Latest / The Rest of the World Podcast / The Rest of the World Report | October 5, 2026 — Morning Edition

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The Rest of the World Report | October 5, 2026 — Morning Edition · The Rest of the World Podcast

• 0:00
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• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning from Paris.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez with The Rest of the World Report for Monday morning, October 5th.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Israel's Golani Brigade is out of southern Lebanon.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Israeli military announced the withdrawal on Wednesday, September 30th.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: It posted footage of troops leaving.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: The brigade belongs to the 36th Division,
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: and it spent seven months in what Israel now calls a security zone.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: The zone ran around Beaufort Ridge, the Shkif Heights, and Litani River.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: The military said the troops are leaving for a period of rest.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: It said more than 900 sites used by Hezbollah were destroyed during the deployment.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: That figure is the Israeli military's own.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: The reports on the announcement do not say what replaces the brigade.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: The departure was visible six days earlier.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: A September 24th report put the Israeli military's force in southern Lebanon
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  SPEAKER_00: at six brigades down from eight.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Four units left.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were the Commando Brigade,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Galani Brigade,
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  SPEAKER_00: the 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade, And the 4th Armored Reserve Brigade.
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  SPEAKER_00: Two more arrived.
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  SPEAKER_00: The 188th Armored Brigade and the Ground Forces Training School Brigade.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: A military source said the cut would ease the manpower burden and let reservists go home.
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  SPEAKER_00: The deployment began in March.
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  SPEAKER_00: March 11th,
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  SPEAKER_00: Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zemir moved a Galani combat team
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  SPEAKER_00: from Southern Command to Northern Command.
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  SPEAKER_00: The order followed a situational assessment during Operation Roaring Lion.
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  SPEAKER_00: This fighting with Hezbollah intensified.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: In late May, Galani soldiers were among the forces that captured Beaufort Castle.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they raised the flag of Israel and the flag
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: of the brigade over it.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: He called the capture a dramatic shift in Israel's campaign against Hezbollah.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Israel's air campaign in Lebanon ran through September.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: On October 1st, the Israeli military gave its count.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: The air forces struck more than 370 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It hit more than 500 objectives across Lebanon and Gaza combined.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited the south.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was his fourth visit to Nabatea and the Tyre.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: He called on Israel to withdraw and stop its attacks.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: He said the ceasefire must be consolidated and captives released.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: He told Southerners, the state's means do not match their needs.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: You are not alone, he said.
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  SPEAKER_00: A new round of Lebanese-Israeli talks is scheduled for the second half of October
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  SPEAKER_00: in Tampa, Florida.
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  SPEAKER_00: The date is potentially October 20th.
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  SPEAKER_00: Military delegations from both sides will attend.
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  SPEAKER_00: The agenda is military matters and security arrangements.
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  SPEAKER_00: A first pilot zone would include the southern towns of Fron, Srifa, and Zawtar al-Sharkia.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lebanon's ambassador to the United States,
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  SPEAKER_00: Nada Hamadeh Mouad, thanked Secretary of State Marco Rubio ahead of the talks.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translators note,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Israeli military described the departures as a rest after seven months
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  SPEAKER_00: and 900 destroyed sites.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Jerusalem Post gave a different reason in its September 24th report.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: It said manpower and getting reservists home.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: The same report carried a warning for Oren Zinni, a reserve colonel and former commander.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said that without a hold on those areas,
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  SPEAKER_00: the enemy would escape with its forces and munitions.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Lebanese outlet Naharnat carried Salam's call for Israel to withdraw and
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  SPEAKER_00: the ceasefire to be consolidated.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: The New Arab headlined with the withdrawal together with the resumption of Lebanon-Israel talks.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Israel has pulled the Galani Brigade out of southern Lebanon after seven months.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: The military calls it a rest and a military source cited manpower.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lebanon and Israel are due to hold talks in Tampa, Florida in the second half of October.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lebanon's ambassador thanks Secretary of State Marco Rubio ahead of them.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Israel closed every crossing to the West Bank and Gaza on Monday.
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  SPEAKER_00: Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the closure on Sunday following military recommendations.
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  SPEAKER_00: It covers October 5th and October 7th, the third anniversary of the October 7th, 2023 attacks.
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  SPEAKER_00: Aid does not enter Gaza on those days.
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  SPEAKER_00: Only the Kerem Shalom crossing lets aid in, the World Health Organization said Saturday.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rafa allows limited movement of patients.
