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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. 

Rescue workers carried out the grim task Thursday of recovering the remains of the 23 apparent victims of a fireworks factory explosion in central Thailand.

Only part of the building frame stood at the site of the devastated factory in an otherwise-empty rice field in rural Suphan Buri province the day after the blast.

The damage to the site and the condition of the bodies made the number of victims difficult to determine.

FACTORY EXPLOSION KILLS AT LEAST 23 PEOPLE IN THAILAND, OFFICIALS SAY

Families and friends of the victims gathered at a temple where remains were being stored, to report missing loved ones and provide DNA samples to help identify the remains, but uniformed local officials sought to keep reporters from speaking with them. Several of the bereaved openly wept.

The province’s deputy governor, Don Samitakestarin, said the death toll was 23 and not expected to rise. National police chief Torsak Sukvimol, who traveled to Suphan Buri to oversee police operations, said 22 bodies had been found and one more person was considered missing but presumed dead.

The cause of the blast has not been determined.

"There are no survivors from the site at all, so there are no eyewitnesses to tell us what happened," Torsak said. "We can only use forensic science to discover the cause."

Don said it will take time to investigate the cause as there were no survivors to tell what happened. He said the area was sealed off as officers were not done clearing hazardous materials.

The factory marketed small fireworks to scare away birds, a common practice for Thai farmers to protect their crops. Its products looked like what are sometimes called cherry bombs, but it did not appear that the factory manufactured fireworks for entertainment, which would be in high demand to celebrate the Lunar New Year next month.

Don said the factory had met the requirements for operating legally. It experienced an earlier explosion in November 2022 that killed one person and seriously injured three others, but Don said there was no regulation that could prevent it from obtaining a new permit.

"This business operation complied with all the regulations from the Interior Ministry, so we had to give it a license," he said.

The remains of the victims were taken to Wat Rong Chang, a Buddhist temple in the province capital, Mueang Suphan Buri, where they were being kept in a refrigerator truck pending confirmation of their identities.

THAILAND TRIES TO CONTAIN OVERNIGHT FIRE THAT ENGULFED 2 MOUNTAINS

The government will pay maximum compensation of $8,400 per affected household, Don said

The 16 women and seven men presumed to have died in the blast included the workers and the wife and son of the factory's owner, Don said.

An explosion at a fireworks warehouse in southern Thailand last July killed 10 people and wounded more than 100 while damaging about 100 houses in a 1,640-foot radius of the warehouse. The region's governor said sparks from metal welding work likely ignited the fireworks in the warehouse and caused the explosion.

Deputy Prime Minister Somsak Thepsutin, who also came to Suphan Buri, said Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who is in Switzerland attending the World Economic Forum, would be briefed at next week's Cabinet meeting on ways to improve weak interagency cooperation.

The United Kingdom is concerned about the further spread of measles, as the country has declared a national health incident.

U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) chief executive Jenny Harries announced a surge in measles cases over the last few months, urging parents across the country to vaccinate their children against the illness. 

"This is a call right across the country for all parents to check the vaccination rates of their children," Harries said in an interview with BBC Radio 4. 

MEASLES OUTBREAKS IN US, UK HAVE HEALTH AGENCIES ON HIGH ALERT: 'BE VIGILANT'

Officials are pointing to decreased rates of uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine over the last decade, with only 85% of children fully inoculated.

"We are well under the recommended coverage for MMR vaccination," Harries continued. "It’s clearly not where we want the vaccination program to be. We want it to be 95%." 

The U.K. is currently experiencing a measles outbreak, with more than 1,600 people in England and Wales contracting the highly contagious disease in 2023 — up from 735 in 2022 and 360 in 2021, according to reports.

HEALTH OFFICIALS WARN OF POSSIBLE MEASLES EXPOSURE AT DULLES, RONALD REAGAN AIRPORTS

"Predictably, we’re seeing that swing more to other – particularly inner-city – areas where we know vaccination rates are low, and we know large numbers of children will be congregating together," Davies said.

The UKHSA released data this week confirming 216 cases of the disease in the West Midlands region since last October, with an additional 103 likely cases. 

Approximately 80% of the reported cases were traced to Birmingham and an additional 10% to Coventry. 

