World
Howler monkeys dropping dead, falling from trees due to excessive heatwave: report
The extreme heatwave in Mexico is not only affecting the environment, it’s wreaking havoc on the howler monkeys and causing them to fall dead out of trees, the Associated Press reported.
“They were falling out of the trees like apples. They were in a state of severe dehydration, and they died within a matter of minutes,” wildlife biologist Gilberto Pozo described what he witnessed to the AP.
In the city of Tecolutilla, Tabasco state, it was reported that the dead monkeys started appearing on Friday, when a local volunteer fire-and-rescue squad showed up with five of the monkeys in the bed of the truck.
So far, at least 83 howler monkeys have been found dead in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco. However, many others were rescued by local residents, with five being rushed to a local veterinarian for immediate care.
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A veterinarian feeds a young howler monkey rescued amid extremely high temperatures in Tecolutilla, Tabasco state, Mexico, Tuesday. Dozens of howler monkeys were found dead in the Gulf coast state while others were rescued by residents who rushed them to a local veterinarian. (AP Photo/Luis Sanchez)
“They arrived in critical condition, with dehydration and fever,” Dr. Sergio Valenzuela told the AP. “They were as limp as rags. It was heatstroke.”
At least nine cities in Mexico have set temperature records as of May 9, with Ciudad Victoria, in the border state of Tamaulipas, registering 117 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the AP. The heatwave has been blamed on the deaths of at least 26 people since March, the AP reported.
Valenzuela said that the monkeys appeared to be on the mend, stating that they were “recovering, aggressive, and biting again.”
The howler monkey, which is the “loudest of all the monkeys,” is known for its loud whooping bark or roar, according to National Geographic.
Pozo added that many local residents wanted to help the monkeys, even adopt them, but he cautioned them on this.
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Howler monkeys sit in a cage at a veterinarian’s clinic after they were rescued amid extremely high temperatures in Tecolutilla, Tabasco state, Mexico, on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Luis Sanchez)
“The truth is that babies are very delicate, they can’t be in a house where there are dogs or cats, because they have pathogens that can potentially be fatal for howler monkeys,” Ponzo described, stressing they must be rehabilitated and released into the wild.
Pozo’s group has set up a special recovery stations for the monkeys and is working to organize a team of specialized veterinarians to give the monkeys the care they need.
Howler monkeys also get almost all the water they need from the food they eat, which is another reason the heatwave has been detrimental to their survival.
Pozo stated that several factors led to the death of the monkeys, including high heat, drought, and forest fires.
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A howler monkey sits inside a cage with others at a veterinarian clinic after they were rescued amid extremely high temperatures in Tecolutilla, Tabasco state, Mexico, on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Luis Sanchez)
Days after the monkeys began to drop dead, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged the issue, saying he had heard about it on social media.
He then congratulated Valenzuela on his efforts and said the government would seek to support the work.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Airspace restrictions come amid fears that US President Donald Trump could attack Iran.
Published On 15 Jan 2026
Iran temporarily closed its airspace to most flights amid attack threats by United States President Donald Trump, according to the US aviation authority.
Most flights were prohibited from Iranian airspace between 1:45am and 4:00am local time (22:15 to 00:30 GMT) and again from 4:44 am to 7am (01:14 to 03:30 GMT) on Thursday, according to the notices posted by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
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The restrictions applied to all commercial flights without “prior approval” from Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO), according to the notices.
FlightRadar, an online flight tracking service, showed just three aircraft over Iran as of 6:05am local time, with dozens of planes flying around the country’s borders. Iran’s airspace reopened at about 7am local time.
The FAA and CAO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The airspace restrictions come amid threats by US President Donald Trump to attack Iran following Tehran’s deadly crackdown on antigovernment protests in the country.
The US and the United Kingdom on Wednesday withdrew a number of military personnel from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned that it would target US forces in the Middle East region if Trump launched an attack.
A number of countries have also issued advisories to their citizens in the region amid fears of escalation.
Trump appeared to lower his rhetoric towards Tehran later on Wednesday, saying he had received assurances from “important sources” that the killings of protesters in Iran had stopped.
Safe Airspace, a website run by the aviation safety organisation OpsGroup, said the airspace closures could signal “further security or military activity” and warned of the “risk of missile launches or heightened air defence, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic”.
In 2020, Iran’s air defences shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight shortly after it took off in Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.
A 2021 report by Iran’s CAO concluded that the missile battery’s operator had misidentified the Ukrainian aircraft as a “hostile object”, and that officials had not properly evaluated the risks to commercial planes amid tensions with the US.
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By David E. Sanger, Coleman Lowndes, Nikolay Nikolov, Edward Vega and June Kim
January 14, 2026
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JOHANNESBURG: A staggering and growing wave of persecution against Christians across sub-Saharan Africa has been laid bare in the latest Open Doors’ World Watch List for 2025. The report says three out of four Christians murdered worldwide are killed in Nigeria.
Fourteen of the top 50 countries worldwide where verified deaths could be reasonably linked to victims’ Christian faith are in sub-Saharan Africa. Open Doors is a global Christian charity supporting Christians persecuted for their faith.
The organization states that one in seven Christians in the world face high levels of persecution. But that figure rises to one in five in Africa.
