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LAGOS, Nigeria — When a small number of cases of locally transmitted malaria were found in the United States last year, it was a reminder that climate change is reviving or migrating the threat of some diseases. But across the African continent malaria has never left, killing or sickening millions of people. Take Funmilayo Kotun, a 66-year-old resident of Makoko, an informal neighborhood in Nigeria's Lagos city. Its ponds of dirty water provide favorable breeding conditions for malaria-spreading mosquitoes. Kotun can't afford insecticide-treated bed nets that cost between $7 and $21 each, much less antimalarial medications or treatment. For World Malaria Day on Thursday, here is what you need to know about the situation in Africa: Malaria is still widespread The malaria parasite mostly spreads to people via infected mosquitoes and can cause symptoms including fever, headaches and chills. It mostly affects children under 5 and pregnant women. Vaccine efforts are still in early stages: Cameroon this year became the first country to routinely give children a new malaria vaccine, which is only about 30% effective and doesn't stop transmission. A second vaccine was recently approved. On Thursday, WHO announced that three African countries — Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone — were rolling out vaccine programs for millions of children. Cases of resistance to antimalarial drugs and insecticides are increasing, while funding by governments and donors for innovation is slowing. Living conditions play a role, with crowded neighborhoods, stagnant water, poor sanitation and lack of access to treatment and prevention materials all issues in many areas. And an invasive species of mosquito previously seen mostly in India and the Persian Gulf is a new concern. A growing problem Globally, malaria cases are on the rise. Infections increased from 233 million in 2019 to 249 million in 85 countries in 2022. Malaria deaths rose from 576,000 in 2019 to 608,000 in 2022, according to the World Health Organization. Of the 12 countries that carry about 70% of the global burden of malaria, 11 are in Africa and the other is India. Children under 5 constituted 80% of the 580,000 malaria deaths recorded in Africa in 2022. COVID-19 hurt progress The fight against malaria saw some progress in areas such as rapid diagnostic tests, vaccines and new bed nets meant to counter insecticide resistance, but the COVID-19 pandemic and a shift in focus and funding set back efforts. A study published in Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease last year said COVID-19-induced lockdowns led to disruptions at 30% of rural community health service points across Africa. Malaria cases started spiking again, breaking a downward trend between 2000 and 2019. That downward trend could soon return, according to the WHO. A warming world and new frontiers Africa is "at the sharp end of climate change," and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events causes havoc in efforts to combat malaria in low- and middle-income regions, Peter Sands, the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, warned in December. In 2023, the WHO's World Malaria Report included a chapter on the link between malaria and climate change for the first time, highlighting its significance as a potential risk multiplier. Scientists worry that people living in areas once inhospitable to mosquitoes, including the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and the mountains of eastern Ethiopia, could be exposed. In Zimbabwe, which has recorded some of its hottest days in decades, malaria transmission periods have extended in some districts, "and this shift has been attributed to climate change," said Dr. Precious Andifasi, a WHO technical officer for malaria in Zimbabwe.

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MEXICO CITY — Mexican journalists held a vigil and protest Saturday a day after one of their colleagues was slain in the southern state of Morelos. They demanded a transparent investigation into the case and vented anger over the dangers news workers face in Mexico, which is one of the world's deadliest countries for journalists. Dozens joined in the demonstration over the killing of Roberto Figueroa, who covered local politics and gained a social media following through satirical videos. After disappearing Friday morning, he was found dead inside a car in his hometown of Huitzilac in Morelos, a state south of Mexico City where drug-fueled violence runs rampant. He was the first journalist to be killed this year in Mexico, which is the most dangerous country for journalists in the Western Hemisphere and has the highest number of missing journalists in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom watchdog. Mexican prosecutors promised a serious investigation, and the Morelos state government strongly condemned the killing. But in a country where press activists say pervasive corruption and impunity long have endangered reporters, Figueroa's colleagues carrying signs saying "Investigation now!" and chanting outside government offices in Morelos said they were losing patience with authorities. "Neither the state government nor the attorney general do anything to stop the crimes that are multiplying," Jaime Luis Brito, a correspondent for left-wing magazine Proceso wrote in a statement of protest. "No one in Morelos is safe. ... Every day we count victims." Mexican media said Figueroa was abducted by gunmen after taking his daughters to school in in Huitzilac, which is about 70 kilometers from Mexico City. The kidnappers called his family demanding a ransom in exchange for his life, but he was killed even though Figueroa's wife delivered the payment, the reports said. Police discovered Figueroa's body along a dirt road Friday night. Prosecutors declined to discuss details or the case or speculate on who killed him and why. Media workers are regularly targeted in Mexico, often in direct reprisal for their work covering topics like corruption and the country's notoriously violent drug traffickers. Figueroa focused his reporting in recent months on the upcoming Mexican elections. His colleagues described him as critical of governance in Morelos. Since 2000, 141 Mexican journalists and other media workers have been slain, at least 61 of them in apparent retaliation for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists says. All but a handful of the killings and abductions remain unsolved. "Impunity is the norm in crimes against the press," the group said in its report on Mexico last month.

