• Solar energy empowers young women in Yemen (BBC video)
• A cafe in Yemen run by women, for women
• Yemenis go solar amid war energy shortage

• Students with ADHD report improvements with Transcendental Meditation

• Red Sea attacks already bigger issue for supply chain than pandemic, maritime advisory warns
• Houthi attacks on commercial ships have upended global trade in vital Red Sea corridor
• The terrible toll on women of Yemen's war

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Solar energy empowers young women in Yemen (BBC video)
3 February 2021 - Ten women in Yemen's Abs district have built and now run a solar microgrid. The project was set up in 2019 with the help of the UN Development Programme. The women now run the station as their own business, providing affordable, renewable energy to a community living near a war zone. As a result of the project's success, there are plans to build 100 microgrids around the country, employing more local women. (more)

A cafe in Yemen run by women, for women
1 November 2020 - When Um Feras realised there were no leisure spaces for women in her city in Yemen, she founded her own cafe and hopes to change attitudes about women-led businesses. 'There were no places for women to gather comfortably, no places belonging to the female community: where the team from administration to the youngest employee is female,' she said from the Morning Icon cafe she set up in April last year in Marib, central Yemen. (more)

Yemenis go solar amid war energy shortage
17 November 2019 - When electricity was cut to Yemen's capital four years ago after war broke out, Ebrahim al-Faqih saw a gap in the market and started selling solar panels. Faqih is part of a booming solar sector transforming lives and energy sustainability in Yemen, a poor country with scant rural power access even before conflict knocked out most of the national grid. (more)

Solar power sales help women avoid food insecurity in Yemen
4 February 2019 - Solar panels are providing women in Yemen access to energy and a way to escape famine conditions that continue to threaten the country. ... To tackle this pervasive food insecurity, the United Nations Development Programme is teaching women to run their own small businesses by generating energy with solar panels. The program provides women access to materials and training to start microbusinesses that can sell energy to power community services such as water and health systems. (more)

Yemen: UN envoy announces restoration of nationwide cessation of hostilities
18 October 2016 - On 17 October, the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, announced a plan for the resumption of a comprehensive cessation of hostilities in the war-torn Gulf nation. Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed welcomed the restoration of the cessation of hostilities, and he called on all Yemeni parties, the region, and the international community to encourage full respect for the cessation of hostilities and to ensure that it leads to a permanent and lasting end to the conflict. (more)

Yemen's ancient art of brickmaking endures war
26 July 2016 - Traditional mud brick tower houses have always been a source of pride to Yemenis, and over a year into a devastating civil war, they are also providing some much-needed jobs in the ancient capital Sanaa. The traditional [brick] houses of Sanaa, a UNESCO world heritage site, are said to have been founded by the son of Prophet Noah two and half millennia ago. Despite the threat of destruction, a decades-long spread of concrete construction, and tight wartime budgets, the appeal of the ancient art of brickmaking remains strong. (more)

Yemen government signs peace deal with Shiites
21 September 2014 - Yemeni government officials and Shiite rebels signed a peace agreement on Sunday. The agreement calls for an immediate cease-fire and the formation of a technocratic government within a month after consultations with all political parties, a UN envoy said at a joint news conference with President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in the capital, Sanaa. (more)

Israeli singer proves surprise hit in Yemen
11 February 2014 - An Israeli singer has become an unlikely star in Yemen, an Arab country where his hit songs blare from cafes and taxis. Zion Golan's parents were born in Yemen, but like other Israelis, he is banned from travelling to the conservative Muslim nation, which has no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. Golan, who learned Yemeni Arabic as a boy, is one of about 140,000 of Israelis descended from Yemen's ancient Jewish community, and he said that he was pleased his popularity there provided a bridge between two peoples. 'I enjoy that they are enjoying my songs, it makes me feel good,' he said. 'I wish there will be peace and then we could connect, that would be the best dream for all of Israel.' (more)

Ceasefire holds between Shi'ite and Sunni fighters in north Yemen
11 January 2014 - Fighting in north Yemen between Shi'ite Muslim Houthis and Sunni Muslim Salafis stopped on Saturday as a ceasefire deal took effect, according to a government committee working towards ending the conflict. Previous ceasefires struck since the conflict did not stick. But the government is optimistic the latest one will stick because it includes all factions involved in the fighting in Saada and adjacent provinces, said Yehia Abuesbaa, head of the presidential committee tasked with ending the fighting. (more)

