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WASHINGTON — Two U.S. Navy SEALs are missing after conducting a nighttime boarding mission Thursday off the coast of Somalia, according to three U.S. officials. The SEALs were on an interdiction mission, climbing up a vessel when one got knocked off by high waves. Under their protocol, when one SEAL is overtaken the next jumps in after them. Both SEALs are still missing. A search and rescue mission is under way and the waters in the Gulf of Aden, where they were operating, are warm, two of the U.S. officials said. The U.S. Navy has conducted regular interdiction missions, where they have intercepted weapons on ships that were bound for Houthi-controlled Yemen. The mission was not related to Operation Prosperity Guardian, the ongoing U.S. and international mission to provide protection to commercial vessels in the Red Sea, or the retaliatory strikes that the United States and the United Kingdom have conducted in Yemen over the past two days, the official said Saturday. It was also not related to the seizure of the oil tanker St. Nikolas by Iran, a third U.S. official said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not yet been made public. Besides defending ships from the drones and missiles launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the U.S. military has also come to the aid of commercial ships that have been the targets of piracy. In a statement Saturday, U.S. Central Command said it would not release additional information on the Thursday night incident until the personnel recovery mission is complete. The sailors were forward-deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations supporting a wide variety of missions.

As Democrats shift their presidential preference caucus to mail-in balloting in Iowa with incumbent President Joe Biden the likely winner, Republicans take center stage during Iowa’s 2024 Caucus, when supporters assemble in person to choose their candidate for the Republican nomination. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports from Iowa.

des moines, iowa — First it was the snow, then the bitter cold temperatures that iced out most of the campaign events in the U.S. Midwestern state of Iowa the weekend before the January 15 caucuses. Former President Donald Trump, who has spent much of the week before the caucuses outside of the state, canceled most of his in-person events because of the weather. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley moved many of her events online. "It will make the non-passionate people stay home, and the passionate people will come out," said Carson Odle, who was undeterred by the bad weather as he attended one of the few, in-person events that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis didn't cancel, in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny. "The die-hards will come," said Cheryl Weisheit, who also braved traveling in the snowstorm to hear DeSantis' campaign pitch. "Early on it wasn't that bad. … I don't know … we're just so used to this!" Weisheit, who chairs a local Republican group, said physically attending an event was important to her because she still doesn't know who to support on caucus night. "I probably won't know until that night," she said. Snow could affect turnout Iowa Democrats shifted their presidential preference caucuses to mail-in balloting later in the election cycle, with incumbent President Joe Biden the likely winner. So Republicans will take center stage during Iowa's 2024 Caucuses, a first-in-the-nation event when supporters assemble in person to choose their candidate for the Republican nomination. It comes amid some of the heaviest snow and coldest temperatures Iowa has experienced during the caucuses in many years, creating several unknowns for how it will impact the results. "The unknown here is how much the supporters for the various candidates will turn out," said University of Iowa political science professor Tim Hagle. "Will the Trump supporters really be as loyal to him and as faithful to him as everyone expects?" Hagle said if polling translates into turnout, it's more difficult for the Republicans vying to unseat Trump as the front-runner and curbs their ability to pick up momentum as the race moves beyond Iowa. "If Trump is still 30 points ahead or maybe even more, it seems pretty unlikely that DeSantis or Haley is going to be able to beat him or even come close because to a certain extent they are splitting the anti-Trump vote," he said. Hagle added that polling also shows Trump's legal troubles haven't dampened his support. "Given that he was indicted in four different places, he's got a civil trial going on in New York, he's got a defamation trial going on there as well, states are trying to kick him off the ballot, all this means — in the eyes of a lot of his supporters — is that they're politically persecuting him and so there's a rally-around-the-chief effect that's going on," Hagle said. Campaigns urge voters to show up But there are signs of fatigue among Iowa voters. Retired police officer John Frank supported Trump before, but not this year. "He's getting up in age, just like Joe Biden, and we have to consider that," Frank told VOA. "And he's never learned in his life, especially his political life, to keep his mouth shut." Frank said he'll caucus for DeSantis. "Trump is probably going to win, but I don't think it's going to the be slam dunk people think," said Weisheit, who has narrowed her choices to DeSantis and Haley, but not Trump. "Well, if Trump is the candidate, I will [vote for him], but right now … he's not the one that I will caucus for," she said. "You really have to energize your supporters and get them to turn out," Hagle said, because "we often see some movement up until caucus night," which is why the messaging from every candidate left in the race in the final days of the campaign is a push to encourage their supporters to physically show up to support them at caucus locations across the state on January 15.