Baghdad — Iraq's parliament passed a bill on Saturday criminalizing same-sex relations, making them punishable by up to 15 years in prison, a move rights groups condemned as an "attack on human rights." Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 out of 329 lawmakers. A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, which campaigners had called a dangerous escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to between 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the document seen by AFP. Gay and transgender people in Iraq already face frequent attacks and discrimination. They also set a minimum seven-year prison term for "promoting" same-sex relations and a sentence ranging from one to three years for men who "intentionally" act like women. The amended law makes "biological sex change based on personal desire and inclination" a crime and punishes transgender people and doctors who perform gender-affirming surgery with up to three years in prison. Homosexuality is taboo in Iraq's conservative society, however there had not previously been a law that explicitly punished same-sex relations. Members of Iraq's LGBTQ community have been prosecuted for sodomy or under vague morality and anti-prostitution clauses in Iraq's penal code. "Iraq has effectively codified in law the discrimination and violence members of the LGBTI community have been subjected to with absolute impunity for years," said Amnesty International's Iraq researcher Razaw Salihy. "The amendments concerning LGBTI rights are a violation of fundamental human rights and put at risk Iraqis whose lives are already hounded daily," Salihy added. The amendments also ban organizations that "promote" homosexuality and punish "wife swapping" with a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years. "The law serves as a preventive measure to protect society from such acts," lawmaker Raed al-Maliki, who advanced the amendments, told AFP. He said passing the new amendment was postponed until after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani's visit to the United States earlier this month. The United States and the European Union oppose the law and "we didn't want to impact the visit," he said. "It is an internal matter and we do not accept any interference in Iraqi affairs." The U.S. State Department is "deeply concerned" about the legislation, spokesperson Matt Miller said Saturday, adding that the law threatens those most at risk in Iraqi society and "undermines the government's political and economic reform efforts." LGBTQ Iraqis have been forced into the shadows, often targeted with "kidnappings, rapes, torture and murders" that go unpunished, according to a 2022 report by Human Rights Watch and the IraQueer non-governmental organization. Human Rights Watch's Iraq researcher Sarah Sanbar said the new law "is a horrific development and an attack on human rights." "Rather than focusing on enacting laws that would benefit Iraqis — like passing the draft domestic violence law or draft child protection law — Iraq is choosing to codify discrimination against LGBT people," she said. 

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santiago, chile — Armed assailants ambushed and killed three law enforcement officers in southern Chile on Saturday before setting their car on fire, authorities said, the latest attack on police to revive security concerns in the South American country.  It remains unclear who carried out the assault on Chile's national police force in the Biobio region some 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) south of Santiago, the capital. But a long-simmering conflict between the Mapuche Indigenous community and landowners and forestry companies in Biobio and Chile's Araucania region farther south has intensified in recent years. That has prompted the government to impose a state of emergency and deploy the military to provide security.  "There will be no impunity," Chilean President Gabriel Boric said, declaring three days of national mourning Saturday, after firefighters dousing the burning police car made the grisly discovery.  The spate of bloodshed has tested Boric, who came to power in 2022 promising to ease tensions in the region, where armed Mapuche activists long have stolen timber and attacked forestry companies that they claim invaded their ancestral lands, among other targets like churches and national institutions.  But the Indigenous community's distrust of authorities has deepened, spurring violence even as Boric's administration has touted its success in reducing Chile's national homicide rate by 6%, according to government figures from 2023 published earlier this week.  "This attack goes against all the enormous strides that have been made," said Interior Minister Carolina Toha, a center-left former mayor of Santiago appointed as minister in late 2022 to boost Boric's position as his approval ratings dipped.  Describing the assailants as "terrorists," Boric traveled south to personally offer condolences to the victims' families. The Carabineros, Chile's national police force, said they were "working to the best of our abilities" to catch the assailants but declined to comment on possible leads.  The killing had been well planned, early reports suggest, timed to coincide with National Police Day, celebrating the 97th anniversary of the establishment of the Carabineros in Chile. It was the second such fatal attack on the force this month.  The Carabineros' general director, Ricardo Yanez, told reporters the officers had been dispatched in response to fake distress calls from the rural road, where they were met with a barrage of gunfire.  "This was not coincidental, it was not random," Yáñez said of the ambush.  In Chile, around 1 in 10 citizens identify as Mapuche, the tribe that resisted Spanish conquest centuries ago and was only defeated in the late 1800s after Chile won its independence. Large forestry companies and farm owners control an estimated 500-700 kilometers (about 435 miles) of the land originally belonging to the Mapuche, many of whom now live in rural poverty. 

