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The Hague (AFP) – NATO chief Mark Rutte wants member countries to agree at a summit in June to reach five percent of GDP on defence-related spending by 2032, Dutch premier Dick Schoof said Friday.

US President Donald Trump has demanded that NATO allies ramp up their military spending to five percent of GDP, a level that not even the United States currently hits.

Schoof said Rutte had written to NATO's 32 member countries calling for them to reach 3.5 percent of GDP on "hard military spending" and 1.5 percent of GDP on "related spending such as infrastructure, cybersecurity and other things" over the next seven years.

Trump is piling the pressure on Europe and Canada to ratchet up NATO's spending target at a summit in The Hague next month.

Foreign ministers from alliance countries are expected to tackle the matter at an informal gathering in Antalya, Turkey, next week.

Rutte on Friday refused to confirm the figures being debated but said "internal discussions" were taking place within NATO.

Diplomats within NATO, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the proposal circulated last week envisioned increasing direct military spending by 0.2 percent each year to 2032.

They said the discussions were at an early stage and there were no clear signs yet that there would be consensus for the figures.

The parameters of what could be included in the 1.5 percent of loosely related defence spending were still to be defined, they said.

"It makes no sense to argue about abstract GDP percentages now. What is crucial is that we continuously expand our efforts over the next few years," Germany's new chancellor Friedrich Merz said during a visit to NATO's headquarters in Brussels on Friday.

Merz said that for Germany, every increase of one percent of GDP represented 45 billion euros ($50 billion).

Trump has long accused Washington's allies of underspending on their defence and taking advantage of US largesse.

He has also threatened not to protect countries that do not spend enough on their military in his eyes.

European countries have ramped up their defence spending since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but Rutte says they must go considerably higher to ward off Moscow.

Last year 22 of NATO's 32 allies hit its current spending target of two percent of GDP on their militaries.

A string of countries such as Italy, Spain, Canada and Belgium that still lag below that level have pledged to reach it in 2025.

The United States last year spent 3.19 percent of its GDP on defence, behind eastern flank countries Poland, Estonia and Lithuania close to Russia.

But Washington remains by far the biggest military spender in NATO in absolute terms, accounting for 64 percent of all defence expenditure last year.

In a bid to help European countries bolster their spending, the EU has proposed loosening budget rules and establishing a 150-billion-euro defence fund.

Jerusalem (AFP) – Thousands gathered for a rare peace event in Jerusalem on Friday, with the Gaza war in its 20th month, the UN warning of humanitarian catastrophe and Palestinian militants still holding dozens of Israelis captive.

In recent days, Israel has announced plans for an expanded military campaign in Gaza entailing the "conquest" of the Palestinian territory. Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said this meant that the Gaza Strip would be "entirely destroyed".

"We cannot let the extremists on both sides that thrive over revenge, fear and hate also control our future," said Maoz Inon, 50, an Israeli entrepreneur and peace activist who was one of the main organisers of Friday's "People's Peace Summit".

"Even though they are controlling our present and reality, we must choose an alternative and create and shape an alternative future," he told AFP.

Friday's event was organised by a grouping of some 60 grassroots peace-building organisations working to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a political agreement.

At the event, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and ex-Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa presented their proposal for peace, originally unveiled last year.

Kidwa, the nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, joined via livestream from the occupied West Bank.

"Only a two-state solution is a prescription for a dramatic change in the direction of our country and of the entire region," said Olmert, a centrist predecessor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We have to end the war and pull out of Gaza, Gaza is Palestinian... and it has to be part of a Palestinian state," he added.

He advocated for the establishment of an "internal security force" linked to the Palestinian Authority that would have "objective powers... to try and rebuild Gaza without any participation" of the militant group Hamas.

Kidwa said the pair's peace proposal involved a two-state solution including the exchange of 4.4 percent of territory between Israel and a Palestinian state.

Under the plan unveiled last year, Kidwa and Olmert said this territory swap would involve Israel annexing land where the main Jewish settlement blocs exist in the West Bank, including some of the area around Jerusalem.

In exchange, an equally sized piece of Israeli territory would be annexed by a future Palestinian state, they said.

Their vision of a two-state solution is based on Israel's June 4, 1967 borders -- before the occupation of the West Bank.

The Olmert-Kidwa plan also advocates for shared sovereignty over Jerusalem's Old City, involving a trusteeship which would include Israel and a Palestinian state.

