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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has blamed Israel for a strike in Syria that killed four senior members of the group. 

"The Revolutionary Guards’ Syria intel chief, his deputy and two other Guards members were martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel," Iran’s Mehr news agency announced, citing an unnamed source. 

Nour News, another Iranian news agency that allegedly has close ties to the country’s intelligence networks, identified Gen. Sadegh Omidzadeh, intelligence deputy of the IRGC’s Quds Force in Syria, and his deputy among the dead. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that another Iranian and a Syrian — unidentified at this time — also died in the strike. 

The strike destroyed a building in the western Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh that the IRGC officials had allegedly used as a base of operations. The Syrian army claimed the Israeli Air Force fired the missiles while flying over the disputed Golan Heights region. 

PAKISTAN SEEKS TO DE-ESCALATE CRISIS WITH IRAN AFTER DEADLY AIRSTRIKES THAT SPIKED TENSIONS

The Israeli military has not issued any comment on the strike, though Israeli officials have rarely spoken about alleged strikes. 

Iran has blamed Israel for several strikes in Syria over the past two months, including a strike on Christmas Day that killed high-ranking Iranian Gen. Seyed Razi Mousavi, and another just a few days later that killed members of the Iran-backed Iraqi militant group Islamic Resistance and Hezbollah.

Iran retaliated this week by launching a strike on an alleged Israeli "spy headquarters" near the U.S. Consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, killing four civilians and injuring six more. 

Israel allegedly launched these strikes in retaliation for attacks by Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq since the start of the war in Gaza. The strikes in Syria aim to cut off a significant weapons supply line for the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, who have launched a series of strikes along the Israeli border, The Times of Israel reported. 

BIDEN'S IRAN NUCLEAR CONTAINMENT POLICY FAILING AS UN WARNS REGIME HAS ENOUGH MATERIAL FOR ‘SEVERAL’ WARHEADS

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday told his American counterpart Defense Sec. Gen. Lloyd Austin that Israel would soon decide on Lebanon and Hezbollah, stressing that Israel would prefer a diplomatic resolution but was "prepared to do this through military force." 

Gallant said on Friday, during a tour along the Lebanon border, that Israel "will not accept this reality for an extended period."

"There will come a moment when if we do not reach a diplomatic agreement in which Hezbollah respects the right of the residents to live here in security, we will have to ensure that security by force," Gallant declared. 

The U.S. and Israel remain divided on a resolution to the conflict, even after President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally spoke following a month-long gap in direct communication. 

IRANIAN PROXIES STEPPING UP THEIR DRONE ATTACKS IN WAR WITH ISRAEL

Biden has increased his calls for a two-state solution and Palestinian sovereignty, but Netanyahu this week made clear that he will never allow such developments as long as he remains in power. 

Netanyahu reiterated his belief that an independent Palestine would provide a base of operation for terrorist strikes, stressing that Israel "must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River," adding: "That collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can we do?"

"This truth I tell to our American friends, and I put the brakes on the attempt to coerce us to a reality that would endanger the state of Israel," Netanyahu said. 

Just under 25,000 people have died in Gaza, according to numbers reported by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry and repeated by agencies such as the BBC and Al-Jazeera. The IDF this week claimed that its forces have killed 9,000 Hamas militants since the beginning of operations in Gaza in October. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

JERUSALEM — As Israel wages a fierce war in Gaza against one of Iran’s best trained proxies, Hamas, the Islamic regime in Tehran is ramping up its effort to attack the Jewish State directly via social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Telegram. It's recruiting Israelis of Iranian origin for spying and spreading divisive misinformation, Israel’s Security Agency revealed in a statement this week. 

According to the agency, which is better known by its acronym, Shin Bet, Iranian security forces have succeeded in recent weeks in recruiting several Israeli citizens, setting them on missions such as photographing the residences of security establishment officials and of prominent figures who have publicly criticized Iran. 

Additionally, the Shin Bet said, the Iranians tasked their unwitting Israeli agents to send bouquets of flowers and messages to some of the families of those taken hostage by Hamas during its deadly Oct. 7 terror attack on southern Israel. The Shin Bet also said it had uncovered online platforms used by Iran to promote divisive activities against some of the families, including initiating protests near their homes and taking photos during the mass rallies that have been held weekly in Israel. 

Dr. Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told Fox News Digital Iran’s actions since the outbreak of the Gaza war following Hamas’ attack "shows that Iran is determined to weaken Israel and uses anything in its power to do so."

IRANIAN PROXIES STEPPING UP THEIR DRONE ATTACKS IN WAR WITH ISRAEL

Iran has been known to use cyber infiltration methods in the past, including a recent case in which four Jewish women of Iranian descent were recruited and asked to photograph sensitive sites by an Iranian operative in Turkey. Guzansky said, since the start of the current war, "the intensity of the attacks we have seen recently is much higher." 

"We are seeing Iran fighting Israel in a few dimensions," he said, "kinetically, through its proxies and in the cyber area. What is most interesting about the cyber area is that the attacks are directly from Iran." 

The Shin Bet said it had used advanced tools to detect fictitious online platforms clearly being directed and promoted from Tehran, the Iranian capital. Among the sites uncovered, the Israeli security agency said, were online surveys asking Israelis for personal information that was then used to recruit them for spying and a series of fake websites impersonating various Israeli political parties, as well as Israel’s national broadcasting authority, used by Iran to "inflame the political discourse and deepen the divide in Israel," the Shin Bet said.

"The Shin Bet, in cooperation with other Israeli security agencies, is taking active steps to monitor and thwart any activity that endangers the security of the State of Israel," the agency said in its statement. 

"Iran thinks — and it is not mistaken — that Israeli society has a soft spot," Guzansky said, using the example of Israel’s chaotic political system and the mass street protests earlier this year when hundreds of thousands rallied against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the judiciary. 

IRAN WARNS ATTACKS ON ISRAEL, US WILL CONTINUE AS LONG AS IDF REMAINS IN GAZA

He said Iran was always looking for ways to "pitch Israelis against one another." 

"They have used all sorts of messages online aimed at dividing and conquering Israel. It is as simple as that," said Guzansky. 