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — After almost five years of engagement and a postponement because of the coronavirus pandemic, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern married longtime partner Clarke Gayford in a private ceremony Saturday. Details of the event were closely held by the pair, but the ceremony is reported to have been staged at a luxury vineyard in the scenic Hawke's Bay region, 325 kilometers from New Zealand's capital, Wellington. It is believed only family, close friends and a few of the 43-year-old Ardern's former lawmaker colleagues were invited, including Ardern's successor and former prime minister Chris Hipkins. Earlier, police met with a small group of protesters who had plastered a wall with dozens of anti-vaccination posters outside the venue. One protester was also seen holding a sign that read, "Lest we forget jab mandates," on the outskirts of the property. Ardern and Gayford, 47, reportedly began dating in 2014 and were engaged five years later, but because of Ardern's government's COVID-19 restrictions that reduced gatherings to 100 people, the wedding planned for the southern hemisphere summer of 2022 was postponed. "Such is life," Ardern said at the time of their decision to call off the wedding. "I am no different to, dare I say, thousands of other New Zealanders." Just 37 when she became leader in 2017, Ardern quickly became a global icon of the left. She exemplified a new style of leadership and was praised around the world for her handling of the nation's worst-ever mass shooting and the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2018, Ardern became just the second elected world leader to give birth while holding office. Later that year, she brought her infant daughter to the floor of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. New Zealand, under Ardern's government, had some of the strictest coronavirus mandates in the world, which prompted several rallies during her final year as prime minister. It also led to a level of vitriol from some that hadn't been experienced by previous New Zealand leaders. Ardern shocked New Zealanders in January 2023 when she said she was stepping down after five-and-a-half years as prime minister because she no longer had "enough in the tank" to do the job justice in an election year. Since then, Ardern announced she would temporarily join Harvard University after being appointed to dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has also took an unpaid role combating online extremism. In June, Ardern received one of New Zealand's highest honors for her service leading the country through a mass shooting and pandemic. She was made a Dame Grand Companion, meaning people will now call her Dame Jacinda Ardern.

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders are preparing a stopgap bill to keep the federal government running into March and avoid a partial shutdown next week. The temporary measure will run to March 1 for some federal agencies whose approved funds are set to run out Friday and extend the remainder of government operations to March 8. That's according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it. Several media outlets are also reporting on the agreement to keep the government open. The stopgap bill, expected to be released Sunday, would come as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has been under pressure from his hard-right flank in recent days to jettison a recent bipartisan spending deal with Senate Democrats. The bill would need Democratic support to pass the narrowly divided House. Johnson insisted Friday that he is sticking with the deal he struck with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., despite pressure from some conservatives to renegotiate. Moderates in the party had urged him to stay the course. Still, in his first big test as the new leader, he has yet to show how he will quell the revolt from his right flank that ousted his predecessor. "Our top-line agreement remains," Johnson said Friday, referring to the budget accord reached January 7. That accord sets $1.66 trillion in spending for the next fiscal year, with $886 billion of the tally going to defense. Hard-right members have criticized the deal, including several of those who helped oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the speaker's office last year after he struck a spending deal with Democrats and President Joe Biden. Some have already raised the threat of a motion to oust Johnson over the deal, not even three months after he was elected. The hard-right flank is also insisting that new immigration policies be included, which they say would stop the record flow of migrants at the U.S-Mexico border. Johnson met with about two dozen House Republicans this past week, many of them centrist-leaning voices urging him not to go back on his word and stick with the deal. The centrists assured Johnson that they will support him. "I just can't imagine the House wants to relive the madness," said Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., who had helped McCarthy negotiate the initial agreement with Biden and the other leaders.