التصنيف: أخبار

Britain could strike Houthi targets in Yemen again if the rebel group continues to attack ships in the Red Sea, the foreign secretary has suggested.

Lord Cameron warned the Iran-linked fighters could force up prices in Britain if they are allowed to block the passage of container ships in the busy trade route.

The US struck another site in Yemen early on Saturday after the Houthis vowed revenge for the bombing raid carried out by the Americans and the RAF a day earlier.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Lord Cameron said the joint action “will have gone some way to degrade Houthi capabilities built up with Iranian backing”.

Middle East crisis – latest: Footage shows moment RAF jet strikes targets in Yemen

He argued that not acting would be accepting that Houthi attacks could “virtually shut a vital sea lane with relative impunity”.

“If the Houthis deny this passage to ships, vital supply chains are threatened and prices will go up in Britain and across the globe.”

Lord Cameron said the airstrikes “sent an unambiguous message” to the Houthis that “we are determined to put a stop” to their Red Sea attacks.

And he hinted that Britain could join the US in striking the Houthis again if they continue.

“We will work with allies. We will always defend the freedom of navigation. And, crucially, we will be prepared to back words with actions,” he said.

Read more from Sky News:
Why have the UK and US launched strikes on Yemen and who are the Houthis?
Strikes against Houthis draw Britain and America closer to Iran confrontation

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer defended his support for the strikes, which Rishi Sunak ordered without first consulting parliament, as prime ministers sometimes do before military interventions.

Writing for the Independent, the Labour leader argued that “protecting trade, security and lives are paramount to our national interest”.

He said the prime minister “must make a full statement” to the Commons when it returns on Monday, but stressed the need for swift military action.

Sir Keir was facing some criticism from the left over his support for the strikes.

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

Diane Abbott, who was Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow home secretary but now sits as an independent, said: “In 2020 Keir Starmer said no more illegal wars.

“He said that he would only back war if it was legal, had a viable objective and parliament gave consent.

“The current military action on Yemen has none of these yet he supports it.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Mail On Sunday the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea show the world is “becoming more challenging” and is “probably the most unstable it has been in decades”.

“It is also more complex. My job is to make sure the British people are safe. Can we afford to do these things? We can’t afford not to,” he added.

Lord Cameron will be appearing on Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday Morning programme from 8.30am.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is still in hospital and is in a good condition, the Pentagon has said.

The 70-year-old was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland on 22 December with prostate cancer.

He returned to the hospital on 1 January due to complications including a urinary tract infection and has remained there ever since.

Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said in a statement: “He’s in contact with his senior staff and has full access to required secure communications capabilities and continues to monitor DOD’s day-to-day operations worldwide.”

More US news:
Hunter Biden to face trial after pleading not guilty to federal tax charges
Trump defies judge to unleash six-minute courtroom diatribe before being cut off

Last week it was revealed President Joe Biden and senior leaders in his administration were unaware that Mr Austin had been in hospital.

The Pentagon did not inform the White House National Security Council or top adviser Jake Sullivan of Mr Austin’s hospital admission until Thursday 4 January.

Mr Biden was only informed that evening.

The defence secretary sits just below the president at the top of the chain of command of the US military and his duties require him to be available at a moment’s notice to respond to any manner of national security crises.

It comes as the US launched airstrikes over two consecutive nights on Houthi-linked targets in Yemen.

Dozens of sites were targeted in retaliation against the Iran-backed forces for months of attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Zambia is dealing with one of its worst cholera outbreaks in recent years as nearly 10,000 active cases have been registered.

Climate change has fuelled heavy rains which have contaminated drinking water in overpopulated and impoverished urban areas, mostly in the capital Lusaka.

Health workers are scrambling to contain a crisis that has the potential to be the worst the country has seen since the first outbreak in 1977.

The sound of crying cuts through the humid air as soil is hastily dug out by a uniformed worker and flung to the side. Among the clutches of tall grass is a burial site with clustered and shallow individual allotments – only marginally better than a mass grave.

The screams of grief are coming from 16-year-old Catherine. Her grandmother Tamara Lungu’s coffin is in one of the new mounds in the soft ground. Tamara was the matriarch of the family at 84 – both Catherine’s guardian and under her care.

She died of cholera in Zambia‘s Heroes National Stadium on 10 January and the family was informed two days later.

Her other older grandchild Nable Nyirongo stands at her grave. It is marked with tree branches so that he and his cousins can find it amongst the many other fresh graves when they come back to place a signpost. They will not be allowed to have a funeral.

On top of the grief, there is palpable disappointment.

“There’s nothing we can do. At least they have to respect the bodies, I think they’re not giving us respect,” says 50-year-old Nable.

Beyond the graves, Heroes National Stadium can be seen in the distance. Nable was waiting there for days with worried relatives. He was in the front gardens of the stadium reeling from shock when we first met him.

“They told us that she is OK and we were transferred to the waiting room after. Now they are telling me that she’s dead. What is this? We are not happy with what is happening here,” he told us as he waited for his grandmother’s body to be placed in the coffin he purchased.

Other concerned relatives gather beyond the metal barriers of the stadium waiting for any news. A roll call of names is read out periodically to assure them that their infected loved ones are still alive.

One man is seething with anger and sitting on the edge of a dry storm water drain. He says his nephew’s name hasn’t been called out for days and all he wants to know is if he is dead or alive.

Next to him is 59-year-old Hamlet and his daughter Agnes. She says her ageing father has made five trips from out of town to check on her brother – his son.

They said they were taken in on Wednesday to see him and found him well. The next day, they went in to see him but couldn’t find him in any of the wards.

“We will feel better if they tell us whether he is dead or alive,” says Agnes. It is clear the lack of closure is beyond frustrating.

The health minister, Sylvia Masebo, is working on capacity and communication issues as the stadium increasingly becomes a focal treatment centre.

“When we started the first 48 hours it was a challenge. But we have stabilised now and have people who have been employed specifically just to deal with that issue of making sure that from six up to midnight they are looking at issues of families.”

We speak to the minister in the paediatric ward where infants as young as five months old are being treated for cholera.

There are buckets and IV drips by every bed. The floor is wet with bleach. Pained high-pitched cries ring out from corners of the room.

Many of these children come from the highly infected area of Kanyama and nearby districts.

Impoverished neighbourhoods full of flooded streets, shallow wells, pit latrines and open-air food stalls.

Read more:
10 most underreported humanitarian crises all in Africa for second year running

Mothers and guardians have been allowed in to sit at their bedsides on the orders of Health Minister Masebo.

The prohibition of funerals and family burials has remained in place. More emergency rules are being brought in by her ministry that will place health restrictions on public places like bars and open-air food markets.

I ask her how she predicts Zambians will respond to these measures.

“I think what is important is for us to do what needs to be done which we have not done as a country [for] many decades mainly because sometimes politicians we are scared to do what needs to be done, that which is right because you feel you will be unpopular.”