The highly contagious disease can be serious and even fatal for young children.

In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared measles "eliminated" in the U.S., meaning there were no cases for at least 12 months. 

The WHO could be forced to rescind that designation if outbreaks continue for more than a year.

Fox News Digital's Melissa Rudy contributed to this report.

Two North Korean teenagers were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after they were previously convicted of watching K-pop videos, according to a video released Friday.

K-pop, or Korean pop, is South Korean music which is barred in the North. North Korea has imposed tough sentences on anyone caught enjoying South Korean entertainment, including movies and music videos, to reduce outside influence under a sweeping new "anti-reactionary thought" law that was first imposed in 2020.

Reuters reported North Korean authorities sentenced the two 16-year-old girls during a public hearing and that video footage of the sentencing was released Friday by the South and North Development (SAND) Institute, an organization that works with North Korean defectors.

K-pop bands like the seven-member band BTS, the all-female Blackpink and the South Korean duo TVXQ have surged in popularity in South Korea and around the world for their charisma and soulful harmonies.

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The video, produced by North Korean authorities, shows the two handcuffed students wearing gray scrubs in an amphitheater with about 1,000 students watching the sentencing.

Choi Kyong-hui, president of SAND and doctor of Political Science at Tokyo University, who defected from North Korea in 2001, told Reuters that the heavy punishment is likely to be a message to other students and the country.

"Judging from the heavy punishment, it seems that this is to be shown to people across North Korea to warn them. If so, it appears this lifestyle of South Korean culture is prevalent in North Korean society," Choi said.

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The date of the sentencing was not provided, but all the students, including the two 16-year-olds, were wearing face masks in the video. Choi suggested this could mean the video was recorded during the COVID pandemic.

"I think this video was edited around 2022... What is troublesome for (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un is that Millennials and Gen Z young people have changed their way of thinking. I think he's working on turning it back to the North Korean way," Choi added.

In the video, the narrator said the students were convicted of watching and spreading South Korean movies, music and music videos over three months.

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"They were seduced by foreign culture... and ended up ruining their lives," the narrator can be heard saying before it shows the teens.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain turbulent as the North continues to develop and test nuclear and ballistic technologies. The effort to bolster its arsenal comes in preparation for a potential war with the South and its allies, which include the United States and Japan.

Earlier this month, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said that he would be discarding his country’s longstanding idea of a peaceful reunification with South Korea and would be revising its constitution accordingly.

North Korea is technically still at war with democratic South Korea after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce and not a formal peace treaty.

Reuters contributed to this report.

A landslide set off by days of heavy rain buried a house where people were holding Christian prayers in the southern Philippines, killing at least 10 people, including five children, officials said Friday.

Two people were injured, and at least one more villager remained unaccounted for following the landslide in a remote mountain village in the gold-mining town of Monkayo in Davao de Oro province, Ednar Dayanghirang, the regional chief of the government’s Office of Civil Defense, said.

Three more bodies were found Friday, after the search was paused mid-afternoon Thursday due to the risk of another landslide.

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"They were praying in the house when the landslide hit," Dayanghirang told The Associated Press by telephone Thursday night. "It’s sad but it’s the reality on the ground."

People living near the village were ordered to evacuate due to fears of more land- and mud-slides due to intermittent downpours, Monkayo Mayor Manuel Zamora said.

Days of heavy rains also flooded low-lying villages and displaced more than 36,000 people in Davao de Oro and three other provinces, the Office of Civil Defense said. The weather began to clear Friday in some areas.

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The rains were sparked by what local forecasters call a shear line, a point where warm and cold air meet. At least 20 storms and typhoons lash the Philippine archipelago each year, especially during the rainy season that starts in June.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest to hit on record, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines.

South Korea called on the divided U.N. Security Council on Thursday "to break the silence" over North Korea’s escalating missile tests and threats.

"It’s a big question," South Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Hwang Joonkook told reporters after an emergency closed meeting of the council on the North’s first ballistic missile test of 2024 on Sunday. South Korea is serving a two-year term on the council.

The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking — so far unsuccessfully — to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

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The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in 2017. China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches. Since then, the two veto-wielding permanent council members have blocked any council action, including media statements.