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's two main drug cartels have long taken their deadly rivalry with them as they expand into distant markets from Asia to Australia to Africa, but never with such intensive street gang violence and a presidential declaration of a state of "internal armed conflict" this week in Ecuador. Gunmen from an Ecuadorian gang believed aligned with Mexico's Jalisco New Generation cartel took over a television station during a live broadcast and brandished explosives. Meanwhile, a rival gang believed to be backed by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel called for peace — in a statement apparently issued from Mexico City. Why are Mexican cartels in Ecuador? It's the location. And the bananas. Ecuador is attractive as a shipping point for drugs because the South American country is sandwiched between two top cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru. Ecuador has been ravaged by poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic, a weak law enforcement system and corruption, but it also has a big active, legitimate foreign trade. Ships sail to ports in the U.S. and Europe with huge containers of bananas — Ecuador is the world's top exporter — and those are good places to hide cocaine. "You have a confluence of factors and, yes, you have bananas, a huge amount of containers and establishments and cover to be smuggling around the world in Europe, across Europe to Turkey, and to other parts of the world," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the Brookings Institute. In a few short years, experts say, the experience and muscle of the Mexican cartels has turned Ecuador into the shipment point for almost one-third of the cocaine entering Europe. According to a 2023 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "the proportion of cocaine reported to the Regional Intelligence Office for Western Europe with Ecuador identified as a departure point rose from 14% in 2018 to 29% in 2020 and 28% in 2021." Much of that cocaine was connected to Mexican cartels, who have moved into producer countries like Colombia following the 2016 peace accords there with leftist rebels. Coca bush fields in Colombia have also been moving closer to the border with Ecuador due to the breakup of criminal groups after the 2016 demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. In Mexico, from where the cartels ship mostly fentanyl and meth to the United States, the battle between the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels has caused a persistent, decadelong wave of violence. Something similar can be seen in Ecuador, but at an astoundingly rapid rate. The homicide rate in Ecuador skyrocketed from about six homicides per 100,000 people in 2016 — comparable to the United States — to around 40 per 100,000 in 2023. The Mexican cartels' business model abroad is largely copied from their domestic playbook: assert control over territory by recruiting local gangs with offers of guns and cash. Then ruthlessly battle the rival cartel for control of territory. "You will see the Jalisco cartel or the Sinaloa cartel insisting that the local criminal groups chose between them, that you're only with one or the other, and act violently against rival groups who make a different choice," Felbab-Brown said. "So this has playing out in Ecuador," she said. The problem worsened when the Mexican cartels stopped paying the local gangs in cash, and began paying them in drugs instead, said Fernando Carrión, a political science professor at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador. The local gangs "have to sell those drugs in local markets, and that forces local gangs to organize, increases local (drug) consumption and laundering, and for this reason also increases the violence," Carrión said, as street-dealing turf battles cause homicide rates to spike. That's why you don't see Mexican cartels sending their own flashy, heavily armed troops or their armored vehicles to Ecuador; Ecuadorians are doing the dying, in what Carrión describes as a form of outsourcing. "They connect in Ecuador with other organizations in an outsourcing scheme," Carrión said. "In the concrete case of the two Mexican groups, Sinaloa is connected to the Choneros," one of Ecuador's oldest gangs. Jalisco New Generation is connected to the Lobos, or Wolves, which like Jalisco itself is a more recent upstart, he said. Jalisco also apparently works with the Tiguerones, the gang that took over the television station this week. "In this outsourcing scheme, these (local) groups perform certain tasks," Carrión said, like guarding or transporting cocaine shipments overland to seaports. The local gangs' power is frightening, and it extends from the prisons to the streets. In August, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated less than two weeks before the election. He had complained of receiving threats from the Choneros, the gang associated with the Sinaloa cartel. A couple of months later, six suspects in the assassination, all Colombians, were killed in prison. Last Sunday, the leader of the Choneros, Adolfo Macías, disappeared from the prison where he was held. Since Macías' apparent escape, gangs have kidnapped police officers and inmates have taken at least 178 corrections personnel hostage. On Tuesday, after the takeover of the TV station, President Daniel Noboa designated 20 drug-trafficking gangs as terrorist groups and authorized the military to "neutralize" them. Whether the government can regain the upper hand remains to be seen.