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  SPEAKER_00: Four other crossings are closed under Israeli control.
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  SPEAKER_00: The coordination of government activists in the territories, known as Kogat, gave one exception.
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  SPEAKER_00: Aid collection at the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom continues as usual.
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  SPEAKER_00: Kogat said the closure is not expected to have any impact on the humanitarian situation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israelis using West Bank checkpoints are exempt, and Palestinian health care workers may cross.
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  SPEAKER_00: Other Palestinians may cross only where the state has made commitments to
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  SPEAKER_00: the High Court of Justice.
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  SPEAKER_00: Every other case needs Kogat approval.
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  SPEAKER_00: The closure also covers the crossings around Bethlehem.
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  SPEAKER_00: The World Health Organization warned Saturday
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  SPEAKER_00: that repeated delays risked devastating consequences.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was speaking of medicines, prosthetics, and other supplies coming into Gaza from Israel.
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  SPEAKER_00: Medicines are moving relatively well by comparison, it said.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Almost 87% were approved and just over 1% rejected.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: One shipment of prosthetics and assistive devices have been rejected four times in six months.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: In Gaza, nearly 2 million people need shelter protection as winter approaches.
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  SPEAKER_00: Reinhilda van der Weert,
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  SPEAKER_00: a WHO representative,
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  SPEAKER_00: called on Israeli authorities to ease the pressure on medical supplies.
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  SPEAKER_00: She said essential medicines should not be treated as dual-use,
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  SPEAKER_00: meaning goods with both civilian and military uses.
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  SPEAKER_00: They are standard items any hospital or clinic needs, she said.
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  SPEAKER_00: She also said supplies that arrive too late do not save lives.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Israeli strikes continued in Gaza over the weekend.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: On Saturday, a strike on an apartment in Gaza City's Ramal neighborhood killed five.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: On Sunday, one Palestinian was killed when a vehicle was hit in Deir al-Bala.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Ten were injured.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Israeli military said a Hamas official was killed in an overnight apartment strike.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is not clear whether that was the Ramal strike.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: The military has not commented on the Sunday strike.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Since the Gaza ceasefire began in October 2025,
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: more than 1,440 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,000 wounded.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: In the West Bank on Saturday,
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  SPEAKER_00: Israeli settlers attacked about 50 olive pickers in villages near Nablus.
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  SPEAKER_00: They burned olive trees and smashed vehicles.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Israeli forces detained dozens of people, including activists and journalists.
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  SPEAKER_00: Palestinian authorities say settlers have killed 30 Palestinians in 2026.
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  SPEAKER_00: They say it is the most since 2022.
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  SPEAKER_00: The closure follows a week of restrictions for the Jewish holidays of Sukkot.
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  SPEAKER_00: From September 27th through October 4th,
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  SPEAKER_00: Palestinians were barred from Jewish areas in the West Bank.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Israeli military raised its West Bank deployment to 24 battalions,
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  SPEAKER_00: more than double the usual 11.
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  SPEAKER_00: The increase followed three recent terror incidents.
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  SPEAKER_00: Are they terror incidents or are they just people fighting back?
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  SPEAKER_00: Translators note.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: El Ahram reported the order as a shutdown of all West Bank and Gaza crossings.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: It stressed that no exceptions would be granted except in cases with prior approval.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Times of Israel led with Kogat's statement.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: The closure, it said, is not expected to have any impact on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
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  SPEAKER_00: Both reports describe the same order.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Israel has sealed every crossing into the West Bank and Gaza for October 5th and October 7th.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: No aid enters Gaza then.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Spain votes on Sunday, November 29th.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the election on Monday.
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  SPEAKER_00: Elections were not scheduled until 2027.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Friday,
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  SPEAKER_00: Congress rejected two housing decrees.
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  SPEAKER_00: One protected vulnerable tenants from eviction and gave landlords tax incentives.
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  SPEAKER_00: The other renewed leases automatically and compensated tenants.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Conservative People's Party,
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  SPEAKER_00: the far-right box, and the Catalan Separatist Party, Junts, voted against it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Together, they denied the government the majority it needed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Junts said it would oppose both decrees unless they were withdrawn.
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  SPEAKER_00: It said they did not protect small landlords enough,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the government refused to withdraw them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Earlier on Monday,
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  SPEAKER_00: before Sanchez spoke, the People's Party secretary, Miguel Teado, posted a video.