Washington (AFP) – The United States' measles outbreak has surpassed 1,000 confirmed cases with three deaths so far, state and local data showed Friday, marking a stark resurgence of a vaccine-preventable disease that the nation once declared eliminated.

The surge comes as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to undermine confidence in the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine -- a highly effective shot he has falsely claimed is dangerous and contains fetal debris.

An AFP tally showed there have been at least 1,012 cases since the start of the year, with Texas accounting for more than 70 percent.

A vaccine-skeptical Mennonite Christian community straddling the Texas–New Mexico border has been hit particularly hard.

A federal database maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has lagged behind state and county reporting, as the globally renowned health agency faces deep workforce and budget cuts under President Donald Trump's administration.

North Dakota is the latest state to report an outbreak, with nine cases so far. Around 180 school students have been forced to quarantine at home, according to the North Dakota Monitor.

"This is a virus that's the most contagious infectious disease of mankind and it's now spreading like wildfire," Paul Offit a pediatrician and vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia told AFP.

He warned the true case count could be far higher, as people shy away from seeking medical attention. "Those three deaths equal the total number of deaths from measles in the last 25 years in this country."

The fatalities so far include two young girls in Texas and an adult in New Mexico, all unvaccinated -- making it the deadliest US measles outbreak in decades.

It is also the highest number of cases since 2019, when outbreaks in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and New Jersey resulted in 1,274 infections but no deaths.

Nationwide immunization rates have been dropping in the United States, fueled by misinformation about vaccines, particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The CDC recommends a 95 percent vaccination rate to maintain herd immunity.

However, measles vaccine coverage among kindergartners has dropped from 95.2 percent in the 2019–2020 school year to 92.7 percent in 2023–2024.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus spread through droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or simply breathes.

Known for its characteristic rash, it poses a serious risk to unvaccinated individuals, including infants under 12 months who are not ordinarily eligible for vaccination, and those with weakened immune systems.

While measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, outbreaks persist each year.

Susan McLellan, an infectious disease professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch, slammed RFK Jr for his misleading messaging promoting remedies, including Vitamin A which has valid but limited uses, over vaccines.

"Saying we're going to devote resources to studying therapies instead of enhancing uptake of the vaccine is a profoundly inefficient way of addressing a vaccine-preventable disease," she told AFP.

McLellan added that the crisis reflects broader erosion in public trust in health authorities.

It is hard for an individual untrained in statistics to understand measles is a problem if they don't personally see deaths around them, she said. "Believing population-based statistics takes a leap, and that's public health."

Germany's domestic intelligence agency was on Friday waiting for judges to decide if they could go ahead with their plan to classify the far-right Alternative for Germany party as an extremist movement.

The intelligence agency – the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) – designated the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a right-wing extremist organisation last week, claiming it was attempting to undermine free, democratic order in Germany.

AfD supporters said the move was politically motivated, and party leaders filed a lawsuit against the label in Cologne.

In a statement, the party accused intelligence services of violating the constitution by trying to criminalise the AfD's opinions and criticism of German immigration policy over the last decade.

“With our lawsuit, we are sending a clear signal against the abuse of state power to combat and exclude the opposition,” party co-leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel said.

Intelligence chiefs say they are targeting the party over its stance against refugees and migrants.

The pause while the judges adjudicate means the BfV agency cannot proceed with plans to use informants or deploy video and audio surveillance of the activities of the AfD.

"The intelligence service’s decision is a first important step that would help counter the accusation of right-wing extremism," said Chrupalla and Weidel.

Formed in 2013, initially the AfD's ire was focused on financial bailouts for struggling eurozone members.

Its criticism of a 2015 decision by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel to allow large numbers of asylum seekers into Germany helped make the party a significant political force.

The AfD came second in February's parliamentary elections in Germany but has been excluded from the coalition government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz which formally took office on Tuesday.

Less than a week into his term in office, Merz's administration is facing scrutiny over the BfV's move – from the government of the United States.

In a social media post, Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, said: “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy – it’s tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD – which took second in the recent election – but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes. Germany should reverse course.”

In his own post, US Vice-President JD Vance referred to the Cold War between the Soviet bloc and Western powers, writing: "The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it. The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt – not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment.”