Beijing — At least 10 people were killed and six are missing after an accident at a coal mine in central China's Henan Province, state media said Saturday.  The accident, a likely coal and gas explosion described as an "outburst," happened around 2:55 p.m. (0655 GMT) Friday in Pingdingshan, state broadcaster CCTV said.   Search and rescue efforts were continuing, CCTV said.  State news agency Xinhua said 425 people were working underground when the blast took place.  Those in charge of the mine have been taken into custody by authorities, Xinhua said.  Mining safety in China has improved in recent decades, as has media coverage of major incidents, many of which were once overlooked.  However, accidents are still common in an industry with a poor safety record and where regulations are not necessarily enforced.  In 2022, 245 people died in 168 accidents, according to official figures.  Last month, 12 people were killed and 13 injured in a mining accident on the outskirts of Jixi city in northeastern Heilongjiang province.  Eleven people were killed in November in an accident at another coal mine in the same province.  And in September, at least 16 people were killed in a coal mine fire in southwest China's Guizhou province. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Concerns are rising over whether Pakistan’s February 8 general elections will be free and fair as challenges mount for the political party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Also adding to the uncertainty are calls to delay elections amid deteriorating security and a lackluster campaign season. VOA Pakistan Bureau Chief Sarah Zaman reports from Islamabad. Camera: Wajid Asad.

New Delhi — India's Minister of External Affairs will make a two-day trip to Iran starting Sunday, following Western airstrikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels over the Tehran-backed group's attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. The visit by Subrahmanyam Jaishankar comes a month after a drone attack on a ship near Indian waters that the United States blamed on Iran. A government statement issued Saturday said that Jaishankar would meet his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian to discuss "bilateral, regional and global issues," without giving further detail. The Houthis have carried out scores of drone and missile strikes on the key international route through the Red Sea since the start of Israel's war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7. Many vessels have been rerouted from the Red Sea due to drone and missile attacks carried out by the Houthi rebels in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. India has significantly stepped up its own maritime patrols in the Arabian Sea to "maintain a deterrent presence" after the string of attacks on vessels. In December a drone attack hit the MV Chem Pluto oil tanker 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) off the coast of India, which the United States blamed on Iran — claims Tehran dubbed "worthless." Earlier this month India's navy said it had rescued 21 crew members from a vessel in the Arabian Sea after a hijacking distress call. Jaishankar said Thursday he had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about "maritime security challenges, especially (in) the Red Sea region."

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

cairo — After the latest U.S. and British airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in response to Houthi drone attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, some commentators in Egypt said that more attacks could reduce Suez Canal traffic and damage the Egyptian and world economy.   Former Egyptian deputy foreign minister Hussein Haridi told Arab media that the U.S. and British attacks would probably damage Egypt's already-struggling economy and cut shipping through the Suez Canal even more than the 30% decline that occurred in December.  He said if the U.S.-British attacks on the Houthis continue, it's not going to resolve the problem but exacerbate it and cause a widening of the conflict to other fronts in the region and affect both the security and the economies of the [Middle East] and Europe.  Haridi noted that an escalating conflict could result in an attack on a U.S. or British warship, that would force a more robust response from the U.S. or Britain.  Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, told VOA that the U.S. and British strikes against the Houthis come after dozens of Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and are intended to dissuade them from conducting more attacks:   He said that the U.S. and British strikes come after 32 Houthi attacks, not just against ships heading toward Israel but international shipping, in addition to a major attack on January 9 using 13 drones and a barrage of missiles, causing over 2,000 ships to divert from the Red Sea and Suez Canal [to take the longer route around the Horn of Africa].  Professor Said Sadek at Egypt's Japanese University in Alexandria told VOA that he thinks the U.S. would have killed Houthi leaders or commanders if it had really wanted to escalate the situation and that Yemen's tribal society would have pushed the Houthis to seek revenge. Egypt, he suggested, may also have turned a blind eye to the U.S. attack. "[Egypt] may have turned a blind eye [to the attack] because it's 3,200 kilometers from Cyprus [where there's a British base] to Yemen," he said. London-based Iran expert Ali Nourizadeh told VOA that he thinks that Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders are working closely with the Houthis to coordinate drone strikes and other attacks on Red Sea shipping.  "The Iranians, one way or the other, insisted that they were not involved [in the attacks on Red Sea shipping]," he said. "While they were involved, but [Iran] doesn't want to put America in a corner and force them to attack, so they said they were not involved, and they keep saying that."   Nourizadeh also said he thinks that Israel doesn't want to expand the scope of its proxy conflict with Iran, either. "One front is enough for [Israel]," he argued. "Israel hasn't even fought with [Lebanon's] Hezbollah militia group the way they thought they would fight." Israel, has nevertheless, attacked pro-Iranian militia forces in Syria on a number of occasions since the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which ignited the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza. 