Dr. Meir Javedanfar, a lecturer in Iran Studies at Reichman University near Tel Aviv, who grew up in Tehran, told Fox News Digital Iran’s efforts to infiltrate and manipulate Israeli society were "very concerning for Iranian Israelis."

"Iranian Israelis are both a target and a victim of the Iranian regime’s policy of antagonism towards Israel," he said. "We are very concerned, not only because of Iran’s support for groups that want to kill Israelis, including Iranian Israelis, but also because Iran is trying to collect intelligence through us.

"We have seen Iran trying to dupe Iranian Israelis to collect intelligence from them in the past," Javedanfar said. "There is always a concern that if somebody you don’t know is trying to reach out to you in Farsi, it could be something suspicious, and you have to take great care." 

ISRAELI KIBBUTZ BE'ERI CONFIRMS DEATH OF 2 HOSTAGES SEEN IN HAMAS TERROR GROUP VIDEO

Javedanfar, who moved to Israel via the U.K. in 2004, said until about 2007 Iranian Israelis would return to visit their old home country, but that stopped after the Iranian regime attempted to recruit some of those who were visiting there. 

"We are still very connected to the people of Iran and to Iranian culture," he said. "And we also sympathize greatly with the plight of the Iranian people."

During the current Gaza war, that sympathy has been reflected, he said, by many Iranians who oppose the extremist regime in their country. 

"On social media, we have seen that the only people who are overwhelmingly pro-Israel are actually the people of Iran because they also see themselves as victims of Islamic extremism," said Javedanfar. 

Guzansky, from the INSS, said, however, that Iran should be viewed as a global problem and not just a problem for Israel. 

"Iran is there behind the shadows, behind the scenes, moving all different parts and all different proxies," he said. Guzansky pointed not only to Hamas in Gaza, but also to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, who have disrupted global shipping routes by attacking U.S. and international targets in the Red Sea. 

Guzansky said that because the West — and Israel — prioritized addressing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, it failed to pay attention to other threats posed by the regime in the region. 

"Israel is fighting Iran in Syria, but it is fighting alone," he said. "The U.S. is reluctant to get involved and is trying to avoid war at almost any cost. But appeasement will do exactly the opposite. It will bring war closer because you are letting your opponent build its power and grow an appetite – that is how Iran sees it." 

The uproar about a Russian rapper’s scandalous naked party has led to officials threatening him with service on the front lines in Ukraine as punishment. 

Instagram influencer Anastasia Ivleeva, 32, hosted an "almost naked" party at Moscow’s Mutabor nightclub Dec. 20, 2023, with rapper Nikolai Vasilyev, 25, known as Vacio, wearing only a Balenciaga sock over his genitals in seeming reference to the famous Red Hot Chili Peppers poster for their "Fight Like A Brave" single. 

Vasilyev received a 15-day jail sentence and a fine of 200,000 roubles ($2,258) for promoting "non-traditional sexual relations" at the party, The Telegraph reported. 

Vasilyev soon received orders to go to a Moscow recruitment center, but he failed to appear after receiving a further 10 days in jail for petty hooliganism and swearing at police officers. 

RUSSIAN FORCES BRING DOWN UKRAINIAN DRONE, MUNITIONS EXPLODE AND SET KLINTSY OIL DEPOT ABLAZE

Russian tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets claimed Vasilyev suffered from an unspecified medical condition, which might exempt him from service and prevent him from ever reaching the Ukrainian front lines. 

The party prompted an unusually strong and swift backlash from the Moscow establishment, including state media and Orthodox Church groups. It dominated Russian headlines for days, seemingly helping to displace news of inflation and rising food prices, Reuters reported. 

NATO TO HOLD LARGEST MILITARY EXERCISES IN DECADES, INVOLVING AROUND 90,000 PERSONNEL

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed the party "stained" those who took part in it.

Conservative politicians and talk show hosts demanded those who attended the party face punishment, which some have linked to a broader crackdown on decadence, while the offensive in Ukraine continues facing heavy losses and average citizens struggle to make ends meet. 

RUSSIA REJECTS US PROPOSAL TO RESUME TALKS ON NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROL

The host, Ivleeva, also faces potential jail time after Russian officials suddenly decided to investigate her taxes. Dozens of people joined a class-action suit that seeks to force Ivleeva to pay over $10 million to a pro-war charity. 

One pro-Kremlin conservative pundit called the event "cynical" at a time when "our guys are dying in the special military operation and many children are losing their fathers." 

Prominent television propagandist Vladimir Solovyov in a Telegram post called the attendees "beasts" and "scum," claiming "these brutes … don’t’ care what’s going on," The Guardian reported. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has returned to extreme social conservativism as he faces another election in March that analysts expect he will easily win. He has also cracked down on gay rights and urged families to have eight or more children. 

Other celebrities who appeared at the "almost naked" party lost their contracts to appear on a major New Year’s Eve televised event, and sponsors deserted them. At least one celebrity lost out on a role in a new film. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

At least 13 students are dead and another is injured after a fire ripped through a school dormitory in central China Friday night.

The blaze broke out inside a boys' dormitory at Yingcai School in Henan Province, killing 13 third-graders, according to Reuters, which cited China Newsweek — a weekly magazine published by China News Service. Third-graders in China are usually 9 years old.

The private school caters to nursery and primary-age pupils, according to China Daily.

VIDEO CAPTURES CHINA RESIDENTS CLINGING TO LEDGE AS FIRE RAGES IN HIGH-RISE APARTMENT BUILDING

Firefighters extinguished the blaze after about an hour at around 11:40 p.m. and the head of the school was taken into custody, state media reported. 

Photos from after the blaze show charred windows on the third floor of the dormitory. All the windows on the building appear to be covered with guard rails.

42-FLOOR CHINESE SKYSCRAPER ENGULFED IN FLAMES

It was not immediately known what sparked the fire and an investigation is under way.

China's Ministry of Emergency Management called for screening to avoid "hidden fire risks in densely populated places," and a work team was sent to guide rescue and follow-up work, Xinhua reported.

The school gives students a break every two weeks but this was not a break weekend, Xinhua reported, citing local residents. Many of Yingcai's students are from rural areas, according to the publication.

