Houthis organizes massive rallies across Yemen to show solidarity with Iran

China

Houthis organizes massive rallies across Yemen to show solidarity with Iran

2025-06-21 16:11 Last Updated At：21:27

Yemen's Houthis on Friday organized massive rallies in Sanaa and over 400 other locations to show solidarity with Iran and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, denouncing the recent Israeli strikes on Iran.

Carrying the slogan "Steadfast with Gaza and Iran against Israeli and American crimes," the demonstrators expressed support for Gaza and Tehran amid the escalating regional tensions.

"Our participation in today's march, 'Steadfast with Gaza and Iran against the Zionist-American aggression,' is an expression of support, solidarity, and cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran in the face of the brutal and unjust aggression. It is subjected to an aggression that contradicts all laws, charters, and international norms," said Adnan Ghaithan, a protester.

"We are here in Al-Sabeen Square, in the land of faith and wisdom --Yemen-- standing firm and steadfast with Gaza and with Iran against Zionist-American crimes. We support the Iranian strikes and salute the Iranian armed forces for carrying them out. We stand with them and by their side," said Khaled Al-Mutairi, another protester.

Participants raised Palestinian and Iranian flags while chanting slogans condemning Israeli airstrikes on civilian areas and infrastructure in Iran.

They called for international actions to stop what they described as violations and to end U.S. military assistance for Israel.

"This aggression poses a serious threat to international peace and security, as the attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran endanger maritime routes, global economic projects," said Mohammed Muftah, first deputy prime minister of Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah.

The marches came just hours after a televised speech by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Ansar Allah group.

In his speech, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi declared full solidarity for Iran's actions, noting that Yemen's position will remain aligned with Tehran and Gaza, and against what he called "American and Israeli aggression."

The rallies were the first since the direct military confrontation broke out between Israel and Iran.

On June 13, Israeli airstrikes inside Iran killed several senior military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians. Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Israeli targets, causing casualties and significant damage. Israel and Iran are trading air attacks as the conflict enters second week.

New homegrown electronics help stabilize long-distance power transmission

Engineers in China are turning to a new generation of homegrown electronics to tackle the challenge of transporting power across thousands of kilometers to cities across the country as it expands renewable energy generation in its western regions.

At a converter station in eastern China's Zhejiang Province, the electricity coming into this station has traveled more than 2,000 kilometers from northwest China's Gansu Province, across deserts and vast stretches of wilderness.

To transmit such a large amount of electricity over such a long distance without too much loss, it needs to raise the DC transmission voltage to ±800 kilovolts.

But compared with other projects of a similar scale, this one comes with an additional challenge -- the electricity is coming from renewable sources.

The wind blows when it wants to, and the sun can disappear behind a cloud, so renewable power can fluctuate dramatically. And if wind and solar output in Gansu changes too quickly, those fluctuations can put serious stress on the power grid. Managing that variability has been one of the biggest challenges facing renewable energy for decades.

Now there is a way to deal with it. The key lies in one of the high-tech components. It is called the IGBT, a semiconductor device about the size of a fingernail.

It essentially works like a high-speed electrical switch. By switching on and off at high frequency, it can help stabilize the voltage within milliseconds, even when the grid is hit by a lightning strike or experiences sudden fluctuations.

But this "switch" is extremely demanding. In the past, limitations in materials and manufacturing meant it could only operate under relatively low current loads. But this project operates at ±800 kilovolts. The voltage and current that each tiny device has to handle can be enough to cause it to fail.

Now, Chinese-made IGBTs have reached the performance standards required for an application of this kind. And deploying this technology on a project of this scale is a world first.

"With domestically produced components, converter valves and transformers, costs will fall further, enabling wider applications," said Zhang Mingjia, an engineering technology management specialist at State Grid Zhejiang Construction Company.