islamabad — Authorities in Pakistan said Saturday that a roadside bomb exploded near a military convoy in southwestern Baluchistan province, killing at least five soldiers.      An army statement said the deadly bombing occurred during a counterterrorism operation in the remote Kech district, claiming security forces killed "three terrorists" in the ensuing fierce gunfight.     In a statement, an insurgent group known as the Baluchistan Liberation Front took responsibility for the attack. BLF is one of several ethnic Baluch insurgent groups plotting attacks against Pakistani security forces in the province, claiming they are fighting for the independence of Baluchistan.      The natural resources-rich, impoverished Pakistani province is where China has been or is in the process of developing major infrastructure projects as part of Beijing's global Belt and Road Initiative.     Earlier on Saturday, the military said its forces had killed four militants, including two key commanders, in separate counterterrorism raids in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.     Both Pakistani provinces border Afghanistan and recently have experienced almost daily insurgent attacks, primarily targeting security forces.     The violence is mainly claimed by the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and Baluch insurgents. A regional affiliate of the Islamic State, known as the Islamic State-Khorasan, is also active in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.      Militant attacks killed about 500 security forces and nearly 500 civilians in Pakistan in 2023. Pakistani leaders say the bloodshed is being directed by fugitive TTP commanders and fighters from their sanctuaries in Afghanistan.    The conflict-torn neighboring country's de facto Taliban government rejects the charges, though, saying it is not allowing anyone to threaten Pakistan or other countries.  

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

washington — The United States launched a follow-up strike against a Houthi target in Yemen early Saturday, after officials said they were not satisfied with the damage inflicted during the initial round of airstrikes late Thursday.  U.S. Central Command said it launched the additional strike from the USS Carney, a guided missile destroyer, firing multiple Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles to take out a radar site that it said presented a continuing threat to maritime traffic.    The strike comes a little more than a day after the U.S. and British militaries carried out dozens of strikes against Houthi positions in Yemen in retaliation for weeks of Houthi attacks that have disrupted shipping and damaged vessels transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.     Early Friday, Houthi militants launched an anti-ship ballistic missile, U.S. military officials confirmed, though it did not hit any ships.    U.S. and British officials had expressed optimism Friday that the initial strikes late Thursday, which are now being described as two waves of strikes, were successful.    A U.S. defense official told VOA on Friday that the initial assessment indicates the first wave of precision strikes late on Thursday degraded the ability of the Houthis to launch further attacks.         The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss operational details, said a more comprehensive assessment of the strikes was still underway. But the sentiment echoed other early assessments by senior U.S. officials, who have described the damage to Houthi capabilities as "significant."       "We feel very confident about where our munitions struck," Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, the director of the Joint Staff, told reporters Friday. "But we don't know at this point the complete battle damage assessment."  More than 150 munitions aimed at Houthis U.S. Central Command late Thursday said that U.S. fighter jets, naval vessels and submarines hit more than 60 targets at 16 locations across Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen, including command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, and production facilities.         But, Sims said Friday, the U.S. and Britain launched a second wave of strikes against another 12 locations 30 minutes to an hour after the initial strikes were carried out.          The additional sites, each with multiple targets, "had been identified as possessing articles that could be potentially used against forces, maritime and air," he said, noting the strikes were taken in self-defense. U.S. officials said, in all, more than 150 precision guided munitions were aimed at Houthi targets, including Tomahawk missiles.     At least three U.S. guided missile cruisers and destroyers — the USS Gravely, the USS Philippine Sea, and the USS Mason — took part in the strikes along with an Ohio-class submarine, fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, and U.S. Air Force jets.     