iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 30/09/2026

Londoners, I'll be chairing this event next week at the Frontline Club. Join us for a conversation about reporting beyond the news cycle, the ethics and intimacy of telling other people’s stories and the challenge of preserving individual lives within a humanitarian crisis of enormous scale. Link 👇

A flyer for an event at London's Frontline Club on Tuesday October 6th at 7pm. "Reporting on the Syrian Refugee Crisis"

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 26/09/2026

In a previous life… Although not as good a story as a year later in Australia, the shenanigans behind getting Excellerator to the Magic Millions (which he also won). Dick Francis would’ve been proud of that one. www.racingpost.com/news/people/...

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 11/09/2026

Dropped in at the old place…

A screenshot of an post from X. It reads: You know it’s been spicy when you hear Iona Craig on BBC.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 28/07/2026

Yemen’s Houthis claim a third attack this week on a vessel. This time it was a Saudi-flagged oil tanker, the NCC GHAZAL. (Translation in image ALT text)

Translation of a clip of a Houthi statement written in Arabic.

The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a military operation targeting the Saudi oil tanker NCC Ghazal for violating the maritime embargo imposed on the Saudi enemy and ignoring warning calls. The tanker was engaged with several ballistic missiles and, by the grace of God, forced to retreat and return.

The Armed Forces affirm their continued commitment to enforcing the maritime embargo on the Saudi enemy, adhering to the principle of responding to blockade with blockade and comprehensive escalation with comprehensive escalation

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 28/05/2026

“The UAE has profited from short-term plunder thinking it was creating long-term allies. This death spiral has nothing to offer the region.”

Text quote from Jacobean article about the United Arab Emirates linked to below

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 01/04/2026

35 years ago my father sent me this postcard from Kuwait. He describes seeing the “Kuwait oil fires cloud”. Today, on the 21st anniversary of his death, it feels like history has come around again. Among the many things I miss are the heated political debates we would’ve had in times like these.

An old postcard showing a British flag and a hand making the V sign with the words: Operation Desert Storm. Victory Kuwait 1991.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 09/03/2026

Let's not forget. The U.S. has form for lying about using Tomahawk missiles, especially when they kill lots of children. This was 2009 under the Obama administration. 41 civilians killed including 21 children. The lie and coverup went on for years.

A Yemeni man stands next to the remnants of a Tomahawk Cruise Missile in desert scrubland of Majala, Abyan, Yemen. The cruise missile carried cluster munitions that killed 21 children and was still killing children three years after it was fired into southern Yemen by the U.S. Navy in December 2009. Photo by Iona Craig

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 06/03/2026

A reminder from 10 months ago, the last time Britain and Starmer signed up to a deadly Trump bombing campaign. A 53 day-long air war that resulted in more than 700 civilian casualties, a number the US and Israel has already surpassed inside a week.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 28/02/2026

4️⃣ Most worryingly, it was clear in Trump’s bombing of Yemen that the threshold for civilian harm was reduced. At least 238 civilians were killed including 24 children in 342 US strikes. A further 467 civilians were injured including 31 children trump-yemen.airwars.org/operation-ro... ENDS (for now)

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 19/02/2026

Aden tonight. Saudi Arabia may have made the STC leadership announce its dissolution while being strong-armed, but that Saudi forced abandonment hasn’t transferred to the streets of Aden. Their attempt to erase the STC from behind a microphone in Riyadh is backfiring.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 19/02/2026

Footage purportedly from tonight in Aden outside the Maashiq Presidential Palace compound. Reports of injuries. *⚠️warning: sounds of heavy gunfire in this video⚠️*

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 27/01/2026

On this day 15 years ago in Sana’a, Yemen. 27 January 2011. The start of what was to be a very long year of witnessing history unravelling.

Thousands of demonstrators on the streets of Yemen’s capital Sana’a on 27 January 2011. The beginning of a year of protests and violence that brought to an end 33 years of rule by President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 09/01/2026

In the space of a less than a week, with whiplashing speed, the political map of Yemen went from the top image to the bottom.

Two maps of Yemen showing the areas of political control just five days apart with a dramatic change illustrated in just a few days.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 09/01/2026

The political leadership of the UAE-backed STC has announced the dissolution of itself. In a statement they distanced themselves from recent STC military actions. The organisation and its military force, which held the greatest amount of Yemen's territory two weeks ago, now no longer exists.