North Korea’s escalating test-launches in violation of the existing U.N. sanctions — five ICBMs, more than 25 ballistic missiles and three satellite launches using ballistic missile technology in 2023 – coupled with new threats from the North’s leader Kim Jong Un have raised regional tensions to their highest point in years.

On Monday, Kim declared North Korea would abandon its commitment to a peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered a rewriting of its constitution to eliminate the idea of a shared statehood between the war-divided countries. He said South Koreans were "top-class stooges" of America who were obsessed with confrontation, and repeated a threat that the North would annihilate the South with its nukes if provoked.

Before Thursday’s council meeting, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters Kim’s provocations "are of great concern."

He said the 15 council members need to be reminded that North Korea is violating sanctions and its obligations to the council, "and we have to insist that they adhere to those obligations, and for all Security Council members to enforce those resolutions."

By contrast, China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun, whose country is a close ally of North Korea, called on all parties involved in the Korean Peninsula to stay calm and refrain from actions that would further raise tensions.

In a message clearly aimed at the United States and South Korea, Zhang expressed hope that while attention is mainly on North Korea, "other countries are also responsible to avoid further escalation."

France’s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere told reporters that North Korea’s actions are "getting worse and worse," with regular ballistic missile launches, continuing uranium enrichment, and advancement of its nuclear program.

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"Everyone is focused on missile launches, but I think the biggest threat is their nuclear program which continues to grow again and again," De Riviere said.

And he called it "a shame" that Russia is violating Security Council resolutions by "buying military stuff that they use in Ukraine" from North Korea. "It’s really bad," he said.

South Korea’s Hwang said all 15 members of the Council are worried that North Korea’s rhetoric and actions are "getting more and more serious."

But how to break the council’s silence and inaction?

"We will discuss and think about it, and how to move forward," he said. "It’s a big question."

As for Kim’s abandonment of peaceful reunification, Hwang called it "a big change" in their rhetoric, actions and policy. "The nuclear policy is highly, highly alarming," he said.

NATO will launch its biggest military exercises in decades next week with around 90,000 personnel set to take part in months of drills aimed at showing the alliance can defend all of its territory up to its border with Russia, top officers said Thursday.

The exercises come as Russia’s war on Ukraine bogs down. NATO as an organization is not directly involved in the conflict, except to supply Kyiv with non-lethal support, although many member countries send weapons and ammunition individually or in groups, and provide military training.

In the months before President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, NATO began beefing up security on its eastern flank with Russia and Ukraine. It’s the alliance’s biggest buildup since the Cold War. The war games are meant to deter Russia from targeting a member country.

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The exercises – dubbed Steadfast Defender 24 – "will show that NATO can conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months, across thousands of miles, from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe, and in any condition," the 31-nation organization said.

Troops will be moving to and through Europe until the end of May in what NATO describes as "a simulated emerging conflict scenario with a near-peer adversary." Under NATO’s new defense plans, its chief adversaries are Russia and terrorist organizations.

"The alliance will demonstrate its ability to reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area via transatlantic movement of forces from North America," NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Christopher Cavoli, told reporters.

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Cavoli said it will demonstrate "our unity, our strength, and our determination to protect each other."

The chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, said that it’s "a record number of troops that we can bring to bear and have an exercise within that size, across the alliance, across the ocean from the U.S. to Europe."

Bauer described it as "a big change" compared to troop numbers exercising just a year ago. Sweden, which is expected to join NATO this year, will also take part.

U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps has said that the government in London would send 20,000 troops backed by advanced fighter jets, surveillance planes, warships and submarines, with many being deployed in eastern Europe from February to June.

Sri Lankan authorities have arrested tens of thousands of people in a monthlong crackdown on drugs, and vowed to continue despite U.N. criticism of possible human rights violations during the "heavy-handed" operation.

Since the operation began in December, heavily armed police and military personnel with sniffer dogs have made regular nighttimes raids on homes and search buses, seizing narcotics and arresting suspects who include drug users, local dealers and distributors, and people with records of drug-related arrests.