Responding to the comments, the German foreign ministry said: "The [BfV]'s decision is the result of a thorough and independent investigation to protect our constitution and the rule of law. It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped."

Warsaw (AFP) – Pro-Ukrainian activists held a protest at a Soviet memorial in Warsaw where Moscow's ambassador placed a wreath on Friday, as Russia celebrates World War II Victory Day.

Some two dozen protesters wrapped in white sheets, their clothes and faces splattered with a red substance imitating blood, lay at the foot of a monument at the cemetery for Soviet soldiers in Poland's capital.

They chanted "terrorists" as Russia's ambassador to Poland, Sergei Andreyev, made his way to the monument with a wreath to commemorate the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany.

"The idea was that the path the ambassador would take to reach the monument would be lined with the graves of people who died innocently during the war" in Ukraine, Miroslaw Petryga, 70, who participated in the lie-in, told AFP.

Poland is a staunch ally of Kyiv, supporting Ukraine with military and political aid as it fends off a Russian invasion that is grinding through its fourth year.

"It was the gait of a man pretending not to see anything, with tunnel vision," Petryga, a Ukrainian engineer who has lived in Poland for decades, said of Andreyev.

The ambassador walked past the protesters amid a heavy police presence and with a handful of supporters and security guards around him.

The activists also scattered children's toys at the entrance to the cemetery. The teddy bears, balls and other items were also splattered with a blood-like liquid to symbolise child victims of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Some were wearing t-shirts with the slogan "Make Russia small again" and were collecting signatures under a petition to expel the Russian ambassador from Poland.

At the site, around a dozen people also gathered at a counter protest, wearing the St George ribbon, a historical symbol of Russian and Soviet military successes.

Minor scuffles and verbal altercations broke out between the groups.

A handful of people also showed up to lay flowers at the cemetery away from the protests.

"We should honour the memory of those soldiers who died in the World War," said Natalia, a 67-year-old who held a black-and-white photo that she said showed her father who had fought in the war.

The Russian citizen and longtime Polish resident declined to give her full name.

In 2022, the year Russia launched the full-scale war, protesters at the Soviet mausoleum threw a red substance at Moscow's envoy.

A year later Andreyev was blocked by activists from laying flowers at the monument.

The Kremlin is using its annual Victory Day parade in Moscow -- marking 80 years since the end of World War II -- to whip up patriotism at home and project strength abroad as its troops fight in Ukraine.

But for Natalia Panchenko from the pro-Ukrainian organisation Euromaidan, the day should serve as a reminder of Russia's ongoing war.

"It is important to us that today, when people remember that there is a country called Russia, they do not remember Russia through Russian propaganda, but remember the real Russia," Panchenko told AFP.

"And Russia is a terrorist state," she said.

Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump signaled on Friday that he could lower tariffs on Chinese imports, as the rival superpowers prepare for trade talks over the weekend.

"80% Tariff on China seems right!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, which would bring them down from 145 percent, with cumulative duties on some goods reaching a staggering 245 percent.

He added that it was "Up to Scott B.", referring to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who will confer with China's Vice Premier He Lifeng this weekend in Geneva to try to cool the conflict roiling international markets.

In his post Trump did not say if he thought 80 percent should be the final, definitive level for tariffs on Chinese goods if and when the trade war ends, or an interim status.

In retaliation China has slapped 125 percent levies on US goods.

In another post, this time all in capital letters, Trump said "China should open up its market to USA -- would be so good for them!!! Closed markets don't work anymore!!!"

Chinese official data on Friday showed that the country's global exports rose in April despite the trade war.

Experts said that the forecast-smashing 8.1-percent rise indicated that Beijing was re-routing trade to Southeast Asia to mitigate US tariffs while exports to the United States fell 17.6 percent.

"The global supply chain is being rerouted in real time," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management wrote in a note.

"The manufacturing juggernaut is diverting flow wherever the tariff pain isn't," he said.

China has insisted its position that the United States must lift tariffs first remains "unchanged" and vowed to defend its interests.

Bessent has said the meetings in Switzerland would focus on "de-escalation" -- and not a "big trade deal".

Trump told reporters Thursday that he thought the Geneva talks would be "substantive" and when asked if reducing the levies was a possibility, he said "it could be".

Trump's Truth Social post came a day after he unveiled what he called a historic trade agreement with Britain, the first deal with any country since he unleashed a blitz of sweeping global tariffs last month.