The tragedy comes after a coal mining company building in a northern Chinese city killed 26 people and injured at least 38 in December. In April, 29 people died in a hospital fire in Beijing.

Norway’s push to start deep-sea mining in its territorial waters has created a massive rift in the European Parliament as lawmakers debated the policy and whether to intercede. 

"The truth is that we are getting our supplies currently from China, Russia and Congo for all these minerals that we need," Tom Berendsen, a Dutch Member of European Parliament (MEP) for the European People's Party, argued in favor of the policy. 

"The supply chain is unstable, and the working conditions and environmental requirements in those countries are not up to our standards," Berendsen continued. "In short, if we want to continue on the path of clean energy, and we want to do that, that also means making difficult choices."

Norway’s government last week passed a bill that will make it the first country in the world to implement the controversial practice of commercial deep-sea mining. 

SCIENTISTS AIM TO DRILL INTO A VOLCANO'S MAGMA CHAMBER TO UNLEASH POWERFUL ENERGY

The bill mainly empowers Norwegian companies to determine mining opportunities in the country’s territorial waters. Exploration of international waters has already occurred in some cases, but no country has pursued meaningful efforts to actually pursue proper mining operations until now. 

Companies will use heavy machinery to scrape the nearby Arctic seabed for metals and minerals, such as magnesium, niobium and cobalt – vital materials in some industrial processes – according to Sky News. 

The process could also yield significant amounts of copper and nickel, which also prove useful in the production of clean technologies such as car batteries, semiconductors and solar panels, according to Euronews. 

The decision met with significant backlash from environmentalists and conservationists, and many in the European Parliament have been left scratching their heads over how the policy passed without significant support from the scientific community. 

PENTAGON TO INSTALL SOLAR PANELS ON ROOFTOP AS PART OF BIDEN CLEAN ENERGY PUSH

"How has this proposal been approved when 800 scientists oppose it, and when the Norwegian Environmental Agency has given a negative opinion?" César Luena, a Spanish MEP for the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), asked.

Luena demanded that the European Union – of which Norway is not a member – must "act now" to protect the seabed. Anti-drilling MEPs argue that Norway’s decision potentially breaches its obligations under the United Nations High Seas Treaty, the Paris Agreement and OSPAR Convention on the protection of the marine environment. 

Right-wing lawmakers in the European Parliament have accused their left-wing counterparts of "hypocrisy" for opposing efforts to continue developing resource independence from nations like China and Russia, who remain powerful players in the energy space. 

The European Commission and Parliament have urged the international community to support a moratorium on deep-sea mining until governments and the scientific community can better inform about the process and dangers of operations. 

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In a parliamentary question submitted in March 2023, Irish MEP Grace O’Sullivan from the European Green Party asked if the commission had any evidence of "environmentally friendly" underwater mining technologies and a summary of research demonstrating "no harmful effects" from mining. 

O’Sullivan has remained one of the most ardent opponents of deep-sea mining, writing op-eds in local papers and championing any support for the moratorium, including when French President Emmanuel Macron at COP 27 called for a ban on current operations even as he remained open to continued exploration of its potential. 

Norway’s decision is part of its effort to boost drilling operations in the Arctic waters, raising concerns about territorial disputes. Oslo approved stakes in 62 offshore oil and gas exploration licenses to 24 energy companies, including state-controlled Equinor, Reuters reported. 

The number of awarded licenses and stakes increased by 50% over those awarded in 2023, though the number of companies involved in the process remained the same. 

The increase involved drilling permits in the Arctic Barents Sea and the adjacent Norwegian Sea, the country's energy minister told a conference.

"Last year I asked companies to look more closely at Barents Sea opportunities... this award shows that more companies have responded positively and are taking responsibility," Minister of Energy Terje Aasland said.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Ukraine’s artificial intelligence (AI) development continues at a frightening pace beyond that of even tech giants in the U.S. and China as the war with Russia lurches toward a third year, but experts highlighted America’s critical role in helping that rapid advance.

"What I think we underestimate in the U.S. military is the actual cost of the infrastructure required to do this in combat," Benjamin Jensen, senior fellow of Future War, Gaming and Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital. 

"Ukraine is doing it because they're building it from the bottom up, and it's antifragile … it's small, it's scalable, it works, and they know what to do it," Jensen said. "We're trying to do it very Pentagonese from the top down, which means we're going to spend tens of billions of dollars for a couple of high-profile failures versus spending, you know, one million dollars on nine failures and one success."

The U.S. discovered Ukraine’s unbelievable advancement with AI just months into the war. Brett Velicovich, a Fox News contributor embedded in Ukraine in 2023, claimed the advancements Ukrainian technicians had achieved and how they had achieved them were "out of this world," and the U.S. had no idea about any of it. 

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Velicovich and other experts described the various ways Ukraine had utilized AI, including facial recognition to locate war criminals, systems to help drone guidance and target selection, satellite analysis to gather evidence of war crimes and identification of Russian disinformation and propaganda. 

Jensen, who is also a professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps University School of Advanced Warfighting, discussed the culmination of those efforts in Ukraine’s Delta situational awareness system, which integrates a range of systems, including visual recognition and geolocation mapping, fed data by open source participation from the Ukrainian people. 

Ukraine unveiled the system in late 2022, but it received little press despite proving enormously helpful in processing the huge amount of battlefield data to guide the Ukrainian forces on the battlefield with active targeting and coordination. 

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

Praise for Ukraine’s ingenious efforts notwithstanding, Jensen highlighted the role the United States foreign aid programs have played in helping make these advancements a reality. AI requires data to train the model and platforms, and the United States Agency for International Development programs helped fund the Ukrainian digital identity system. 

The data sharing and tech partnerships between the U.S. and Ukraine allowed Kyiv to quickly simplify and enhance the system, speeding up everything from aid and assistance delivery to civilian notifications of incoming attacks and helping to find missing persons. 

James Hess, professor at the School of Security and Global Studies at the American Public University System, agreed that U.S. data not only helped Ukraine achieve these incredible developments, but it also continues to do so. 

"To understand the battlefield environment is time-consuming and its complex, and that's, of course, why it’s so important because the amount of data is overwhelming," Hess explained, referring to the American role in the process. 