Acting police chief Deshabandu Tennakoon told The Associated Press on Thursday that more than 40,000 people have arrested and questioned during operations conducted jointly by the police and security forces, and 5,000 were ordered detained by the courts.

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The country of 21 million has long been known as a hub for drug trafficking, but authorities have stepped up action against narcotics amid complaints that more schoolchildren are using drugs that drug-related crimes are on the rise.

Tennakoon said 65% of Sri Lanka's narcotics distribution network has been dismantled over the past month and police hope to eliminate it fully by the end of this month.

He added that intelligence operations are being conducted to identify people who import drugs into the country and those who may be planning to start dealing drugs.

The U.N. human rights council expressed concern last week over reports of unauthorized searches, arbitrary arrests, torture and even strip searches in public during the operations, code-named "yukthiya," or justice.

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"While drug use presents a serious challenge to society, a heavy-handed law enforcement approach is not the solution. Abuse of drugs and the factors that lead to it are first and foremost public health and social issues," the U.N. body said.

But Public Security Minister Tiran Alles insisted that the searches will continue, saying the human rights body should identify specific instances of abuse.

"We will not stop this operation. We will go ahead and and we will do it the same way because we know that we are doing something good for the children of this country, for the women of this county and that is why the general public is whole-heartedly with us in these operations," Alles said.

Tennakoon said police have been ordered follow the law, and any violations can be reported to the police commission.

Shakya Nanayakkara, head of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board said there are about 100,000 known heroin addicts in Sri Lanka, and another 50,000 people are known to be addicted to methamphetamines.

North Korea tested a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone designed to destroy naval vessels and ports, it said Friday.

North Korea’s military said it conducted the test in the country’s eastern waters in response to naval drills by the U.S., South Korea and Japan which ended Wednesday. The underwater drone is among a broad range of weapon systems North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un continues to test and develop as he expands his arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons.

"Our army’s underwater nuke-based countering posture is being further rounded off and its various maritime and underwater responsive actions will continue to deter the hostile military maneuvers of the navies of the U.S. and its allies," North Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It added: "We strongly denounce the U.S. and its followers for their reckless acts of seriously threatening the security of (North Korea) from the outset of the year and sternly warn them of the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by them."

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North Korea did not specify when the test occurred. It first tested the drone last year.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen to their highest point in years, with the test of the drone coming days after the North Korean dictator declared he would be scrapping the idea of a peaceful reunification with South Korea.

He also said his country would rewrite its constitution to define South Korea as its most hostile foreign adversary.

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North Korea conducted its first ballistic missile test of 2024 on Sunday. It was described as a new solid-fuel, intermediate-range missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead, potentially capable of striking U.S. military bases in Guam and Japan.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry has disputed the capabilities of the drone and has denounced North Korea’s recent tests as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The South has said Kim’s nuclear ambitions are a threat to "peace in the Korean Peninsula and the world." It also said the U.S. and South Korean militaries would remain firm against possible North Korean provocations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that two-thirds of Hamas’s fighting forces have been eliminated in the Gaza Strip. 

Netanyahu said during a news conference in Tel Aviv Thursday that "There are two stages to the fighting; The first is destroying the Hamas regiments, those are their organized combat frameworks," according to Reuters. 

"Up until now sixteen or seventeen out of twenty four have been destroyed. After that there is the [stage] of clearing the territory [of militants]," he reportedly continued. "The first action is usually shorter, the second usually takes longer." 

Netanyahu also said "Victory will take many more months but we are determined to achieve it," Reuters reports. 

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Yesterday, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters during a briefing that "The conflict in Gaza is going to end. It will end." 

When pressed about a timeline, Miller said "I am not going to make predictions about it. 

"But we do believe that this conflict as all conflicts do will end at some point and that there needs to be a political path forward for the establishment of a Palestinian state," he added. 

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One of the Hamas officials taken out by the Israel Defense Forces this week was Bilal Nofal, who was "in charge of investigating suspects of espionage" against the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip. 

The IDF said in a statement Wednesday that Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency helped coordinate the elimination of Nofal, and the operation was conducted using an Air Force plane.

"Nofal took part in the development of the organization's research and learning methods," the IDF said. "His elimination constitutes an injury to the terrorist organization's learning and strengthening capabilities."