World News for Students of English

14-05-2021 07:00

The US Navy has seized a massive arms shipment aboard a dhow in the Arabian Sea.

Thousands of assault weapons, machine guns and sniper rifles were hidden on the vessel. The US Navy didn’t identify where the weapons originated, nor where they were going. However, the weapons resembled those of other shipments intended for Yemen’s Houthi rebels. An initial investigation suggested that the ship came from Iran, despite a US arms embargo.

Yemen is awash with weapons that have been smuggled into poorly controlled ports since the start of its civil war in 2014. The shipment comes as the US and other countries try to end a conflict that led to one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. The arms shipment shows that the war may still have far to run.

Difficult words: dhow (a sailing boat that is used mostly in the Arabian region), embargo (an official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country), awash (containing large amounts of something).

You can watch the video news lower on this page.