WHERE IS THE AI BOOM? EXPERTS CAUTION NEW TECH WILL TAKE TIME

"Overwhelming data, which can also be a form of bad data, because if you have too much, you can't really work through that effectively, so that's one of the impetus behind using AI is to help alleviate the overwhelming data concerns," Hess continued, noting that few batches of data can be larger than that from a battlefield environment. 

"In the case with Ukraine, it's not just personnel help. It's also sensor help; it's also processing help; it's also the process of targeting process," Hess added. "All those different forms of help are extremely valuable to Ukraine, and I don't see that [help] ending anytime soon."

Hess revealed that the real question and drive for development in Ukraine increasingly focus on how to more seamlessly communicate the data collected and processed by AI to troops for real-time use to speed up on-field targeting and coordination. 

"A lot of the research and focus right now – in the United States and China as well – how I can be enabled to go directly from sensor to shooter," Hess said. "Of course, that brings up other challenges and concerns: Where does that information get verified? Who's validating it before that shooter is processing it?"

"I don't think we're seeing a case where in Ukraine the humans [are] out of the loop by any means," Hess assured. "It's still certainly human in the loop, but as AI develops, the process is going to be that the human in the loop … is continuously backing away as the AI becomes more capable and the algorithms more refined, and that's kind of where it's going."

Six nuns were kidnapped Friday in Haiti as they traveled on a bus through the capital, according to religious leaders.

The nuns were accompanied by an undetermined number of unidentified people on the bus who also were kidnapped, according to a statement by the Haitian Conference of the Religious. It said the nuns are from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Anne.

EX-REBEL LEADER GUY PHILIPPE'S SUPPORTERS RALLY ACROSS HAITI, DEMAND PM'S RESIGNATION

The congregation didn't respond to messages for comment. It wasn't immediately known who was responsible for Friday's kidnappings, although gangs that control an estimated 80% of Port-au-Prince have been blamed for thousands of abductions.

The conference said that too many kidnappings are occurring in Haiti and filling people’s souls "with sadness and fear."

Last year, about 3,000 people were reported kidnapped, according to U.N. statistics.

The nuns are the latest high-profile kidnapping victims reported in Haiti. In late November, renowned Haitian Dr. Douglas Pape was abducted in Port-au-Prince. He has yet to be released despite multiple ransoms being paid, according to local media reports.

In October 2021, 17 members of a U.S. religious organization were kidnapped and later freed, some after two months in captivity.

The speaker of Slovakia's Parliament, Peter Pellegrini, a close ally of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, announced on Friday he will run for president.

Pellegrini, 48, is considered a favorite in the race for the largely ceremonial post, according to public polls. Zuzana Čaputová, the country’s first female president, decided not to seek reelection.

The first round of the election is scheduled for March 23.

PROTESTS RAGE ON OVER SLOVAK GOVERNMENT'S PLAN TO AMEND PENAL CODE

Pellegrini, who favors a strong role for the state in society, heads the left-wing Hlas (Voice) party that finished third in the Sept 30 parliamentary election. His party formed a ruling coalition with Fico’s leftist Smer (Direction) party and the ultranationalist Slovak National Party.

Pellegrini, who was Fico’s former deputy in Smer, became prime minister in 2018 after Fico was forced to resign following major anti-government street protests resulting from the 2018 killing of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée.

Pellegrini parted ways with Fico after the scandal-tainted Smer lost the previous election in 2020.

He previously served as deputy prime minister (2016-18) and education minister (2014) in Fico's previous governments and was speaker in the Slovak Parliament, also known as the National Council, in 2014-16.

Former Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok, a pro-Western career diplomat, is expected to be Pellegrini’s main rival in the presidential vote.

The other notable candidates include another former foreign minister, Jan Kubiš; the head of the Slovak National Party, Andrej Danko; and far-right politician Marian Kotleba.

Čaputová has been a clear pro-Western voice in Slovak politics and a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

But Pellegrini’s party is part of Fico’s coalition that ended the country’s military aid for Ukraine.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's political and military leaders on Friday moved to de-escalate tensions with Iran after this week's deadly airstrikes by Tehran and Islamabad that killed at least 11 people and marked a significant escalation in fraught relations between the neighbors.

The decision was apparently reached at a meeting of Pakistan's National Security Committee, chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar on his return home after cutting short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Pakistan's powerful army chief Gen. Asim Munir attended the meeting.

PAKISTAN CONDUCTS RETALIATORY MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST PAKISTANI TERRORISTS OPERATING IN IRAN

A statement after the meeting said the leadership discussed the situation following the Iranian airstrikes and praised the "professional, calibrated and proportionate response" by Pakistan's military.

The committee stressed that existing communication channels between Pakistan and Iran "should be used to address each other’s security concerns in the larger interest of regional peace and stability," according to the statement.

Pakistan on Thursday launched airstrikes against alleged militant hideouts inside Iran, in the Sistan and Baluchestan province, killing at least nine people. The strikes followed Iran’s attack Tuesday on Pakistani soil that killed two children in the southwestern Baluchistan province.

The unprecedented cross-border strikes threatened to imperil ties between Tehran and Islamabad — the two have long regarded each other with suspicion over militant attacks — and also raised the threat of violence spreading across the Middle East, already unsettled by Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

In Iran, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on Pakistan's efforts to reduce the tensions and said Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian spoke to his Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani.

The two sides want to cooperate moving forward and return each other's ambassadors to Tehran and Islamabad, IRNA said. The diplomatic envoys were pulled home amid the escalation.

Pakistan's military went on high alert on Tuesday, after Iranian airstrikes targeted an alleged hideout of Jaish al-Adl, the Sunni separatist group behind multiple attacks inside Iran.

Pakistan's retaliatory strikes Thursday targeted alleged hideouts in Iran of Pakistani separatist groups called the Baluch Liberation Army and the Baluchistan Liberation Front. Iran said the airstrikes killed three women, four children and two men near the town of Saravan along the Pakistani border.

The dramatic and sudden Pakistan-Iran escalation also came on the heels of Iranian airstrikes late Monday in Iraq and Syria. Those airstrikes were in response to a suicide bombing in Iran by militants from the Islamic State group in early January that killed over 90 people.