Trump said the British deal would be the first of many, and that he hoped difficult talks with the EU -- as well as China -- could soon produce results too.

Several countries have lined up to hold talks with Washington to avert the worst of Trump's duties, which range from 10 percent for many countries to the sky high ones on China -- Trump's main target.

Major stock markets mostly rose Friday on growing optimism that tariff tensions will ease.

US futures were up while European markets were all in the green after a mixed showing in Asia.

The Frankfurt DAX index hit a record high before Trump's social media post, recouping losses spurred by the US president's April tariffs announcements.

In the first trade deal since Trump's blitz of sweeping global tariffs, Washington agreed to lower levies on British cars and lift them entirely on steel and aluminium.

In return, Britain will open up markets to US beef and other farm products, but a 10 percent baseline levy on British goods remained intact.

Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) – During his nine years living in Tennessee, Fahd, a Saudi national, found comfort and consistency at Dunkin Donuts, where he placed the same order every day.

Now back in Riyadh, Fahd is doing something similar, highlighting the Saudi Arabian love affair with all things American that many find surprising.

"When I came here, thank God, the same cafe and same order were here too," said the 31-year-old mechanical engineer, who did not want to give his family name.

"I started living the same lifestyle here as I did in America."

Saudi Arabia, often known for its religious austerity, is home to Islam's holiest sites, and welcomes millions of Muslim pilgrims ever year.

It also has -- as just one example -- more than 600 branches of Dunkin Donuts, serving roughly 250,000 of its 35-million population each day, according to the franchise.

Despite its image as a cloistered and traditional society, life in Saudi is awash in Western corporate influence, especially from American companies.

Buffalo Wild Wings, Chuck-e-Cheese and Starbucks populate Riyadh's sprawl of office parks and shopping centres, while the capital's traffic-clogged streets heave with hulking American SUVs and pickup trucks.

The nations have shared a tight bond since King Abdulaziz bin Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, and US president Franklin Roosevelt shook hands on board a US cruiser in the Suez Canal during the final months of World War II.

In the ensuing decades, the United States has been at the forefront of providing military protection in return for privileged access to Saudi's colossal oil reserves.

The Saudi riyal is pegged to the greenback and US leaders have been regular guests, including Donald Trump who arrives in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday on the first major overseas trip of his second term.

The relationship has faced rough patches -- including the oil embargo in the 1970s, the September 11, 2001 attacks carried out by mostly Saudi hijackers and the gruesome murder of US-based dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul in 2018.

But for Saudis, the ties that bind, including a love of American food, cars and movies, remain strong -- even after a grassroots campaign to boycott US products that has swept the region during the Israel-Hamas war.

"The one thing we never disagree on is going to an American restaurant -- especially Buffalo Wild Wings," Dalal Abdulaziz, 28, told AFP, saying that chicken wings were one of her favourite foods.

"You'll find American restaurants in every neighbourhood here. We eat it weekly, almost like Saudi food."

Khaled Salman Al-Dosari agrees, saying it is hard to find a single street in Saudi Arabia without an American brand on offer.

"American companies' products have become an inseparable part of our day," added the 21-year-old student in Riyadh.

While many American companies have been in Saudi Arabia for decades, its Vision 2030 agenda -- the oil-dependent country's giant economic diversification plan -- has opened it up and paved the way for further investment.

Live music and cinemas were all forbidden until recent years, but MMA fights and US professional wrestling are now among the entertainment offers available to Saudi consumers.

"I think many Americans would be surprised at the extent to which American brands are all over Saudi Arabia," said Andrew Leber from the department of political science at Tulane University.

Some see further correlations in terms of climate, architecture -- dry, dusty Riyadh, with its wide concrete boulevards, evokes an Arab Dallas -- and even mindset.

"Texas is close to Riyadh in terms of climate," said Fahd, the mechanical engineer.

"And its people are conservative like us."

Meanwhile, the Saudi taste for US products has benefits for the tens of thousands of Americans working in the kingdom, many of them in the oil industry.

"It always... reminds me of home and keeps that connection with the places that I've seen since I've been growing up," said Joshua Dunning, a 36-year-old American business developer working at a Saudi tech firm.

"It's always a nice reminder and seeing those places and products here in Saudi."

