Here is the latest top stories from Press TV on April 1st, 2021.
Yemen retaliation
The Yemeni army says it has launched a new attack on Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the kingdom’s ongoing war on the country. Army spokesman Yahya Sare’e says the attack hit the Saudi capital Riyadh, using four drones. He says important targets were hit there. He says the Yemeni army has a legitimate right to respond to the Saudi aggression and blockade. Sare’e warned that the retaliatory attacks will continue as long as Riyadh’s airstrikes and its blockade continue. Saudi Arabia launched its war on Yemen six years ago. Tens of thousands of Yemenis, mostly civilians, have lost their lives as a result.
Bahrain crackdown
Bahrain’s most prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim has called for the release of political prisoners amid the pandemic. According to Bahraini media, Sheikh Qassim called on the Al-Khalifa regime to choose between the deaths of the inmates or their release. He said one of the worst things a government can do is to keep prisoners as leverage for political bargaining. Human rights organizations have already criticized Bahrain over the situation of its prisons. The facilities are said to be overcrowded and lacking proper sanitation. Concerns have grown recently because of the spread of coronavirus in prison centers. Thousands of political activists and opposition figures are in Bahraini jails as part of a crackdown on a 2011 popular uprising.
Kazakh president Covid-19 vaccine threat
Kazakhstan’s president has criticized the pace of Covid-19 vaccination in his country, threatening to sack the cabinet if it fails to speed up the rollout. According to the president’s office, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the government had failed to secure sufficient vaccine supplies in advance. He said only 0.2% of the country’s population has been inoculated so far. Tokayev warned that the pandemic is a threat to national security and the country’s economy. Kazakhstan launched its nationwide vaccination campaign in February. However, out of the country’s population of over 18 million, only 47,000 people have so far received the two required shots of the vaccine. The Central Asian country has so far confirmed nearly 300,000 coronavirus infections and more than 32,000 deaths.