Though Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan have long regarded each other with suspicion over militant attacks, they had not launched such strikes in the past.

Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, as well as Iran’s neighboring Sistan and Baluchestan province, have faced a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for more than two decades. Separatists in southwestern Pakistan often launch attacks against Pakistani security forces and Chinese interests in the country, frequently sneaking across the border to hide in Iran.

Namibian President Hage Geingob will start treatment for cancer after routine medical checkups and a follow-up biopsy led to the detection of cancerous cells, his office said Friday.

PRESIDENT TINUBU CALLS FOR 'MASSIVE EDUCATION' IN RESPONSE TO NIGERIAN KIDNAPPING CRISIS

The Namibian Presidency said the 82-year-old had a colonoscopy and a gastroscopy on Jan. 8, followed by a biopsy. Geingob's office gave no more details on his diagnosis but said he would continue to carry out his duties.

Geingob, who has been president of the southern African nation since 2015, is due to finish his second and final term in office this year. In 2014, he said he had survived prostate cancer.

"On the advice of the medical team, President Geingob will undertake appropriate medical treatment to deal with the cancerous cells," his office said in a statement.

Namibia will hold elections to choose a new leader in November.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s spacecraft arrived on the surface of the moon early Saturday, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the landing was a success, because the Japanese space agency said it was still "checking its status."

More details about the spacecraft, which is carrying no astronauts, would be given at a news conference, officials said. If the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, landed successfully, Japan would become the fifth country to accomplish the feat after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.

WHAT'S INSIDE THE MOON? MYSTERIES THAT ARE STILL BEING DECODED

SLIM came down onto the lunar surface at around 12:20 a.m. Tokyo time Saturday (1520 GMT Friday).

As the spacecraft descended, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's mission control said that everything was going as planned and later said that SLIM was on the lunar surface. But there was no mention of whether the landing was successful.

Mission control kept repeating that it was "checking its status" and that more information would be given at a news conference. It wasn't immediately clear when the news conference would start.

SLIM, nicknamed "the Moon Sniper," started its descent at midnight Saturday, and within 15 minutes it was down to about 10 kilometers (six miles) above the lunar surface, according to the space agency, which is known as JAXA.

At an altitude of five kilometers (three miles), the lander was in a vertical descent mode, then at 50 meters (165 feet) above the surface, SLIM was supposed to make a parallel movement to find a safe landing spot, JAXA said.

About a half-hour after its presumed landing, JAXA said that it was still checking the status of the lander.

SLIM, which was aiming to hit a very small target, is a lightweight spacecraft about the size of a passenger vehicle. It was using "pinpoint landing" technology that promises far greater control than any previous moon landing.

While most previous probes have used landing zones about 10 kilometers (six miles) wide, SLIM was aiming at a target of just 100 meters (330 feet).

The project was the fruit of two decades of work on precision technology by JAXA.

The mission's main goal is to test new landing technology that would allow moon missions to land "where we want to, rather than where it is easy to land," JAXA has said. If the landing was a success, the spacecraft will seek clues about the origin of the moon, including analyzing minerals with a special camera.

The SLIM, equipped with a pad to cushion impact, was aiming to land near the Shioli crater, near a region covered in volcanic rock.

The closely watched mission came only 10 days after a moon mission by a U.S. private company failed when the spacecraft developed a fuel leak hours after the launch.

SLIM was launched on a Mitsubishi Heavy H2A rocket in September. It initially orbited Earth and entered lunar orbit on Dec. 25.

Japan hopes a success will help regain confidence for its space technology after a number of failures. A spacecraft designed by a Japanese company crashed during a lunar landing attempt in April, and a new flagship rocket failed its debut launch in March.

JAXA has a track record with difficult landings. Its Hayabusa2 spacecraft, launched in 2014, touched down twice on the 900-meter-long (3,000-foot-long) asteroid Ryugu, collecting samples that were returned to Earth.

Experts say a success of SLIM's pinpoint landing, especially on the moon, would raise Japan's profile in the global space technology race.

Takeshi Tsuchiya, aeronautics professor at the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo, said it was important to confirm the accuracy of landing on a targeted area for the future of moon explorations.

"It is necessary to show the world that Japan has the appropriate technology in order to be able to properly assert Japan's position in lunar development," he said. The moon is important from the perspective of explorations of resources, and it can also be used as a base to go to other planets, like Mars, he said.

SLIM is carrying two small autonomous probes — lunar excursion vehicles LEV-1 and LEV-2, which will be released just before landing.

LEV-1, equipped with an antenna and a camera, is tasked with recording SLIM's landing. LEV-2, is a ball-shaped rover equipped with two cameras, developed by JAXA together with Sony, toymaker Tomy and Doshisha University.

JAXA will broadcast a livestream of the landing, while space fans will gather to watch the historic moment on a big screen at the agency's Sagamihara campus southwest of Tokyo.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Friday Israel was responsible for Hamas’ surge to power in Gaza, where it is currently fighting a war against the terror group.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said very plainly during a speech at the University of Valladolid in Spain that Israel financed Hamas in an effort to weaken the then-governing Palestinian Authority.

"Yes, Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah," Borrell said without elaborating, Reuters reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously denied such allegations. He has also decried other remarks from the EU and the United Nations as sympathetic to Hamas.

NETANYAHU REJECTS PALESTINIAN STATE IN POSTWAR SCENARIO, PROMPTING CRITICISM FROM THE US

Netanyahu’s critics have accused him of financing Hamas for years, which includes allowing foreign money into Gaza, most of which going to the governing terror group.

In his remarks on Friday, Borrell spoke to postwar scenarios, saying the only peaceful solution included the creation of a Palestinian state.

ISRAELI OPPOSITION FILES NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION TO OUST NETANYAHU'S GOV'T: 'A FAILURE THAT COSTS HUMAN LIVES'

"We only believe a two-state solution imposed from the outside would bring peace even though Israel insists on the negative," he said.

Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 after it defeated the Fatah led by President Mahmoud Abbas in a civil war.

Hamas-led forces launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 200 hostages.

Immediately after the attack, the Israeli government declared war on Hamas and later launched a ground offensive into Northern Gaza.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Iranian officials continue to frustrate International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, who have suggested that Tehran has stockpiled enough enriched uranium to make "several" warheads. 