Shaoxing (China) (AFP) – Surrounded by samples of silk and glittering tweed in one of China's largest fabric markets, textiles exporter Cherry said she was anxiously awaiting the result of trade talks with the United States this weekend.

Her company, which relies on US customers for around half its client base, is one of many caught in the crosshairs as the standoff between Washington and Beijing has escalated this year.

Cherry has already had US orders cancelled, and is desperately hoping the negotiations starting Saturday in Geneva will result in the rolling back of the reciprocal tariffs that make doing business almost impossible.

"The situation will be very bad if this continues," she said, sceptical of claims her industry would be able to weather prolonged levies.

"A few months ago I heard people say they'd had many containers (of goods) being cancelled... Some factories have already had to stop production."

Sales to the United States made up 18 percent of China's total textiles and apparel exports in 2024, according to Moody's Ratings.

A significant proportion of that comes from the eastern manufacturing powerhouse province of Zhejiang, where the labyrinth-like Keqiao China Textile City is based in the city of Shaoxing.

With a listed 26,000 shops selling everything from velvet to rayon to fake fur, it is touted as one of the world's busiest fabric hubs.

But customers were few and far between when AFP visited on a day of torrential rain this week, with vendors' spirits largely dampened too.

"Of course I am afraid," said one woman surnamed Li, who added that business was already affected by the global turmoil.

"This is my job -- I rely on it to support my family... I hope for a good outcome (for the talks)."

The Geneva talks are the first official public engagement between the two sides aimed at resolving the stand-off triggered by US President Donald Trump's wide-ranging tariffs.

The subsequent tit-for-tat means many Chinese goods entering the United States now face duties of 145 percent -- with some specific sectors even higher -- while Beijing has hit back with 125 percent levies on most US goods.

One seller in Keqiao market described the situation as a "lose-lose scenario".

Some of her colleagues' US customers have agreed to pay a 30 percent non-refundable deposit to initiate production, on the understanding that the whole order can be cancelled if the final tariff level after negotiations is still too high.

If that happens, everyone will lose money.

"We basically don't dare to take US orders anymore," said 66-year-old Zhou, standing in front of swaths of khaki in various hues.

"The cost price can't even be covered, especially with such high tariffs added on."

For companies like his daughter's, which dealt mainly with US clients, "the impact is huge", he said.

"The best outcome would be for everyone to sit down and talk things through -- it would be good for everyone, right?"

Even the hint of de-escalation has brought some back to the table, with one exporter telling AFP a client who had suspended orders had recently given the go-ahead for production to begin.

But at a ski suit workshop in a cross-border e-commerce centre a few kilometres away, 31-year-old Xiao Huilan said a lot of local companies had lost out completing production for orders that had subsequently been reduced or held off.

"In the short term, we can manage, but in the long run, businesses can't sustain it," she said.

"In a trade war, no one really wins. What we hope for is reconciliation, where everyone can coexist and prosper together."

Paris (AFP) – Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa told AFP on Thursday he had sought assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the drug cartels that are terrorising the South American country.

In an exclusive interview with AFP in Paris, the iron-fisted 37-year-old who won re-election last month said Israel and the UAE had agreed to provide intelligence "to help" fight cocaine traffickers.

Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels battled for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation's ports.

During presidential campaigning, Noboa suggested US special forces should be deployed to Ecuador to tackle the violence, and floated legal reforms to allow US bases to reopen.

Over the past week, he travelled to Italy, Spain, Britain and France -- some of the European countries experiencing rocketing cocaine consumption -- to develop further security alliances, as well as Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

He said he spoke to Israeli and Emirati leaders about "cooperation on security at ports and borders... since the violence is there, in the areas or on the routes to the ports."

But Noboa admitted "there is not much interest so far" from foreign powers in establishing military bases in the Andean country.

In March, he announced a security alliance with Erik Prince, founder of the controversial American security company Blackwater, whose employees killed and wounded dozens of civilians in Iraq.

Asked about the pact, Noboa said Prince was merely acting in a "consultancy" capacity.

After a close-run race in the first round of Ecuador's election Noboa easily defeated left-wing lawyer Luisa Gonzalez in April's run-off.

While Gonzalez had pitched herself as a political everywoman who would improve the lot of poor Ecuadorans, Noboa -- heir to a banana export empire -- staked his political fortunes on his war on the cartels.