A separate statement Friday from the British Defense Ministry said four of its Typhoon fighter jets, accompanied by an air refueling tanker, used laser-guided bombs to hit two locations: a drone launch site in Bani, in northwestern Yemen, and an airfield in Abbs used to launch cruise missiles and drones at ships in the Red Sea.     "Early indications are that the Houthis' ability to threaten merchant shipping has taken a blow," the ministry said.    Retaliation likely, say US officials  Despite the optimistic strike assessments, U.S. officials said they believe the Houthis are likely to retaliate.     "My guess is that the Houthis are trying to figure things out on the ground and trying to determine what capabilities still exist for them," Sims said. "Their rhetoric has been pretty strong and pretty high, and I would expect that they will attempt some sort of retaliation."    "I would hope they wouldn't," he added, describing the Houthi efforts as "generally fruitless."     But the White House repeated its warning Friday that the Houthis would face additional consequences if their attacks persisted.        "We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior, along with our allies," U.S. President Joe Biden said in response to reporters' questions during a stop at a coffee shop in Pennsylvania on Friday.     Reporters asked him if the Houthis are terrorists, and he replied, "I think they are." In 2021, his administration removed the Houthis from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.  Also Friday, the U.S. unveiled new sanctions aimed at commodity shipments that have been funding the Houthis and their Iranian backers.          U.S. Treasury Department officials imposed sanctions on a Hong-Kong-based company and another company in the United Arab Emirates, both of which have been working with Sa'id al-Jamal, a financier who has been supporting both the Houthis and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.     "We will take all available measures to stop the destabilizing activities of the Houthis and their threats to global commerce," Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson said in a statement.     Since mid-November, the Houthis have launched at least 28 attacks, affecting citizens, cargo and vessels from more than 50 countries, according to the U.S.             U.S. officials have said that Biden made the decision to launch Thursday's strikes following a Houthi attack on shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on Tuesday that involved 18 one-way attack drones, two cruise missiles and one ballistic missile.                 U.S. combat jets, along with U.S. and British military vessels, responded by shooting down the drones and missiles, averting any damage to ships or injuries to their crews in the area.         Last week, the United States and 12 allies issued a statement warning the Houthis of unspecified consequences if their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea continued.                 The statement followed the launch in mid-December of Operation Prosperity Guardian by the United States, Britain and nearly 20 other countries to protect ships from Houthi attacks.                 Since the launch of Prosperity Guardian, at least 1,500 vessels have passed safely through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.       The U.N. Security Council adopted its own resolution Wednesday, calling on the Houthis to stop the attacks immediately.            But Russia, which abstained in the vote, called for an emergency meeting of the council Friday evening to discuss the strikes. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the U.S.-British strikes a "blatant armed aggression against another country." He argued that the strikes did not meet the conditions for self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter.   "Article 51 does not apply to the situation with commercial shipping," Nebenzia said. "The right to self-defense cannot be exercised in order to ensure the freedom of shipping. Our American colleagues know this fact very well."    In a statement Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea area are "not acceptable" and endanger the safety and security of global supply chains and have a negative impact on the economic and humanitarian situation worldwide. He urged the Houthis to immediately cease their attacks and called for all parties to respect the Security Council resolution in its entirety.   U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Council that the strikes were consistent with international law and Article 51. She said Washington does not take such strikes lightly and they were only carried out "after non-military options proved inadequate to address the threat."    VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara and U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.