"Though it may be drowned out due to all the other bad news out of the Middle East involving Iran, the regime is getting closer and closer to establishing itself as a threshold nuclear state," Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) with a focus on Iranian security, told Fox News Digital.

"If anything, Iran seems to be capitalizing on all the mayhem in the Middle East, mayhem which Washington has failed to curb or manage well, to press ahead in what appears to be a quest for the ultimate deterrent," Taleblu added. 

The IAEA, a U.N. nuclear watchdog, has tried for months to monitor and examine Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the IAEA, in Jan. 2023 warned that Iran had enough highly enriched uranium to build "several" nuclear weapons if it so chose. 

IRANIAN PROXIES STEPPING UP THEIR DRONE ATTACKS IN WAR WITH ISRAEL

Iran has seemingly benefited from what the Wall Street Journal termed President Biden's policy of "conciliate to evacuate," or developing agreements with Iran to reduce U.S. presence and responsibility in the Middle East. In a Fox News Digital op-ed, FDD senior advisor Richard Goldberg and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., determined that Iran has received some $50 million from the Biden administration's policies of sanctions relief - a reversal from former President Trump's maximum pressure policies. 

Goldberg and Issa slammed the administration for effectively emboldening Iran's commitment to terrorism through its various proxy groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, whom the Biden administration this week redesignated as a terrorist group, though they fell short of using the maximum designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. 

In addition to increased attacks from Iranian proxies over the past few months, Iran withdrew the designation of "several experienced Agency inspectors," according to Grossi, which amounted to "effectively … about one-third of the core group of the agency’s most experienced inspectors designated for Iran."

Tehran then sped up enrichment in Dec. 2023 following a monthslong slowdown that many attributed to back channel agreements with the U.S. that led to the release of American citizens held in Iran. The IAEA also determined that Iran had enough uranium enriched up to 60% - close to weapons-grade – to produce three nuclear bombs. 

Iran continues to deny it seeks a nuclear weapon and that its enrichment is purely for peaceful purposes. 

PAKISTAN CONDUCTS RETALITORY MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST PAKISTANI TERRORISTS OPERATING IN IRAN

Grossi issued his latest warning earlier this week at the World Economic Forum, where he accused Tehran of holding the agency "hostage" due to the "frustrating" lack of oversight. He again raised concerns that Iran, if it so chose, could create several nuclear warheads. 

"It’s a very frustrating situation," Grossi said during an interview at Davos with The Times of Israel. "We continue our activities there, but at a minimum. They are restricting cooperation in a very unprecedented way."

"It’s a way to punish us because of external things," he claimed. "When there’s something that France, the U.K. or the United States says that they don’t like, it is as if they were taking the IAEA hostage to their political disputes with others. This is unacceptable for us."

He described the situation as a "plateau" that "could change in the next few days … we never know." He argued that right now the world needs "diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy." 

HOUTHIS TERROR DESIGNATION ‘SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN LIFTED’: GEN. FRANK MCKENZIE

Grossi told Bloomberg that he did not understand why Iranian officials "don’t provide the necessary transparency." 

The nuclear chief acknowledged that the IAEA had yet to detect any diversion of material for weapons, but the manufacture and storage of such significant amounts of nuclear material has raised concerns. 

Taleblu highlighted Grossi’s various comments, noting that, "When the IAEA director general keeps talking about a ‘new reality’ with Iran, it’s worth more than just a listen."

"Iran’s amassment of more highly enriched uranium, production of said uranium at greater speeds, and diminishing transparency and cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog are all ways the regime is showcasing its intent," Taleblu said. "It’s a sign that the Biden administration’s restraint-based approach has not begotten restraint from Iran."

"Iran’s lack of even incurring a solid slap on the wrist at the Board of Governors is propelling it ahead to continue to amass capability in what may be a quest to present the West with a fait accompli at a future time of its choosing," he added. 

The White House did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by the time of publication. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

An oil depot in Russia was set on fire after the military downed a Ukrainian drone in the area. 

A Ukrainian military drone was flying over the town of Klintsy when Russian military forces forced it down, causing it to release its munitions into the oil field. 

"An aeroplane-style drone was brought down by the defense ministry using radio-electronic means. When the aerial target was destroyed, its munitions were dropped on the territory of the Klintsy oil depot," regional governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on social media.

MASSIVE FIRE TEARS THROUGH RUSSIAN WAREHOUSE IN ST. PETERSBURG

Russian sources claim no one was harmed in the explosion, but local authorities were forced to call in specialized firefighters to handle the resulting inferno.

Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov would not confirm or deny Ukrainian involvement in the explosion that ignited the oil depot. 

UKRAINE'S SPY CHIEF SAYS ATTACKS ON RUSSIAN-OCCUPIED CRIMEA WILL ESCALATE IN 2024

"Such events regularly occur at the aggressor state's military facilities," Yusov said.

Photos from the scene show columns of thick, black smoke billowing from the facility as flames engulf areas of the facility.

It's only the latest in a series of attacks on energy infrastructure exchanged by Russian and Ukrainian forces.

A similarly gigantic fire tore through an online retailer's warehouse in St. Petersburg, Russia last week, video showed.

Nearly 300 firefighters and dozens of fire engines, as well as helicopters, battled to put out the blaze, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said, as workers inside desperately ran to safety.

The warehouse's owner, Wildberries, said in a statement that all of its staff had been evacuated and that there had been no injuries.

Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

European Union Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders on Friday praised efforts by Poland’s new pro-EU government to restore the rule of law and said they may lead to the release of billions of euros in EU funds for the country that were frozen under the previous government.

Reynders was holding talks in Warsaw with new Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, the foreign and European affairs ministers and parliament speakers about the steps that Poland's month-old government is taking to reverse the controversial judicial policies of the previous administration that the EU had criticized as undemocratic.

Reynders said at a news conference that he was pleased by the determination of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Cabinet in restoring the rule of law, in line with Poland's Constitution and the requirements of the EU and the European Convention on Human Rights.

EUROPEAN UNION LAWMAKERS AGREE TO PLANS MEANT TO PREVENT CORRUPTION FOLLOWING MAJOR SCANDAL

He said the European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-member bloc, was supporting the government's efforts.