london — Former U.S. President Donald Trump said he is ready to renew a right-wing alliance with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban if he wins the presidential election in November.     The presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee made the comments in an address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Europe, which was held in Budapest on Thursday and Friday.  The conference has long been a powerful force in right-wing American politics. The first European edition of the conference was held in Budapest in 2022 and has been an annual fixture since.     Orban, the host and keynote speaker, received a standing ovation as he told the audience that conservatives had a chance to seize power in a major election year.   "These elections coincide with major shifts in world political and geopolitical trends. The order of the world is changing, and we must take our cause to triumph in the midst of these changes. … Make America great again, make Europe great again! Go Donald Trump, go European sovereigntists!" Orban told a delighted crowd.  He claimed that liberal forces were trying to silence the political right.   "This is what they are doing with the conservatives in the progressive liberal European capitals. The same thing is happening in the United States when they want to remove [former] President Donald Trump from the ballot with court rulings," he said.  'Battling to preserve our culture' In a recorded address to the conference, Trump said he was ready to renew a conservative alliance with Orban.   "Together we're engaged in an epic struggle to liberate our nations from all of the sinister forces who want to destroy them," Trump said. "Every day we're battling to preserve our culture, protect our sovereignty, defend our way of life and uphold the timeless values of freedom, family and faith in Almighty God."   "As president I was proud to work with Prime Minister Orban — by the way, a great man — to advance the values and interests of our two nations," Trump said.      Orban's critics, including most of his European Union allies, accuse him of overseeing a backsliding of democracy. The Hungarian prime minister sees an opportunity to hit back, said Zsolt Enyedi, a political analyst at Central European University in Budapest.    "Orban has an ambition to change the discourse, so he's not simply someone who is, who cares about staying in office, but he also wants to have an impact on the ideological climate, and he thinks that by sponsoring particular friendly parties, governments and intellectual clubs and initiatives, he will emerge as the leader of this conservative movement and that can counterbalance the fact that the mainstream in Europe and in liberal democracies hates him," Enyedi told VOA.  Another of the keynote speakers at the CPAC conference was the Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who is facing anti-government protests at home over a controversial proposed foreign agent law, which has been widely compared to similar Russian legislation. The EU has said the law would be incompatible with Georgia's membership in the bloc.  "(Kobakhidze) at the moment is turning his country more and more toward Russia, trying to in a way turn his back on the European Union, and interestingly, he is welcome at a club that is supposed to stand for the interest of the West. So, these kinds of strategic alliances are possible, because all speak the language of culture wars," Enyedi said.  Orban faces challenges at home While right-wing parties are expected to do well in June's European parliamentary elections, Orban's Fidesz party is battling an economic crisis alongside a series of political scandals.   The U.S. presidential election is set for November 5. Polls suggest a tight race between Trump and incumbent Joe Biden. 