UN officials welcome new Yemeni agreement on State structure, status of south
24 December 2013 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his envoy for Yemen have welcomed an agreement, reached on 23 December through the country's ongoing National Dialogue Conference, on the structure of the State and the status of the southern region, which has experienced separatist movements. In his statement today, Mr Ban's spokesperson stated that, 'The Secretary-General calls on all sides to continue to work together in good faith and in collaboration with his Special Adviser with a view to resolving outstanding issues and advancing the political transition.' The UN has been providing support for Yemen's transition, which began as part of the wave of political change in Arab countries in 2011, in four key areas: political facilitation in key areas such as the National Dialogue, technical support, capacity-building, and a public information and awareness campaign. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Students with ADHD report improvements with Transcendental Meditation
23 June 2011 - Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) reported many benefits in their lives--both academic and social--after they learned the Transcendental Meditation Programme. 'The teacher doesn't change, the school doesn't change--but their interest and their enjoyment of school changed,' commented Dr Sarina Grosswald, a cognitive learning expert who has conducted research on Transcendental Meditation and ADHD. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Red Sea attacks already bigger issue for supply chain than pandemic, maritime advisory warns
18 January 2024 - The Red Sea crisis and continued Houthi rebel attacks on cargo ships and tankers is now a bigger impact event for shipping than the early pandemic, according to the latest data from maritime advisory firm Sea-Intelligence which measures changes in vessel capacity. The only event in recent years to have a bigger impact on the supply chain was when the cargo ship 'Ever Given' got stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021. (more)

Houthi attacks on commercial ships have upended global trade in vital Red Sea corridor
18 December 2023 - The attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi rebels have scared off some of the world's top shipping companies and oil giants, effectively rerouting global trade away from a crucial artery for consumer goods and energy supplies that is expected to trigger delays and rising prices. ...Both oil and European natural gas prices rose partly over market nerves about attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis, who confirmed two new attacks Monday [18 Dec]. It is the latest targeting of container ships and oil tankers passing through a narrow waterway that separates Yemen from East Africa and leads north to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, through which an estimated 10 percent of the world's trade passes. (more)

The terrible toll on women of Yemen's war
16 April 2023 - The United Nations has called Yemen's humanitarian crisis one of the worst in the world, with two-thirds of the population -- around 21.6 million people -- needing some form of aid in 2023. Eight years of fighting between government-aligned forces -- backed by a Saudi-led military coalition -- and the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels -- who control Sanaa and much of the west of the country -- have taken a heavy toll on the population, especially women and children. (more)

Tanker off Yemen risks spilling four times as much oil as Exxon Valdez - U.N.
15 July 2020 - If action is not taken to deal with a deteriorating oil tanker stranded off the coast of war-torn Yemen there is a risk it could spill four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster near Alaska, the United Nations warned on Wednesday [15 July]. The Safer tanker is carrying 1.1 million barrels of crude oil and has been stranded off Yemen's Red Sea oil terminal of Ras Issa for more than five years. (more)

Land mines will be hidden killer in Yemen decades after war
24 December 2018 - They lurk under shifting desert sands, amid the debris of urban roadsides and inside abandoned schools, some set to go off at the lightest touch. Land mines scattered by Yemen's Houthi rebels are largely unmapped and will remain a threat even if the latest push for peace succeeds in halting the conflict, those involved in their eradication say. (more)

Yemen conflict could push millions more to brink of famine: U.N.
15 October 2018 - The number of Yemenis on the brink of famine could rise to 12 million -- or two in five of the population -- from around 8.5 million in coming months due to escalating war and a deepening economic crisis, the United Nations food agency said on Monday (15 October). Yemen has been torn apart by more than three years of civil war between the internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition and based in the south, and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls the north, including the capital Sanaa. The nation of some 30 million is the Arabian peninsula's poorest. (more)

'Five million' Yemeni children face famine
19 September 2018 - A further one million children are at risk of famine in Yemen, Save the Children has warned. Rising food prices and the falling value of the Yemeni currency as a result of the conflict are putting more families at risk of food insecurity. But another threat comes from fighting around the key port city of Hudaydah, which is the entry point for most aid to the country's rebel-held areas. The charity says a total of 5.2 million children in Yemen now face famine. (more)

Yemen's plunging economy threatens to kill more people than war - aid agency
4 September 2018 - Yemen's tanking economy threatens to kill more people than bombs and guns, an aid agency warned on Tuesday (4 September) as the currency hit its lowest level ever, compounding the world's biggest hunger crisis. he Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said soaring food prices were pushing many people closer to the brink in a country where millions are already close to famine. Three-quarters of Yemen's population -- 22 million people -- are in need of humanitarian assistance. (more)

Beekeeping in Yemen becomes a dangerous profession in war
7 August 2018 - Yemen's beekeepers risk air strikes and land mines as they traverse the country's valleys, transporting their hives on pick-up trucks to produce some of the world's finest honey. The impoverished Arab state, known for its Sidr honey made from the jujube tree, has endured three years of war that have pushed it to the verge of famine and shattered the economy. (more)

'Catastrophic' risk of death for 300,000 Yemeni children trapped by attack
13 June 2018 - Some 300,000 children risk death, injury, and starvation as they are trapped in Yemen's main port city which is under assault from Saudi-led Arab states, aid groups said on Wednesday (13 June). The biggest battle in a three-year war, which has already created the world's biggest humanitarian crisis, centers on Hodeidah, the main route for food and aid to reach most Yemenis, 8.4 million of whom are on the verge of famine. (more)