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Woman in Benue State Christian refugee camp. The camp is inhabited by Christians who fled anti-Christian violence. (Open Doors)
Nigeria
Africa’s most populous nation is also ranked as the seventh worst in the world for persecution in all its forms. According to Open Doors, out of the 4,849 Christians killed for their faith globally in the year up to the end of Sept. 2025, 3,490 of these were murdered in Nigeria — 72% of the total.
Muslims have also been killed in Nigeria. But the latest data from the report shows Christians have been “disproportionately targeted.” These are four of the affected states — there are others:
In Benue State in north-central Nigeria, 1,310 Christians were killed compared with 29 Muslims.
In Plateau State in north-central Nigeria, 546 Christians were killed compared with 48 Muslims.
In Taraba State in northeast Nigeria, 73 Christians were killed compared with 12 Muslims.
In north-western Kaduna State, 1,116 Christians were abducted in 2025, compared with 101 Muslims.
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Funerals for some 27 Christians who were reportedly killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in the village of Bindi Ta-hoss, Nigeria on July, 28, 2025 (Courtesy: Christian Solidarity International (CSI))
“The latest figures should leave us in no doubt: there is a clear religious element to this horrific violence,” Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors U.K. told Fox News Digital.
Blyth added, “For many thousands of Christians, this will come as no surprise. Those who witnessed their families being killed, and their homes razed to the ground by Islamist Fulani militants report being told by their attackers that ‘we will destroy all Christians.’”
“It’s surely time to dismiss the idea that this violence is somehow ‘random,’” Blyth stated. “If we don’t recognize the clear religious element to the violence, it won’t be possible to properly address this tragic situation.”
Mohammed Idris, Nigeria’s minister of information and national orientation, told Fox News Digital this week, “The loss of life in any form is unacceptable, and the Nigerian government recognizes the pain felt by all affected families and communities.”
Pope Leo XIV condemned the killings of up to 200 people in Yelewata community in Nigeria. (Associated Press)
The minister continued, “Nigeria has consistently maintained that its security challenges stem from a convergence of criminal insurgency, armed banditry, resource competition, and localized communal disputes, not from state-directed or institutional religious persecution. The government remains focused on upholding its constitutional duty to protect all citizens and on advancing security reforms that improve coordination, accountability, and civilian safety nationwide.”
At the time of writing, the new World Watch List had not been released to the minister, but he did share his thoughts on Middle Belt killings, “With respect to the Middle Belt states, the Nigerian government has long stated that violence in this region is primarily driven by long-standing disputes over land and resources, organized banditry, and criminal networks that prey on vulnerable communities, Christian and Muslim alike.”
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He concluded, “while some attacks tragically take on communal or identity dimensions, framing the Middle Belt crisis as a systematic campaign against Christians does not reflect the full security reality on the ground and risks obscuring the role of criminal actors who exploit instability for profit and power.”
The Evangelical church in Omdurman, Sudan after being bombed even though it was not in a combat zone or used by any warring forces. (Open Doors)
Sudan
Some 150,000 are estimated to have died in the civil war that has engulfed this nation since 2023. Open Doors reports, “the situation for the nation’s 2 million Christians is especially grim.”
“We are considered as the enemy by both (opposing) factions, who accuse us of being allied with the other side,” Rafat Samir, general secretary for the Sudan Evangelical Alliance, told Fox News Digital. We are told ‘you don’t belong here’ and driven from our homes. To make matters worse, Christians are often excluded when aid is distributed.” A particular pattern can be seen across sub-Saharan Africa, Open Doors states. The report claims, “Islamist militants enter the vacuums in law and order left by a weak junta and civil conflicts. It means they can operate with impunity across parts of Burkina Faso, Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Somalia, Niger and Mozambique. Their stated aim is to create ‘Sharia states’ operating under their deadly interpretation of Islamic law.”
Church leaders of the Pentecostal Church in the northeast of Khartoum, stood by as their church building was demolished. The demolition was done under the premise that any building not complying with regulations would be destroyed in July 2025 in Sudan. (Open Doors.)
Elsewhere in the world, North Korea remains top of the list for having the world’s worst persecution of Christians, with Open Doors stating, “If Christians are discovered, they and their families are deported to labor camps or executed.”
A huge spike in reported violence against Christians in Syria has followed the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s presidency in Dec. 2024, and has led the country to jump to number six on the list. China is number 17, with churches driven underground by surveillance and heavy regulation.
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Civil Defence worker inspects the damage inside Mar Elias church where a suicide bomber detonated himself in Dweil’a in the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Sunday June 22, 2025. (SANA via AP)
The reporting period for the World Watch List ended some two months before President Trump ordered U.S. forces to bomb Muslim militants in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas Day to try to stop the killing of Christians.
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Jo Newhouse from Open Doors sub-Saharan Africa, told Fox News Digital, “The U.S. airstrikes (against Jihadi groups in Nigeria) have thrown many of the militant groups in the area into a state of panic. They have been scattering and attacking civilians as they come across soft targets, hoping that they can rebuild their resources through looting and kidnapping.”
“Many Christians across the northern states are in a state of flux, unable to find any safety or stability. They bear the scars of living under the perpetual risk of death, destruction and displacement,” Newhouse said.
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