In March, he announced a preemptive amnesty for security forces fighting gangs in the violence-wracked port of Guayaquil, despite allegations of gross rights abuses by the military particularly.

His tough talk appeared to pay off, with the incumbent taking an 11-point lead over his rival.

Gonzalez rejected the results as fraudulent, without providing proof of her claim.

Noboa said his win was a "vote of confidence" in his policies.

He faces a tough task to unite a country grappling with its dramatic decline in fortunes.

Rampant bloodshed has spooked investors and tourists alike, fueling economic malaise and swelling the ranks of Ecuador's poor to 28 percent of the population.

"More than anything, we need to attract foreign investment," Noboa said.

But in order to access bond markets, the government needs to lower his country's risk factor.

Noboa assured that Ecuador's economic fundamentals were "not bad," citing low inflation and record bank deposits, among other indicators.

"Our focus is job creation," he said.

Paris (AFP) – Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have emerged bruised but defiant from a blistering US bombing campaign, cementing their role as one of the Middle East's most powerful non-state actors after a truce with Washington.

US President Donald Trump said the rebels had "capitulated" after the intense, seven-week campaign that came in response to Huthi threats to renew attacks on Red Sea shipping over Israel's blockade on Gaza.

Rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi slammed Trump's remarks on Thursday, calling on supporters to celebrate "America's great failure" during Friday demonstrations and labelling their campaign on the key shipping route a "total success".

The rebels are the biggest winners of this truce, analysts told AFP, with an official confirming they will keep targeting Israeli ships in the key maritime waterway.

"It is at best a very unstable agreement. The Huthis' ambitions in the Red Sea against Israel and in the region in general will not wind down," said Thomas Juneau, a Middle East specialist at the University of Ottawa.

"This allows President Trump to claim victory, but ultimately, it is a very limited" win, he said.

The Yemeni rebels have framed the ceasefire as a victory, regularly announcing throughout the escalation that they shot down MQ-9 drones and at least three F-18 aircrafts.

These losses highlight "billions spent by the US," said Mohammed Albasha, of the US-based Basha Report Risk Advisory, noting that "none of their senior commanders were harmed".

The recent agreement failed to curb the Huthis' ambitions.

"On the ground, anti‑Huthi forces lacked the capacity to conduct ground operations without Emirati and Saudi backing," Albasha said.

"Both Gulf states publicly opposed a ground offensive given their ongoing understandings with the Huthis," he added.

The group operating out of hard-to-access mountain strongholds has withstood a decade of war against a well-armed, Saudi-led coalition.

"The nature of Huthi rule and how they operate makes them doubly resistant to air strikes," said Michael Shurkin of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank.

"The Huthis as an organisation are dispersed and rely on tribal networks. They are classic guerrilla fighters and proficient at asymmetrical warfare," he added.

The Huthis have become Iran's strongest ally after the Palestinian Hamas group and Lebanon's Hezbollah were decimated in wars with Israel.

"Their importance has increased," said Juneau, adding that they had become "more indispensable in Iran's eyes".

Clara Broekaert, a researcher at the Soufan Center, said "the current pause presents a strategic opportunity for the Huthis to rearm and reposition".

But the rebels have retained a certain autonomy from their Iranian backer.

A senior member of the Revolutionary Guards is part of one of the Huthis' essential decision-making bodies, according to Juneau.

Tehran provides them with "missile and drone technologies, military and intelligence support" but the rebels are "not puppets acting at Iran's whim", he said.

"Dependency works both ways" between Iran and the rebels, he said, adding that "this gives the Huthis significant bargaining power".

Camille Lons, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the group allows Tehran to "maintain pressure points, retain regional assets and networks in Yemen".

Relatively unknown a decade ago, the Huthis have remained largely under the radar of Western intelligence services.

Their attacks, often with home-assembled drones and missiles, are simple but effective, dramatically reducing Red Sea shipping volumes as cargo companies have avoided the route.

It is difficult to asses the extent of their arsenal or how badly the latest US campaign has affected their military capacities.

"The assumption is that the knowhow for the sophisticated weapons come from Iran," said Jeremy Binnie of British private intelligence firm Janes.

"Some local manufacturing is taking place to reduce the burden on the smuggling networks, although the extent that is happening isn't particularly clear," he said.