A clip from a statement released on 9 January 2026 by Yemen's Southern Transitional Council announcing the council is being dissolved.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 08/01/2026

I know there’s a lot going on in the world right now. But this spectacular fallout between Saudi and UAE is going to reshape the region and impact events beyond. It’s hard to overstate the Saudi anger at the UAE that’s expressed by revealing step-by-step details + officer names in the UAE operation

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 08/01/2026

The details the Saudis published of the Emirati operation shows that MbS is not going to forgive the UAE or MbZ anytime soon. Also summed up in the front page of this Saudi-owned paper. I wouldn’t rule out Saudi Arabia targeting Zubaydi in Abu Dhabi.

The front page of the English language Saudi-owned Arab News newspaper with the headline ‘Wanted: Aiderous Al Zubaidi”

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 02/01/2026

The thinly veiled Saudi vs UAE proxy war for control of Hadhramaut is on. National Shield Forces and Yemen Emergency Forces (Saudi-backed) took the 37th Armoured Brigade/Al-Khasha base by force with Saudi air cover. Further airstrikes at Seiyun airport and 1st Military Region HQ.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 25/12/2025

Added to UNSC statement yesterday, pressure on the STC is coordinated and mounting. However, UNSC statement stopped short of naming the STC, which illustrates a clear weakness of their position. Will Saudi use the military force of National Shield forces? That remains an increasingly urgent question

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 25/12/2025

This is the first public move by Saudi Arabia against the UAE-backed STC takeover in Hadhramaut and Al-Mahra. While it’s a call for the STC to withdraw, there’s nothing assertive about what happens if the STC ignores Saudis demand, other than a vague mention of ‘undesirable consequences’.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 04/12/2025

So far, the greatest resistance in the first 36 hours of the landgrab has been at Marib/Shabwa/Hadhramaut intersection: Arain military camp on high ground between two mountains to the west of old Shabwa(t), which I visited in 2021 (pic.). Arain camp reportedly changed hands 3x in under 24 hours.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 03/12/2025

On cue, Saudi delegation arrived in Al Riyan, Mukalla

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 03/12/2025

UAE-backed STC forces now claim to have taken control of Seiyun airport. Until today, northern Hadhramaut had avoided being embroiled in the violence of the war since 2014. UAE-backed forces have now brought the fight to them. Saudi Arabia will be the determining factor in what happens next.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 03/12/2025

A rude awakening for residents of Seiyun this morning. The UAE-backed STC forces that travelled up the country through Hadhramout yesterday, this morning began their fight to take control of the long-coveted First Military Zone from the Yemeni government (and Saudi-backed) army.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 04/09/2025

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 22/07/2025

This must stop. Israel must stop this mass starvation. Our lawmakers must do more. “Since AFP was founded in August 1944, some of our journalists were killed in conflict, others were wounded or made prisoner, but there is no record of us ever having had to watch our colleagues starving to death.”

A statement from AFP news agency warning that Gaza journalists are dying from hunger.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 04/05/2025

First time in a long time of writing for a printed newspaper. observer.co.uk/news/interna...

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 26/03/2025

Tonight, for the 5th time since Trump’s strikes in Yemen began, the RAF air tanker was back with the USS Harry S Truman providing air-to-air refuelling.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 24/03/2025

The fourth British RAF flight to support Trump’s airstrikes in Yemen is currently underway. The Voyager air tanker is now on its way back from the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, where fighter jets carrying out strikes in Yemen are being launched from.

A screenshot of flight tracking for an RAF Voyager air tanker, mapping its journey, on Monday 24 March, from Cyprus to the northern Red Sea.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 21/03/2025

British Royal Air Force KC2 Voyager flying from Cyprus yesterday evening to the USS Harry S Truman strike carrier group in the Red Sea. Further US strikes were launched from the aircraft carrier on Thursday evening, targeting Al-Hudaydah and Sa’ada governorates in Yemen.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 09/02/2025

Former FCO official details UK govt efforts to maintain illegal weapons sales. “I call on former colleagues…do not rubber-stamp reports that whitewash crimes against humanity. This is not self-defence – it is collective punishment. It is genocide. The time for silence is over” tinyurl.com/yeyur4a4

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 24/01/2025

Statement from U.N. in Yemen on staff detentions and suspension of movement in Houthi territory.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 07/01/2025

“In some cases” they will be allowed to see family.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 07/01/2025

In Jan 2017 I watched the first Trump inauguration with Khaled Qassim’s brother in Yemen. He’d hoped Trump would let Khaled come home. After more than 23 years of imprisonment and torture by the US he’s finally being released (but not allowed home) with 10 other Yemenis. www.npr.org/2025/01/06/n...