He expressed hope that the steps would soon allow the approval of Poland’s request for the release of about $7.6 billion from the post-pandemic recovery funds earmarked for the country. The EU froze the money as a result of rule-of-law disputes with Poland’s previous right-wing government of the Law and Justice party.

UKRAINE’S A STEP CLOSER TO JOINING THE EU. HERE’S WHAT IT MEANS, AND WHY IT MATTERS

Among its key steps, Tusk's government has imprisoned two members of the previous government who were convicted of abuse of power and document forging and is making personnel changes in vital judicial bodies and some courts where rule-of-law principles had been questioned.

Bodnar's steps have been harshly criticized by the opposition which lost power in October elections, but he told the news conference that they were well thought-out and necessary.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he would not scale back Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, rejecting calls from the United States to do so. 

He also said he opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state after the end of the Israel-Hamas war.

In a nationally televised news conference, Netanyahu repeatedly said that Israel would not halt its offensive until it destroyed Hamas and ended the terror group’s rule in Gaza. He also said bringing home the roughly 130 remaining hostages was paramount.

During his remarks, Netanyahu rejected his critics who claim these goals are not achievable, saying the war could continue for several more months and that Israel "will not settle for anything short of an absolute victory."

Netanyahu’s comments come just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel would never have "genuine security" without a pathway toward Palestinian independence.

ISRAELI OPPOSITION FILES NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION TO OUST NETANYAHU'S GOV'T: 'A FAILURE THAT COSTS HUMAN LIVES'

Earlier this week, the White House urged Israel to scale down its military ground operation, saying that it was the "right time" to lower the intensity of the war. Other countries have urged a cease-fire or an end to physical fighting in lieu of diplomatic debates.

Netanyahu’s comments drew criticism from the White House, with national security spokesperson John Kirby saying, "We obviously see it differently."

The U.S. has also called for steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.

WHITE HOUSE URGES ISRAEL TO SCALE BACK GROUND OPERATIONS IN GAZA AS WAR HITS 100 DAYS: 'IT'S THE RIGHT TIME'

On Wednesday, Blinken said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the two-state solution was the best way to protect Israel and gain stability in the Middle East.

The clash reflects what has become a rift between Israel and the U.S. over the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel officially declared war on Hamas in Gaza after the terror group led an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage.

While the U.S. has defended Israel's assault as self-defense, both Israel and the U.S. face pressure to end the campaign as tens of thousands of civilians have been killed.

According to Gaza health authorities, the destructive military campaign has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians and uprooted over 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

German lawmakers on Friday approved legislation easing the rules on gaining citizenship and ending restrictions on holding dual citizenship. The government argues the plan will bolster the integration of immigrants and help attract skilled workers.

Parliament voted 382-234 for the plan put forward by center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz's socially liberal coalition, with 23 lawmakers abstaining. The main center-right opposition bloc criticized the project vehemently, arguing that it would cheapen German citizenship.

The legislation will make people eligible for citizenship after five years in Germany, or three in case of "special integration accomplishments," rather than eight or six years at present. German-born children would automatically become citizens if one parent has been a legal resident for five years, down from eight years now.

GERMANY PLANS TO EASE CITIZENSHIP RULES IN EFFORT TO ATTRACT SKILLED WORKERS

Restrictions on holding dual citizenship will also be dropped. In principle, most people from countries other than European Union members and Switzerland now have to give up their previous nationality when they gain German citizenship, though there are some exemptions.

The government says that 14% of the population — more than 12 million of the country’s 84.4 million inhabitants — doesn’t have German citizenship and that about 5.3 million of those have lived in Germany for at least a decade. It says that the naturalization rate in Germany is well below the EU average.

In 2022, about 168,500 people were granted German citizenship. That was the highest figure since 2002, boosted by a large increase in the number of Syrian citizens who had arrived in the past decade being naturalized, but still only a fraction of long-term residents.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the reform puts Germany in line with European neighbors such as France and pointed to its need to attract more skilled workers. "We also must make qualified people from around the world an offer like the U.S., like Canada, of which acquiring German citizenship is a part," she told reporters ahead of the vote.

The legislation stipulates that people being naturalized must be able to support themselves and their relatives, though there are exemptions for people who came to West Germany as "guest workers" up to 1974 and for those who came to communist East Germany to work.

The existing law requires that would-be citizens be committed to the "free democratic fundamental order," and the new version specifies that antisemitic and racist acts are incompatible with that.

The conservative opposition asserted that Germany is loosening citizenship requirements just as other countries are tightening theirs.

"This isn't a citizenship modernization bill — it is a citizenship devaluation bill," center-right Christian Democrat Alexander Throm told lawmakers.

LEAKED GERMAN DOCUMENTS SHOW LEADERS ARE PREPARING SHOULD RUSSIA LAUNCH WORLD WAR 3: REPORTS

People who have been in Germany for five or three years haven't yet grown roots in the country, he said. And he argued that dropping restrictions on dual citizenship will "bring political conflicts from abroad into our politics."

The citizenship law overhaul is one of a series of social reforms that Scholz's three-party coalition agreed to carry out when it took office in late 2021. Those also include plans to liberalize rules on the possession and sale of cannabis, and make it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their gender and name in official registers. Both still need parliamentary approval.

In recent months, the government — which has become deeply unpopular as a result of persistent infighting, economic weakness and most recently a home-made budget crisis that resulted in spending and subsidy cuts — also has sought to defuse migration by asylum-seekers as a political problem.

The citizenship reform was passed the day after lawmakers approved legislation that is intended to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers.

Some 20 activists have been charged after they blocked several entrances to Norwegian government offices over a wind farm that they say hinders the rights of the Sami Indigenous people to raise reindeer, their lawyer said Friday.

The exact charge was not known. The VG newspaper said they were charged because they did not accept the fines they had been given after having been forcefully removed by police. They face trial in March in Oslo.

At the center of the dispute are the 151 turbines of Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, which is located in central Norway’s Fosen district, about 280 miles north of the capital, Oslo.

CLIMATE ACTIVISTS SAY NORWAY'S ENERGY MINISTER IS SPEAKING 'NONSENSE'

The activists say a transition to green energy shouldn’t come at the expense of the rights of Indigenous people.