The Conflict Armament Research (CAR) group said the group was "attempting to use hydrogen fuel cells to power their" drones. If the experiment is succesful, they would be the first non-state actor to do so.

"This is no longer a small group manufacturing underdeveloped weapons," Lons said, underlining the increased "complexity of what the Huthis are capable of producing by themselves".

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) – EU lawmakers on Thursday gave the green light to downgrading wolf protections in the bloc, which will allow hunting to resume under strict criteria.

Members of the Bern Convention, tasked with the protection of wildlife in Europe as well as some African countries, agreed in December to lower the wolf's status from "strictly protected" to "protected".

The downgrade came into force in March, and the European Commission moved immediately to revise related EU laws to reflect the change.

EU lawmakers approved the move by a majority of 371 to 162, with support from conservative, centrist and hard-right groups.

The law requires a formal rubber-stamp by EU member states -- which have already endorsed the text -- before entering into force, after which states will have 18 months to comply.

Green and left-wing parties voted against a change they denounce as politically motivated and lacking scientific basis, while the parliament's socialist grouping was split on the matter.

The European Union -- as a party to the Bern Convention -- was the driving force behind the push to lower protections, arguing that the increase in wolf numbers has led to more frequent contact with humans and livestock.

But activists fear the measure would upset the recovery made by the species over the past 10 years after it faced near extinction a century ago.

A trio of campaign groups -- Humane World for Animals Europe, Eurogroup for Animals and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) -- denounced the vote as "a worrying precedent for European nature conservation."

"There is no data justifying a lower level of protection, but the EU institutions decided to ignore science," IFAW's Europe policy director Ilaria Di Silvestre said in a joint statement.

Echoing those concerns, Sebastian Everding of the Left group in parliament said the move "ignores effective coexistence tools".

"Downgrading wolf protection... panders to fear, not facts," he charged.

Grey wolves were virtually exterminated in Europe 100 years ago, but their numbers have surged to a current population of 20,300, mostly in the Balkans, Nordic countries, Italy and Spain.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the results of the vote on Thursday.

"With growing wolf concentrations in some areas, we should give authorities more flexibility to find balanced solutions between the aim to protect biodiversity and the livestock of local farmers," she wrote.

In late 2022, von der Leyen lost her beloved pony Dolly to a wolf that crept into its enclosure on her family's rural property in northern Germany -- leading some to suggest the matter had become personal.

In practice, the EU rule change makes it easier to hunt wolves in rural and mountainous regions where their proximity to livestock and sheepdogs is deemed too threatening.

Von der Leyen's European People's Party (EPP), which spearheaded the change, has stressed that member states will remain in charge of wolf management on their soil -- but with more flexibility than before.

To date, there have been no human casualties linked to rising wolf populations -- but some lawmakers backing the change warn that it may only be a question of time.

Spain's Esther Herranz Garcia, a member of the conservative EPP, cited figures showing that wolves attacked more than 60,000 farm animals in the bloc every year.

"The people who feed our country cannot be expected to work with this fear hanging over them," said France's Valerie Deloge, a livestock farmer and lawmaker with the hard-right Patriots group, where the rule change found support.

Socialist and centrist lawmakers -- while agreeing to back the changes under a fast-track procedure -- struck a more measured tone.

"This is not a licence to kill," Pascal Canfin, a French lawmaker with the centrist Renew group, told AFP. "We are providing more leeway for local exemptions -- wolves remain a protected species."

Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) – Lebanon said heavy Israeli strikes on the country's south on Thursday killed one person as the Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah "infrastructure", the latest raids despite a fragile ceasefire.

Israel has continued to launch regular strikes on its neighbour despite the November truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group including two months of full-blown war.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said "Israeli warplanes carried out a wide-scale aerial aggression on the Nabatiyeh region, launching a series of heavy raids in two waves" targeting hills and valleys in the area, located around 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the border.

The health ministry said the strikes killed one person and wounded eight others, adding that the toll was provisional.

The Israeli military said it struck "a terrorist infrastructure site" used by Hezbollah "to manage its fire and defence array".

It called the site and activities there "a blatant violation of the understanding between Israel and Lebanon".

The NNA said "huge explosions... echoed in most areas of Nabatiyeh and the south", causing "terror and panic" among residents, who rushed to pick up their children from school, as ambulances headed to the targeted areas.

An AFP photographer saw smoke rising from hills in the region.