cairo — After the latest attack in the Red Sea on a British oil tanker, a top Houthi official in the Yemeni capital is vowing to attack U.S. interests across the region, including military bases on the east coast of Africa in Djibouti, Eritrea and elsewhere. Some commentators think this is part of an Iranian strategy to increase Tehran's influence in the Middle East. Arab media reports that Yemen's Houthis — who control much of the north of the country and part of its Red Sea coast —attacked a British oil tanker, the Andromeda Star. U.S. military sources indicated the ship was slightly damaged by three missiles fired by the Houthis. A U.S. drone struck targets in Yemeni territory controlled by the Houthis to retaliate. The Houthis' military spokesperson, Yehya Saree, claimed in a video statement aired by Arab media that Houthi forces "hit the Andromeda Star directly," and that the Houthis' air defenses also shot down a U.S. drone flying over Houthi-controlled territory. He said that [Houthi forces] fired the "appropriate-sized missiles" to target the ship, hitting it directly, adding that Houthi air defense units also shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone over the Houthi bastion of Saadeh in the far north of Yemen. Official threatens US A top Houthi political official in Sana’a, Hussein al Ezzi, also threatened the U.S. in a tweet Saturday, saying that his group — which controls the capital, but is not recognized by most countries as the official government of the country — "will attack U.S. interests or targets all across the region." Sky News Arabia, based in the United Arib Emirates, claimed the Houthis "may attack U.S. military forces in Djibouti, Eritrea or Somalia." It is not clear that the Houthis have the technology to undertake such a feat. London-based Iran analyst Mehrdad Khonsari told VOA that he thinks Tehran is agitating its Houthi militia proxies to keep the focus off Iran's most important regional ally, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, which he thinks Israel would like to destroy or severely damage. "Exerting pressure on the Americans and the Europeans – including raising insurance costs – are important to Iran at this time to try to prevent the Israelis or the Americans or Europeans from dealing with issues of much, much greater concerns to [Tehran]: namely the potential Israeli degradation of Hezbollah, which would mean the collapse of Iran's entire regional policy and proxy policy," said Khonsari. Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, argued that he thinks Iran is using all of its proxy forces, including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Iraq's pro-Iranian Shi'ite militias, to "maintain a strong position in an eventual negotiation with the U.S. after the 2024 elections, if President Joe Biden is re-elected. He said that Iran is pulling the strings and agitating its militia forces across the region to tell Hamas (in Gaza) that we are not letting you down, and to eventually have the upper hand when it comes time to go to the negotiating table after U.S. elections in 2024. Abou Diab went on to assert that Iran has "two main objectives, the first being to continue with its nuclear program and the second is that, with all the ongoing anarchy in the region, everyone had forgotten about Iran's nuclear program as it increases its uranium enrichment capacity. "Finally," he argued, "Iran is waiting to negotiate with the Biden administration, as it did with the Obama administration, a new nuclear agreement." Joshua Landis, who heads the Middle East studies program at the University of Oklahoma, told VOA the conflict in Gaza is causing side effects on multiple fault lines in the Middle East, as well as the rest of the world. Meanwhile, in Cairo, Egypt continued Saturday to try and broker an agreement between Hamas and Israel to bring a cease-fire to the Gaza conflict. Most regional observers, however, are not optimistic about a breakthrough.

Beirut — Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said Saturday it had targeted northern Israel with drones and guided missiles after cross-border Israeli strikes killed three people, including two of its members. A statement from the group said it "launched a complex attack using explosive drones and guided missiles on the headquarters of the Al Manara military command and a gathering of forces from the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade." The Israeli army said its Iron Dome air-defense system "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into the area of Manara in northern Israel." The army also "struck the sources of fire" of several anti-tank missiles launched from Lebanon into the Manara border area, it added. Lebanon's National News Agency later reported that an Israeli airstrike on a house in Srebbine village had wounded 11 people, one seriously. Earlier Saturday, Israeli fighter jets "struck a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Qouzah in southern Lebanon," the army said in a statement. The border between Lebanon and Israel has seen near-daily exchanges of fire since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began nearly seven months ago. In two separate statements earlier Saturday, Hezbollah mourned the deaths of two fighters from the villages of Kfar Kila and Khiam. It said they had been "martyred on the road to Jerusalem," the phrase it uses to refer to members killed by Israeli fire. Overnight Saturday to Sunday Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets at the Israeli military base at Meron, northern Israel. The group said it was in reprisal for Israeli attacks on civilian homes at several places in southern Lebanon, including Kfar Kila and Srebbine. An Israeli army statement said its Iron Dome system had succeeded in intercepting missiles fired toward northern Israel from Lebanon's al-Manara region. It added that it had fired at "military infrastructure" in the village of Srebbine. Hezbollah has intensified its targeting of military sites in Israel since tensions soared between Israel and Iran over the bombing of Tehran's Damascus consulate on April 1, widely blamed on Israel. 

