Ortega, who has continuously held power since 2007 following an earlier presidential term in the 1980s, said the move will close off any path to the opposition, although he did not provide details about carrying out the measure

International News via Reuters:

Nicaragua’s long-serving president Daniel Ortega said the Central American country will no longer hold elections, eliminating the possibility of an electoral challenge when his term ends next year and further entrenching the rule he shares with his wife.

Ortega, who has continuously held power since 2007 following an earlier presidential term in the 1980s, said the move will close off any path to the opposition, although he did not provide details about carrying out the measure.

“There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” Ortega said in a speech on Sunday evening to commemorate the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which Ortega helped overturn the brutal Anastasio Somoza dictatorship.

“The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somocistas would return to power are over – never again,” he added, in his first public appearance in two months.

Nicaragua’s last election in 2021 was widely disputed after Ortega detained opponents and business leaders and criminalized dissent.

Last year, Ortega further consolidated his power through a series of constitutional reforms that included naming his wife Rosario Murillo as “co-president” and extending the presidential term to six years. He and his wife control virtually every aspect of the government, including the armed forces and the judiciary.

Ortega and Murillo’s government has been accused by the U.N. Human Rights Council of transforming the country “into an authoritarian state” and systematically violating human rights.

Nicaragua has been in a severe political crisis since April 2018, when Ortega responded to anti-government protests with a crackdown in which more than 300 people were killed.

Reporting by Raul Cortes and Gabriela Selser, Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and Nia Williams

Zambada is one of the most high-profile Mexican drug traffickers to be sentenced in a U.S. court since fellow Sinaloa leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was sentenced to life in prison in 2019

International News via Reuters:

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was sentenced on Monday to life in prison in the U.S., after a plea deal last year in which he admitted to shipping millions of kilograms of cocaine over decades as leader of the violent Sinaloa Cartel.

Zambada is one of the most high-profile Mexican drug traffickers to be sentenced in a U.S. court since fellow Sinaloa leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was sentenced to life in prison in 2019.  

In handing down the sentence at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said that even though he had no choice but to impose a life sentence, he believed it was the right punishment. 

“The almost unimaginable amount of drugs attributable to him and the number of murders that we can document is enough to justify Congress’s decision to make this a mandatory life sentence,” the judge said.

Zambada, 76, agreed to plead guilty in August 2025 to charges, including racketeering conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise after the Justice Department said it would not seek the death penalty. The charges carried a mandatory term of life imprisonment.

ZAMBADA ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY

Wearing a beige prison-issue t-shirt over an orange long-sleeve shirt, Zambada was led into Cogan’s courtroom by two U.S. Marshals and said, “Buenas tardes” — Spanish for “good afternoon” — to his lawyer, Frank Perez. 

In brief remarks to the court, Zambada said he took responsibility for the harm his actions had caused. 

“No one wins in a war like this. To the next generation, I say, choose a different path,” Zambada said. 

Cogan said he would suggest that the Bureau of Prisons place the septuagenarian Zambada in a facility where he would receive adequate medical care. The judge said Zambada was suffering several progressive health ailments, which he did not specify, and said his decision to plead guilty rather than go to trial spared the government considerable time and expense. 

“I’m not saying he should be assigned to a camp as a reward for that,” Cogan said, referring to a minimum-security facility. “To the extent there’s doubt about what’s needed medically, give him the doubt.” 

A DRAMATIC ARREST

Zambada was arrested in July 2024 alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of Guzman’s sons, after their plane landed at a small airstrip in New Mexico.

Guzman Lopez has since pleaded guilty to charges, including drug trafficking and the July 2024 kidnapping of someone referred to in court papers as “Individual A.” 

Joseph Nocella, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, told reporters after Zambada’s sentencing that Guzman Lopez had admitted to kidnapping Zambada in an effort to win credit from U.S. law enforcement. 

“The United States made perfectly clear that we do not condone kidnapping and that he would receive no credit,” Nocella said. 

Guzman Lopez’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Guzman Lopez has not yet been sentenced.

His father is serving his life sentence at a maximum-security prison in Colorado.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Edmund Klamann, Toby Chopra and Aurora Ellis

Hayya replaces Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in combat with Israeli forces in October 2024 as Hamas fought a full-scale, two-year war with Israel in the Gaza Strip

International News via Reuters:

Hamas has named Khalil Al-Hayya as its overall leader, according to a statement from the Palestinian militant group on Monday, in a move an analyst says could signal a tougher stance by the group towards disarmament calls.

Hayya replaces Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in combat with Israeli forces in October 2024 as Hamas fought a full-scale, two-year war with Israel in the Gaza Strip. 

Hayya, the group’s exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator, has become an increasingly central figure in the leadership of Hamas since the deaths of Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran in July 2024.

He is seen as more hardline than Khaled Meshaal, the head of the group’s office in exile and the other frontrunner for the leadership.  

Hayya was among top Hamas officials targeted in 2025 in an Israeli attack in Doha, where he is based, Israeli officials told Reuters.

CONDITIONS IN GAZA 

The militant Islamist group faces some of the toughest challenges since it was founded in 1987, battered by two years of war ignited by its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and facing international demands to disarm.

While fighting has abated in Gaza since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in October, Israel still holds more than 60% of the coastal enclave, attacks continue, and conditions for Gaza’s 2 million people remain dire.

Israel says it targets Hamas and other Gaza militants who pose an imminent threat. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately comment on Hayya’s selection.

On Monday, an Israeli strike killed at least three Palestinians driving in a vehicle in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, medics said. The Israeli military told Reuters it struck a militant in the area, without providing details.

The deaths add to a toll of more than 1,150 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since the October ceasefire, according to Gaza health officials. Four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza over the same period. 

Hamas does not usually disclose its losses.

SELECTION SEEN AS MESSAGE OF DEFIANCE

Since Sinwar was killed, Hamas has resorted to a five-member higher council that included Hayya and Meshaal, in addition to three other officials. 

The election of a Hamas chief is a lengthy process that began in January and was interrupted by the wars in Iran and Lebanon and continuing Israeli military operations in Gaza.

The selection is made by a 50-member council made up of Hamas members in Gaza, the occupied West Bank — including Israeli prisons — and those in exile.

Palestinian political analyst Reham Owda said Hayya’s victory is a message that Hamas remains committed to armed struggle, rejects disarmament under any conditions, and intends to rebuild its military strength while preserving its alliance with Iran and the so-called “Axis of Resistance.”

“This indicates that negotiations related to disarmament are likely to face significant difficulties and obstacles,” Owda told Reuters.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza demands Hamas’ disarmament and Israeli military withdrawals. It foresees the enclave being run by a technocratic Palestinian administration overseen by Trump’s Board of Peace.

But talks between Hamas, mediators, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Trump’s Board of Peace envoys have so far failed to reach a broad agreement to end the conflict.

Hamas has drawn criticism within Gaza because of the heavy toll inflicted by the war, with much of the enclave reduced to ruins and more than 73,000 people killed, according to Gaza health authorities.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others in their October 7, 2023, attack.

Additional reporting by Eman Abouhassira in Dubai; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Toby Chopra