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  SPEAKER_00: He urged Sanchez to call elections as soon as possible.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Saturday, more than 70,000 people demonstrated in Madrid over the housing crisis.
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  SPEAKER_00: The anger has deepened after an 87-year-old woman was evicted from
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  SPEAKER_00: the home she had lived in for 70 years.
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  SPEAKER_00: An investment fund had bought her building and raised her rent
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  SPEAKER_00: over five times what she was already paying.
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  SPEAKER_00: The government faced other pressure.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: In late July, tens of thousands of migrants entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco.
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  SPEAKER_00: The People's Party and Vox call the government's response too slow.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sanchez defended the security forces.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Corruption investigations have reached figures close to the Socialist Party.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sanchez himself faces no charges, but the government has lost a string of votes in Congress.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sanchez leads a minority government.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: He's been Prime Minister since 2018 when he removed his predecessor in a no-confidence vote.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: He said he wants to renew people's support and win
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  SPEAKER_00: a much larger progressive majority for social reforms.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: A 40DB poll taken August 31st to September 2nd put the People's Party at 32.4%.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It put the Socialists at 27.6%, Vox at 17.8%, and Sumar at 5.7%.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: The People's Party and Vox together reached just over 50%.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: People's Party leader Alberto Núñez Fijo Box leader Santiago
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Abascal urged prudence
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  SPEAKER_00: about the polls.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yolanda Diaz from the left coalition blamed Fijo Abascal and others for the decree's defeat.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: She said the left is ready.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Translator's note.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Euronews framed the housing defeat as one of several blows.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: It listed the Ciuta crossings, the corruption cases, and the lost votes alongside it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Al Jazeera framed the call as a response to the housing crisis.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: It led with the Madrid march and the eviction.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Spain votes November 29th, earlier than scheduled.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sánchez called it after Congress rejected his housing decrease.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: The People's Party leads in the polls.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: It and Vox could win a majority together.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Houthi forces have cut the main road between Taiz and Adena.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: The Houthis are an Iran-backed movement that captured the capital, Sana'a, in 2014.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: They took the town of Turba on Sunday.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: It sits on the road between Taiz and Aden, the government's interim capital.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: The loss isolates Taiz,
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yemen's third largest city,
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  SPEAKER_00: and disrupts resupply for the troops defending Taiz' governorate.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: The Houthis already hold villages on the city's outskirts.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Taiz' governorate has 4.5 million people.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Heavy fighting centers on Jabal Khan, the mountain that overlooks Taiz' city.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Government forces say they have captured several areas, including Samah Fort.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Neither side has a decisive gain.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: On Friday, Yemen's army said it killed or wounded 1,540 Houthi fighters in 24 hours.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Army spokesman Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili announced the figure.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: He said government forces carried out nearly 500 operations.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: He called the numbers initial estimates.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: The claim has not been independently verified and no Houthi response was reported.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: The fighting has displaced people across Yemen.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: The International Organization for Migration counts more
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: than 149,000 people displaced, many of them more than once.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: The World Food Program said displaced families are arriving outside Eden
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: and around Taiz with no food or water.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: In accessible government-held areas, 74% of households cannot meet basic food needs.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: That is a record for this year.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Across the country, 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: On Sunday, Rashad al-Alimi announced an offensive.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: He is chairman of the Yemeni government's Presidential Leadership Council.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: In a televised address, he called it the battle for the state.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: He ordered the armed forces to retake the remaining Houthi-held territory.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: The operations include the Taiz front.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: A researcher at Chatham House,
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: a UK think tank, called the offensive meaningless given current military realities.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Saudi-led coalition,
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  SPEAKER_00: which backs the government, said it carried out 97 targeting operations on Sunday.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Saudi Major General Turki al-Malqai pledged full operational support to the government.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: The Houthi spokesman,
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yahya Sari,
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  SPEAKER_00: claimed the group fired ballistic missiles and drones
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: at two Saudi Aramco facilities.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Aramco is a Saudi state oil company.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: One is in Riyadh, the other near Koraes.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: He said the strike caused large fires.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: The claim is the Houthi's own.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know,
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Houthi forces cut the road between Taiz and Aden by taking Turba,
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yemen's government has announced an offensive to retake all Houthi-held territory.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: The Saudi-led coalition says it is backing the effort with air operations.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's it for this morning's edition.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez, and I'll see you all again this evening.
• 12:55
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