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LONDON — Two Russian journalists were arrested by their government on extremism charges and ordered by courts there on Saturday to remain in custody pending investigation and trial on accusations of working for a group founded by the late Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny. Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin both denied the charges. They will be detained for at least two months before any trials begin. Each faces a minimum of two years in prison and a maximum of six years for alleged "participation in an extremist organization," according to Russian courts. They are the latest journalists arrested amid a Russian government crackdown on dissent and independent media that intensified after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. The Russian government passed laws criminalizing what it deems false information about the military, or statements seen as discrediting the military, effectively outlawing any criticism of the war in Ukraine or speech that deviates from the official narrative. A journalist for the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, Sergei Mingazov, was detained on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military, his lawyer said Friday. Gabov and Karelin are accused of preparing materials for a YouTube channel run by Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which has been outlawed by Russian authorities. Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony in February. Gabov, who was detained in Moscow, is a freelance producer who has worked for multiple organizations, including Reuters, the court press service said. Reuters did not immediately comment on the ruling by the court. Karelin, who has dual citizenship with Israel, was detained Friday night in Russia's northern Murmansk region. Karelin, 41, has worked for several outlets, including The Associated Press. He was a cameraman for German media outlet Deutsche Welle until the Kremlin banned the outlet from operating in Russia in February 2022. "The Associated Press is very concerned by the detention of Russian video journalist Sergey Karelin," the AP said in a statement. "We are seeking additional information." Russia's crackdown on dissent is aimed at opposition figures, journalists, activists, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and ordinary Russians critical of the Kremlin. A number of journalists have been jailed in relation to their coverage of Navalny, including Antonina Favorskaya, who remains in pretrial detention at least until May 28 following a hearing last month. Favorskaya was detained and accused by Russian authorities of taking part in an "extremist organization" by posting on the social media platforms of Navalny's Foundation. She covered Navalny's court hearings for years and filmed the last video of Navalny before he died in the penal colony. Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokesperson, said that Favorskaya did not publish anything on the Foundation's platforms and suggested that Russian authorities have targeted her because she was doing her job as a journalist. Evan Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American reporter for The Wall Street Journal, is awaiting trial on espionage charges at Moscow's notorious Lefortovo Prison. Both Gershkovich and his employer have vehemently denied the charges. Gershkovich was detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent more than a year in jail; authorities have not detailed what, if any, evidence they have to support the espionage charges. Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was taken into custody on Oct. 18 and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent while collecting information about the Russian military. Later, she was also charged with spreading "false information" about the Russian military. A court in Tatarstan ordered her to remain behind bars at least until June 5. The Russian government has also cracked down on opposition figures. One prominent activist, Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years. 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump says he is ready to renew a right-wing alliance with Hungary’s Viktor Orban if he wins the election in November. The presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee made the comments in an address to the CPAC conservative conference in Budapest. As Henry Ridgwell reports, analysts say Orban seeks a global conservative movement that is hoping for success at the ballot box in a crucial election year.

madrid — Thousands of supporters and members of Spain's Socialist party rallied outside the party's national headquarters in Madrid on Saturday to show support for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and urge him not to step down.  Sanchez stunned Spain when he announced Wednesday that he was canceling his itinerary while he considers whether to resign after what he described as a "smear campaign" against his wife. He said he would reveal his plans Monday.  Sanchez's shocking announcement came hours after a Spanish judge opened a preliminary investigation into allegation of corruption made against Sanchez's wife by a group aligned with right-wing interests. The Spanish leader said the allegations were "spurious" and that they formed the worst attack in what he described as an orchestrated campaign to discredit him by targeting his family. The Madrid regional prosecutor's office recommended the allegations be thrown out.  The crowd packing the downtown street of Madrid on Saturday shouted, "You are not alone!" and waved party flags. Socialist leaders and the leaders of other left-wing parties have urged Sanchez not to resign. Prime minister since 2018, Sanchez has more than three years left of his term.  The right-of-center opposition Popular Party, however, said Sanchez's behavior was a desperate attempt to draw attention away from his wife and win support in upcoming regional and European elections. 

