The G20 grouping of nations has agreed to grant permanent membership to the African Union, Bloomberg News said on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The move would give the African Union the same status as the EU, from its current designation of "invited international organisation," it added.
The G20 leaders are expected to announce the decision during a summit in India this weekend, the report said.
American and British aircraft have conducted new airstrikes on the Yemeni capital, prompting Ansarullah to pledge a response.
The strikes on Friday focused on the Ma’een District in Sanaa, with no casualties reported.
"I heard the blast. My house shook," one Sanaa resident told AFP late Friday.
Israeli media promptly denied any involvement of the regime in these operations.
Nasr al-Din Amer, an official from the Ansarullah movement, emphasized that Yemen’s attacks against Israel will intensify and not decline.
Amer asserted that halting the aggression in Gaza is the only way to prevent further anti-Israel operations by the Yemeni army.
Israeli "aggression will only increase the determination and resolve of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people", a Houthi statement said Friday.
This latest assault followed Thursday's Israeli aggression on Yemen’s infrastructure, including Sana’a's international airport which left six people dead.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Sana’a Friday to protest against the Israeli strikes and express solidarity with Palestinians.
"The equation has changed and has become: (targeting) airport for airport, port for port, and infrastructure for infrastructure," protester Mohammed al-Gobisi said.
"We will not get tired or bored of supporting our brothers in Gaza."
On Friday, the demonstrators staged rallies in the capital Sana’a, and the provinces of Sa’ada, Hudaydah, Hajjah, and al-Mahwit under the slogan “We firmly stand with Gaza, the glory…without limits and without red lines,” carrying the Yemeni and Palestinian flags.
Similar rallies also took place in the provinces of Raymah, ʽAmran, Dhale, Lahij, Ma’rib, al-Bayda, Ta’izz, Ibb, and Dhamar.
The protesters voiced their solidarity with the Palestinians in defiance of the Israeli strikes on Yemen, chanting “We will continue to bomb you…escalation for escalation.”
They hailed the latest Yemeni attacks conducted earlier in the day against Israeli targets, calling on the armed forces to intensify their retaliatory operations.
Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 45,436 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 108,038 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.
In a significant milestone, the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Higher Primary School in Newpadpu, Harekala, has introduced a bilingual Kannada-English medium this academic year, a move spearheaded by Padma Shri awardee Harekala Hajabba. The school has so far received 13 admissions for its Class 1 bilingual program.
This initiative is part of a broader effort by the state government, which approved 38 schools across the district to launch bilingual mediums. Expressing his delight, Hajabba shared that he had been advocating for a bilingual school for years. "The bilingual medium will greatly benefit students in this region who otherwise rely on private schools. However, we currently face a shortage of classrooms. Construction of two additional classrooms is underway, and once completed, we expect higher admissions," he said.
The school had previously been permitted to introduce LKG and UKG classes in the last academic year. According to the school’s headmistress, Rajeshwari, while the pre-primary sections have seen good enrolment, the bilingual Class 1 faced challenges, securing only 13 students. She attributed this to the late notification of permission, which arrived a month after the academic year began, leading many children to enroll elsewhere.
Rajeshwari remains optimistic about the future. "We expect better admissions next academic year as awareness about bilingual education at this government school grows," she said, adding that the classroom shortage will soon be addressed.
Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) Venkatesha Subraya Patagara noted that bilingual schools across Dakshina Kannada have generally received a positive response, with some schools enrolling more than 100 students. The effort to offer bilingual education in government schools marks a step forward in providing affordable, quality education to underserved regions.
The Israeli regime sustains its heavy attacks against various areas across Syria as Western-backed militants, who ousted the country’s government earlier this month, strengthen their foothold.
On Monday, the regime’s warplanes struck vital facilities and military infrastructure along the country’s western coastline, including the cities of Tartus and Latakia, where they pounded missile bases and ammunition depots.
Massive explosions rang out across the cities during the attacks.
Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network said Israeli occupation forces had also advanced as far as 15 kilometers (9 miles) in the western Syrian province of Quneitra.
'An earthquake'
Russia’s Sputnik news agency also reported Israeli assaults against military facilities in Hama and Homs, two other western provinces, adding that attacks against Hama and Aleppo, which is likewise situated in western Syria, shook the targeted areas like an “earthquake.”
Local sources, meanwhile, reported that the regime’s warplanes had also hit the Military Airport in the eastern province of Deir al-Zawr.
The agency cited sources as saying that Israeli warships had launched a number of missiles towards the Syrian coast, especially targeting the Tartus Province.
According to them, this was the first time that the Israeli military was deploying “such missiles” against Syria’s military sites.
The reports came a day after the regime attacked the positions that used to belong to the country’s Republican Guard and the Syrian military’s Fourth Armored Division in the Tal Mneen area and the town of Hafir, north of the capital Damascus.
Also on Sunday, Israeli forces occupied three new villages across the country, namely the Jamla village in the western Syrian province of Dara’a as well as the Mazraat Beit Jan and Mughr al-Mir رillages in Rif Dimashq Province.
Israeli aircraft also bombed an air defense site in the town of Muhajja in the eastern countryside of Dara’a’s capital and attacked the warehouses of the Syrian military’s 18th Armored Division in the eastern suburbs of Homs.
The regime has markedly intensified its deadly attacks against the country, especially targeting its military infrastructure, in the aftermath of its takeover by anti-Damascus militants, who are widely reported to have been receiving extensive military support and cooperation on the part of the Israeli regime and the West.
As part of its aggression, the regime has expanded its occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights, overrunning a buffer zone in the territory, and announced plans to ramp up the population of illegal settlers in the mountainous region.
Regional Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Iraq, have lashed out at Tel Aviv over the measures.
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