasm got amplified. American commentators immediately assumed Francis had entered the "childless cat ladies" debate roiling U.S. politics, but there was no indication he had JD Vance in mind. Even in the most delicate moment in Jakarta, at Southeast Asia's biggest mosque, Francis threw protocol aside and kissed the hand of the grand imam and brought it to his cheek in gratitude. In Papua New Guinea, Francis was similarly jazzed after pulling off a visit to a remote jungle outpost that had seemed impossible for him to reach: The airport in Vanimo, population 11,000, doesn't have an ambulift wheelchair elevator that Francis now needs to get on and off planes, and bringing one in just for him was out of the question. The stubborn pope, who really, really wanted to go to Vanimo, ended up rolling on and off the back ramp of a C-130 cargo plane that Australia had offered to get him, and the metric ton of medicine and other supplies he brought with him, to the town. Despite the considerable security concerns of entering a region torn by tribal rivalries, Francis seemed to relish the jungle visit, perhaps because he felt so much at home. A dozen Argentine missionary priests and nuns have lived in Vanimo with the local community for years and had invited him to come. They decorated the simple stage in front of the church with a statue of Argentina's beloved Virgin of Lujan, to whom Francis is particularly devoted, and had a gourd of mate, the Argentine tea, waiting for him. In East Timor Francis had to negotiate perhaps the most sensitive issue clouding the visit: the case of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered national hero who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent independence campaign. The Vatican revealed in 2022 that it had sanctioned Belo, who now lives in Portugal, for having sexually abused young boys and ordered him to cease contact with East Timor. Francis didn't mention Belo by name and didn't meet with his victims, but he did reaffirm the need to protect children from "abuse." There was nary a mention of Belo's name in any official speech during a visit in which East Timor's traumatic history and independence fight were repeatedly evoked. In Singapore, his final stop, Francis once again ditched his remarks when he arrived at the last event, a meeting of Singaporean youth on Friday morning. "That's the talk I prepared," he said, pointing to his speech and then proceeding to launch into a spontaneous back-and-forth with the young people about the need to have courage and take risks. "What's worse: Make a mistake because I take a certain path, or not make a mistake and stay home?" he asked them. He answered his own question, with a response that could explain his own risky decision to embark on the Asia trip in the first place. "A young person who doesn't take a risk, who is afraid of making a mistake, is an old person," the 87-year-old pope said. "I hope all of you go forward," he said. "Don't go back. Don't go back. Take risks."

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London — U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "bluster" Sunday over his warning that letting Ukraine use long-range weapons to strike inside Russia would put NATO "at war" with Moscow. Tensions between Russia and the West over the conflict reached dire levels this week as U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met at the White House to discuss whether to ease rules on Kyiv's use of western-supplied weaponry. "I think that what Putin's doing is throwing dust up into the air," Lammy told the BBC.  "There's a lot of bluster. That's his modus operandi. He threatens about tanks, he threatens about missiles, he threatens about nuclear weapons." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asking for permission to use British Storm Shadow missiles and U.S.-made ATACMS missiles to hit targets deeper inside Russia for months. Biden and Starmer delayed a decision on the move during their meeting on Friday. It came after Putin warned that green-lighting use of the weapons "would mean that NATO countries, the U.S., European countries, are at war with Russia." "If that's the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face," he added.  The Russian leader has long warned Western countries that they risk provoking a nuclear war over their support for Ukraine. "We cannot be blown off course by an imperialist fascist, effectively, that wants to move into countries willy nilly," said Lammy. "If we let him with Ukraine, believe me, he will not stop there." Lammy said that talks between Starmer, Biden and Zelensky over the use of the missiles would continue at the United Nations General Assembly gathering in New York later this month.