They have demonstrated repeatedly against the wind farm’s continued operation since the Supreme Court of Norway ruled in October 2021 that the construction of the turbines had violated the rights of the Sami, who have used the land for reindeer for centuries.

"Punishing the Sami youth and their supporters will be yet another violation of their human rights — violation of their freedom of speech and demonstration," lawyer Olaf Halvorsen Rønning said.

Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, one of the activists, said "it is the state that is responsible for the situation at Fosen, while the Fosen actions, by all accounts, have only contributed to solving it."

NORWAY'S ENERGY MINISTER CANCELS UK TRIP AS WIND FARM PROTESTS CONTINUE

In October, activists — many dressed in traditional Sami garments — blocked the entrance to one of the main operators of a wind farm to prevent employees from entering.

In June, they protested outside Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s office, and they occupied the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy for four days in February, and later blocked the entrances to 10 ministries.

Sami, who mostly live in the Arctic, came from neighboring Sweden and Finland to join the protest. Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg was among the protesters. It was unclear whether she was among those charged.

Gahr Støre has acknowledged "ongoing human rights violations" and the government has repeatedly apologized for failing to act despite the Supreme Court ruling. Energy Minister Terje Aasland has said that the demolition of all wind turbines at Fosen — as the protesters demand — is not being considered.

Three people have been jailed in the kidnapping and killing of a Hmong American comedian and activist who was found dead near Medellín after going out to meet a woman he reportedly met on social media, Colombian officials announced Thursday.

The Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that two men and a woman were charged with the crimes of aggravated kidnapping for extortion and aggravated homicide in the death last month of Tou Ger Xiong, 50. The suspects denied the charges at a hearing, the statement said.

A minor who presented himself to the Public Prosecutor’s Office admitting to having participated in the crime also was charged in the case and transferred to a special detention center for minors, it added.

COLOMBIA EXTENDS CEASEFIRE WITH FARC SPLINTER GROUP

The U.S. Embassy in Bogota warned a week ago about Colombian criminals who use dating apps to lure victims and then assault and rob them. The embassy said it was aware of eight suspicious deaths of U.S. citizens in Medellín in the final two months of 2023, several involving the use of online dating apps.

According to the Bush Foundation, Xiong was an Hmong American comedian who shared his personal story to confront racial discrimination.

Xiong arrived in Medellín on Nov. 29 as a tourist and 12 days later his body was found with signs of violence in the Robledo area, northwest of Medellín.

A report by the Colombian forensic science institute, cited by the Prosecutor’s Office, concluded he died from injuries inflicted by a blunt object.

In its reconstruction of events, the Prosecutor’s Office said Xiong was held against his will by several people on the night of Dec. 10 in an apartment in Robledo. During his captivity, he was tied up, tortured, beaten and stripped of his credit cards, a cellphone, cash and a watch, it said.

The sectional director of the prosecutor’s office in Medellín, Yiri Milena Amado Sánchez, said the captors demanded thousands of dollars from Xiong's family and one of his friends in the United States, who transferred $3,140 to a woman’s account.

Despite the immediate payment, Xiong was taken to a wooded area, where he was beaten and then thrown off a cliff about 80 meters (260 feet) high, prosecutors said. His body was found Dec. 11.

The PayPal account belonged to Sharit Gisela Mejía Martínez, and she tried to flee out a window of her apartment when investigators arrived to question her, a prosecutor told the hearing.

Following the killing, the activist’s family said in a statement that "the pain of his loss is indescribable."

Xiong was born in Laos in 1973. His family fled to Thailand after the communist takeover in 1975 because his father had served in a U.S-backed Hmong military force, according to a 2020 profile of him in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. They spent four years in a refugee camp in Thailand before resettling in St. Paul, Minnesota, which is home to the largest Hmong community of any city in the U.S.

La Kena, a notorious Mexican drug cartel leader whose faction is believed to have killed two U.S. tourists last year, has been captured. 

José Alberto García Vilano, who heads up the powerful "Los Ciclones," or "Cyclones" cell, was arrested in a shopping plaza on the outskirts of the city of Monterrey on Friday after information about his whereabouts was leaked to officials, local media and officials say. 

The Cyclones, one of the most powerful and violent factions of the now-divided Gulf cartel, have been accused of kidnapping four U.S. citizens in March and killing two of them.

DRONE VIDEO SHOWS MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS THROWING EXPLOSIVES ALONG TEXAS SOUTHERN BORDER

Video posted on social media allegedly shows Vilano and his associates being dragged out of the mall by navy personnel and then bungled into unmarked vehicles parked outside the mall in the municipality of San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, one of Mexico’s wealthiest areas. 

Mexico's navy said in a statement that marines had detained the alleged leader of a criminal group "in one of the criminal organizations with the most presence in the state of Tamaulipas," although it did not provide a name. 

The statement noted he was one of the main targets of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Miguel Treviño, the mayor of San Pedro Garza García, shared on X a screenshot of a newspaper article that names La Kena.

"Thanks to good intelligence, coordination and police monitoring, today an alleged criminal leader was arrested without a single shot," Treviño wrote. 

TEXAS VIDEO SHOWS MIGRANT RECALLING ASSAULT, SHAKEDOWN BY CARTELS AT BORDER 

In 2022, Tamaulipas state prosecutors offered a $150,000 reward for Vilano’s arrest while identifying him by a second nickname, "Cyclone 19."

In March, the group allegedly kidnapped four Americans who had crossed into Matamoros from Texas so that one of them could have cosmetic surgery.

They were fired on in downtown Matamoros and then loaded into a pickup truck, having unknowingly got tangled in the crosshairs of a shootout between the Cyclones and another cartel.

Americans Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard died in the attack; Eric Williams and Latavia McGee survived. Most of them had grown up together in the small town of Lake City, South Carolina.

A Mexican woman, Areli Pablo Servando, 33, was also killed, apparently by a stray bullet.

Several people have been arrested in connection to the kidnappings and killings. The Gulf drug cartel turned over five men to police soon after the abduction, and prosecutors arrested two more individuals days later. 

Fox News' Bradford Betz and Landon Mion as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report.