Washington — Security was tight Saturday at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner where President Joe Biden will make what is a traditionally lighthearted address amid protests and boycott calls over the conflict in Gaza. A long list of VIP guests, including journalists and celebrities from Chris Pine to Molly Ringwald, arrived in black-tie attire as demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and shouting slogans such as "You have blood on your hands" rallied near the entrance to the Washington Hilton hotel. At the banquet, in keeping with longstanding tradition, interrupted during the Donald Trump years, Biden will sit on the dais keeping a steady smile on his face as a guest comedian rips into him. The event comes as Biden's has been shadowed for months by protesters angry over U.S. support for the Israeli military offensive in Gaza. He has been met by shouts of "Genocide Joe" and noisy calls for an immediate cease-fire. More than two dozen Palestinian journalists this week issued an open letter urging their American colleagues to boycott the dinner. "You have a unique responsibility to speak truth to power and uphold journalistic integrity," the letter said. "It is unacceptable to stay silent out of fear or professional concern while journalists in Gaza continue to be detained, tortured and killed for doing our jobs." According to the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists, at least 97 journalists — including 92 Palestinians — have been killed since war erupted on October 7 with Hamas's invasion of southern Israel. At least 16 others have been wounded. The group Code Pink, part of an anti-war coalition planning demonstrations, said it intended to "shut down" the dinner to protest "the complicity of the Biden administration in the targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli military." It said its action would be "nonviolent" but offered no details. The gala dinner and a surrounding series of society events are taking place as the Gaza protest movement has been spreading to colleges across the country, and as police crackdowns on some campuses have led to hundreds of arrests. This year's comedian will be Colin Jost, a longtime writer and actor with NBC's Saturday Night Live. The 81-year-old Biden will follow with his own speech, sure to include some self-mockery, some ribbing of the press and, no doubt, some sharp-elbowed jabs at Trump, his presumptive opponent in November's presidential election. The annual dinner has been organized since 1920 by the influential White House Correspondents' Association, which honors top reporters and awards journalism scholarships. Last year, 2,600 people attended. The association declined an AFP request to comment on the boycott call and the planned demonstration.  

JERUSALEM — Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones Saturday, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft. The Houthis said they shot down the Predator with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating. The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country's Saada province. Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi's slogan after it was hit: "God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam." The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company. Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday's shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year. Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which the Hamas-controlled health ministry says has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage. The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons because of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.

Kano, Nigeria — Eleven militia fighters working alongside Nigeria's military to battle jihadis were killed Saturday in the country's northeast when their vehicle hit a landmine on a highway near the border with Cameroon, two militia sources told AFP.   Jihadis in Nigeria are increasingly resorting to planting mines on highways to target military and civilian convoys after they were pushed back from the territory they once controlled during the early years of the country's more than 15-year Islamist insurgency.  The militia fighters were escorting a civilian convoy from the town of Gamboru in Borno State to the regional capital Maiduguri when around 1230GMT their vehicle drove over a landmine suspected to have been planted by jihadis at Damno village, the two sources said.  "The rear tires of the vehicle carrying 13 of our comrades hit a wide pothole in which a landmine was buried, and it exploded," Shehu Mada, an anti-jihadi militia leader in Gamboru said. "Eleven people in the vehicle were killed while two escaped with injuries."   The victims were removed from the remains of the vehicle and returned to Gamboru for burial, said Usman Hamza, another militia leader who gave the same toll.   Nigeria's militant conflict has gradually eased in intensity as the military carries out offensives against the militants.   The Gamboru to Maiduguri highway is a strategic 140-kilometer (87-mile) trade route in the region and provides an important link with neighboring Cameroon.   The highway was reopened in July 2016 after it was shut by the military for two years due to incessant jihadi attacks.   Boko Haram and rival Islamic State West Africa Province  still launch sporadic ambushes on convoys from their hideouts and plant landmines along the highway.   In January, 17 people were killed along the highway in two separate mine blasts that were blamed on jihadis. Ten more people were killed by a landmine in April.  Nigeria's grinding conflict has killed 40,000 and displaced around 2 million from their homes in the northeast since 2009. The violence has spilled over into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.  The recent military coups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso and subsequent withdrawal of French and U.S. troops from the Sahel to Nigeria's north have heightened concerns over regional instability and violence extending farther into the coastal West African states. 

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Jakarta, Indonesia — A magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook the southern part of Indonesia's main island of Java on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of injury or significant property damage.  The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck 102 kilometers (63 miles) south of Banjar city at a depth of 68.3 kilometers (42.4 miles). There was no tsunami warning.  High-rises in the capital Jakarta swayed for around a minute and two-story homes shook in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung and in Jakarta's satellite cities of Depok, Tangerang, Bogor and Bekasi. The quake also was felt in other cities in West Java, Yogyakarta and East Java province, according to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency.  The agency warned of possible aftershocks.  Earthquakes are frequent across the sprawling archipelago nation, but they are rarely felt in Jakarta.  Indonesia, a seismically active archipelago of 270 million people, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on major geological faults known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire."  A magnitude 5.6 earthquake in 2022 killed at least 602 people in West Java's Cianjur city. It was the deadliest in Indonesia since a 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi killed more than 4,300 people.  In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia's Aceh province. 

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