Art work by Khalid Qasim, done while he was being held for more than 20 years in Guantánamo. The piece is of a large sailboat on the ocean made with paint over gravel mixed with glue, in 2017

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 19/12/2024

There’s a clear difference between Israeli strikes in Yemen and those carried out by US-UK since January: Israel is targeting civilian infrastructure and ONLY civilian infrastructure, resulting in high rates of civilian harm. (Data below from Israeli strikes in Yemen prior to last night)

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 08/12/2024

The words of the great Yemeni poet Abdullah Al-Baradouni seem a fitting end to today’s events. He wrote ‘One Day’ in celebration of the 26 September 1962 overthrow of the Imamate that ruled Yemen for 44 yrs. (The Houthis now arrest those celebrating the date or posting about it on social media)

The poem ‘One Day’
by the late Yemeni poet Abdullah Al-Baradouni written in celebration of the September 1962 Yemeni revolution against the Imamate.
Translation by Hatem Al-Shamea

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 06/12/2024

Ten years ago today photo journalist Luke Somers was killed in Yemen. Thinking of that night, his brother Jordan and remembering some of the images Luke captured during his time in Yemen.

A large gathering of Yemenis against a mountain backdrop. An image captured by photographer Luke Somers before his death in Yemen on 6 Dec. 2014

A group of young Yemeni men in traditional dress stand on the back of a pickup truck and stare down the camera lens. An image captured by photographer Luke Somers before his death in Yemen on 6 Dec. 2014

A dramatic image of a line of Yemeni men in traditional dress passing in unison through a makeshift security barrier at a Houthi rally. An image captured by photographer Luke Somers before his death in Yemen on 6 Dec. 2014

Southern Yemeni protesters hold a giant PDRY flag that represents southern autonomy and their call for independence from the north. An image captured by photographer Luke Somers before his death in Yemen on 6 Dec. 2014

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 27/11/2024

The TV projector gifted to a friend in Yemen several years ago got another outing this evening. This time the “screen” was the side of a bus with the white back of an old poster draped over it for an authentic street viewing experience.

A TV projector plays a football match using the side of a bus as a screen. Viewers sit on the street to watch.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 11/10/2024

Tomorrow’s front page of The National (Scotland)…doing something no other western print media outlet is honest enough to do. Shame on all of them. #albagubràth

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 13/05/2024

In 46C/115F temperatures, not even getting below 40C/105F at night, Aden has no electricity. Tonight, some went out to protest against the corruption that leaves people for days without any respite from unimaginable heat. The ruling STC in Aden opened fire on them. 📸 Tonight outside Sadaqa hospital

Hospital patients lie on camp beds outside Sadaqa Hospital in Aden, Yemen.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 23/03/2024

Evergreen tweet from 12 years ago. This was at an iftar I was invited to with a group of Yemeni journalists in Sana’a. Still makes me chuckle. Sadly, this is a gathering that would never happen today. War shattered that possibility.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 27/02/2024

Official denial by Houthi authorities in Sana’a.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 05/02/2024

The actors change, the bombing remains the same.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 31/01/2024

British press are only ten years behind on the story. Perhaps if everyone had paid attention in 2014, we might not be in this current mess.

Screenshot of a 31st January 2024 Daily Mail story mapping the rapid Houthi takeover of Yemen in 2014.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 15/01/2024

Shipping transiting the Red Sea has dropped by more than a half since early December. Those still travelling through the Red Sea are now facing daily rises in insurance rates.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 11/01/2024

Not yet. But by the time I wake up for next round of interviews at 6:45am, I think it will have.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 10/01/2024

According to GCaptain, it’s all being deliberately downplayed. Apparently, we (or journalists like myself anyway) are not talking alarmingly enough about it.

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Iona Craig @ionacraig.com · 08/01/2024

Trying to understand who the Houthis are, what’s going on in the Red Sea and why it’ll impact you? This conversation with CBC’s Front burner podcast answers the questions you’d thought you’d never need to ask about the Houthis in Yemen and now in the Red Sea. www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-p...

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