The US military's Central Command said on Thursday that it flew a B-52 long-range bomber over the Middle East on a training mission this week, on the same day Washington redesignated Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terrorist organisation.
The B-52H Stratofortress from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, western England, flew across Europe and into the Centcom area of responsibility on Tuesday for a mission that included aerial refuelling and training opportunities with partner nations, said the US military.
Operations such as these are planned months in advance, but the mission coincided with the administration of US President Donald Trump redesignating the Iran-backed Houthis as a foreign terrorist organisation.
It also comes as the truce in Gaza between Hamas – whom the Houthis back – and Israel is under strain, and as the Houthis continue to target US assets. The rebel group shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone this week.
“We often project power into the region which could cause bad actors to think twice,” a US official told The National.
Centcom did not say which partner nations were involved in Tuesday's mission, but released photographs showing Israeli fighters accompanying the bomber.
Last month, B-52s arrived in Europe as part of a routine Bomber Task Force Europe deployment.
The Stratofortress has a range of 14,000km and can reach altitudes of 15,200m. The bomber, which dates from the 1950s, has become a symbol of US military power. It has been significantly upgraded during its 70 years of service.
Mr Trump first designated the Houthis as a terrorist organisation at the end of his previous term in 2021. This was revoked by Joe Biden's administration over concerns it would affect delivery of aid to Yemen.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Film: In Syria
Dir: Philippe Van Leeuw
Starring: Hiam Abbass, Diamand Bo Abboud, Mohsen Abbas and Juliette Navis
Verdict: Four stars
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Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
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