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LIPOVA LAZNE, Czech Republic — One person drowned in southwest Poland and thousands were evacuated across the border in the Czech Republic as heavy rains continued to batter central Europe on Sunday, causing flooding in several areas. A firefighter tackling flooding in lower Austria was also killed, Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler said on Sunday on social platform X as authorities declared the province, which surrounds Vienna, bordering the Czech Republic and Slovakia, a disaster area. Rivers overflowed from Poland to Romania, where four people were found dead on Saturday, after days of torrential rain in a low-pressure system named Boris. Some parts of the Czech Republic and Poland faced the worst flooding in almost three decades. In the Czech Republic, a quarter of a million homes were without power due to high winds and rain. Czech police said they were looking for three people who were in a car that fell into the river Staric near Lipova Lazne, 235 kilometers east of Prague on Saturday. In Poland, one person died in Klodzko county, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk said was the worst-hit area of the country and where 1,600 had been evacuated. "The situation is very dramatic," Tusk told reporters on Sunday after a meeting in Klodzko town, which was partly under water as the local river rose to 6.65 meters Sunday morning before receding slightly. That surpassed a record seen in heavy flooding in 1997, which partly damaged the town and claimed 56 lives in Poland. The nearby historic town of Glucholazy ordered evacuations Sunday morning as the local river started to break its banks, while firefighters and soldiers had been fighting since Saturday to protect a bridge in the town. Residents across the Czech border also said the situation was worse than flooding seen before. "What you see here is worse than in 1997, and I don't know what will happen because my house is under water, and I don't know if I will even return to it," said Pavel Bily, a resident of Lipova Lazne. The fire service in the region said it had evacuated 1,900 people as of Sunday morning, while many roads were impassable. In the worst-hit areas, more than 10 centimeters of rain fell overnight and around 45 centimeters since Wednesday evening, the Czech weather institute said. More rain is expected Sunday and Monday. In Budapest, officials raised forecasts for the Danube to rise in the second half of this week, to above 8.5 meters, nearing a record 8.91 meters seen in 2013, as rain continued in Hungary, Slovakia and Austria. "According to forecasts, one of the biggest floods of the past years is approaching Budapest but we are prepared to tackle it," Budapest's mayor Gergely Karacsony said. In Romania, authorities said the rain was less intense than on Saturday, when flooding killed four and damaged 5,000 homes. Towns and villages in seven counties across eastern Romania were affected, and the country's emergency response unit said it was still searching for two people missing. 

Lille, France — Eight migrants died early Sunday when their overcrowded vessel capsized while trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French authorities said, less than two weeks after the deadliest such disaster this year. The French and British governments have sought for years to stop the flow of migrants, who pay smugglers thousands of euros per head for the passage to England from France aboard small boats. A police source told AFP the accident occurred shortly after the boat embarked. Regional prefect Jacques Billant is set to hold a news conference at 10 a.m., his office said. Maritime authorities said Saturday that numerous attempts by migrants to make the perilous crossing in small boats have been attempted in recent days, with 200 people rescued in 24 hours over Friday and Saturday alone. At least 12 migrants, mostly from Eritrea, died off the northern French coast when their boat carrying dozens of people capsized this month. It was the deadliest such disaster this year and brought to 37 the number of migrant deaths in the Channel, up from 12 in 2023. More than 22,000 migrants have arrived in England by crossing the Channel since the beginning of this year, according to British officials. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and France's President Emmanuel Macron pledged this summer to strengthen "cooperation" in handling the surge in undocumented migrant numbers. The Channel crossings often prove perilous, and in November 2021, 27 migrants died when their boat capsized in the deadliest single such disaster to date. French authorities seek to stop migrants taking to the water but do not intervene once they are afloat except for rescue purposes, citing safety concerns.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING — Shanghai halted transportation links, recalled ships and shut tourism spots including Shanghai Disney Resort on Sunday as it braced for Typhoon Bebinca, in what could be the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the Chinese financial hub since 1949. The Category 1 typhoon, packing maximum sustained wind speeds near its center of around 144 kph, was about 500 kilometers southeast of Shanghai as of 1 p.m.  It is expected to make landfall along China's eastern coast after midnight on Monday. The strongest storm to make landfall in Shanghai in recent decades was Typhoon Gloria in 1949, which tore through the city with gusts of 144 kph. Shanghai was last threatened by a direct hit in 2022 by the powerful Typhoon Muifa, which instead landed 300 kilometers away in the city of Zhoushan, in Zhejiang province. Shanghai is typically spared the strong typhoons that hit farther south in China, including Yagi, a destructive Category 4 storm that roared past southern Hainan province last week. But Shanghai and neighboring provinces are taking no chances with Category 1 Bebinca. Resorts in Shanghai, including Shanghai Disney Resort, Jinjiang Amusement Park and Shanghai Wild Animal Park, have been temporarily closed while most ferries have been halted to and from Chongming Island - China's third-biggest island known as "the gateway to the Yangtze River." More than 600 flights to and from Shanghai were also canceled, according to local media. In Zhejiang, ships have been recalled while several parks in the provincial capital Hangzhou announced closures. Bebinca's arrival will coincide with the Mid-Autumn festival, a nationwide three-day holiday when many Chinese travel or engage in outdoor activities. China's Ministry of Water Resources on Saturday issued a Level-IV emergency response -- the lowest level in China's four-tier emergency response system -- for potential flooding in Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA's moonwalkers. SpaceX's capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot. They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 740 kilometers above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 1,408 kilometers following Tuesday's liftoff. Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX's Sarah Gillis the 265th. Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts. "We are mission complete," Isaacman radioed as the capsule bobbed in the water, awaiting the recovery team. Within an hour, all four were out of their spacecraft, pumping their fists with joy as they emerged onto the ship's deck. It was the first time SpaceX aimed for a splashdown near the Dry Tortugas, a cluster of islands 113 kilometers west of Key West. To celebrate the new location, SpaceX employees brought a big, green turtle balloon to Mission Control at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California. The company usually targets closer to the Florida coast, but two weeks of poor weather forecasts prompted SpaceX to look elsewhere. During Thursday's commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule's hatch was open barely a half-hour. Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX's brand-new spacesuit followed by Gillis, who was knee-high as she flexed her arms and legs for several minutes. Gillis, a classically trained violinist, also held a performance in orbit earlier in the week. The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, considerably shorter than those at the International Space Station. Most of that time was needed to depressurize the entire capsule and then restore the cabin air. Even SpaceX's Anna Menon and Scott "Kidd" Poteet, who remained strapped in, wore spacesuits. SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars. This was Isaacman's second chartered flight with SpaceX, with two more still ahead under his personally financed space exploration program named Polaris after the North Star. He paid an undisclosed sum for his first spaceflight in 2021, taking along contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor while raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. For the just completed so-called Polaris Dawn mission, the founder and CEO of the Shift4 credit card-processing company shared the cost with SpaceX. Isaacman won't divulge how much he spent. 

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JERUSALEM — A missile fired from Yemen landed in an open area in central Israel early Sunday, the Israeli military said, in the latest reverberation from the nearly yearlong war in Gaza. The early morning attack triggered air raid sirens, including at Israel's international airport, where local media aired footage of people racing to shelters. There were no reports of casualties or damage, and the airport authority said operations resumed as normal shortly thereafter. A fire could be seen in a rural area of central Israel, and local media showed images of what appeared to be a fragment from a missile or interceptor that landed on an escalator in a train station in the central town of Modiin. The military said the sound of explosions in the area came from interceptors. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but nearly all of them have been intercepted over the Red Sea. The Houthis did not claim Sunday's attack directly, but rebel officials appeared to boast about it. Hashim Sharaf al-Din, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run government, said Yemenis will celebrate the birthday of Islam's Prophet Muhammad while "the Israelis will have to be in shelters." Another senior Houthi official, Hezam al-Asad, posted a taunting message in Hebrew on the social platform X. In July, an Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis struck Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 10 others. Israel responded with a wave of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen. The Houthis have also repeatedly attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, in what the rebels portray as a blockade on Israel in support of the Palestinians. Most of the targeted ships have no connection to Israel. The war in Gaza, which began with Hamas' October 7 attack into southern Israel, has rippled across the region, with Iran and allied militant groups attacking Israeli and U.S. targets and drawing retaliatory strikes from Israel and its Western allies. On several occasions, the strikes and counterstrikes have threatened to trigger a wider conflict. International carriers have canceled flights into and out of Israel on a number of occasions since the start of the war, adding to the war's economic toll on the country. Iran supports militant groups across the region, including Hamas, the Houthis and Lebanon's Hezbollah, its most powerful ally, which has traded fired with Israel on a near-daily basis since the war in Gaza began. Iran and its allies say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians. The military said around 40 projectiles were fired from Lebanon early Sunday, with most intercepted or falling in open areas. The strikes along the Israel-Lebanon border have displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides. Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch a wider military operation against Hezbollah to ensure its citizens can return to their homes. Hezbollah has said it would halt its attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza. The United States and Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar have spent much of this year trying to broker a truce and the release of scores of hostages held by Hamas, but the talks have repeatedly bogged down. In recent weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on lasting Israeli control over the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, which Israeli forces captured in May. He has said Hamas used a network of tunnels beneath the border to import arms, allegations denied by Egypt, which along with Hamas is opposed to any lasting Israeli presence there. An Israeli military official said late Saturday that of the dozens of tunnels discovered along the border, only nine entered Egypt, and all were found to have been sealed off. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said it was not clear when the tunnels were sealed. The discovery appeared to weaken Netanyahu's argument that Israel needs to keep open-ended control of the corridor to prevent cross-border smuggling. Egypt has said it sealed off the tunnels on its side of the border years ago, in part by creating its own military buffer zone along the frontier.