Category World News

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Partial results from Chile’s presidential election indicate that leftist former Labour Minister Jeannette Jara and far-right politician Jose Antonio Kast are headed for a run-off vote in December.

With 52.39 percent of ballots tallied on Sunday evening, Jara – a 51-year-old communist candidate representing an eight-party coalition – led with 26.58 percent, followed by Kast on 24.32 percent, according to electoral authority Servel.

The next-closest contender, ultra-right legislator Johannes Kaiser, conceded defeat.

Campaigning was overshadowed by growing public anxiety over surging murders, kidnappings and extortion in what has long been one of Latin America’s safest countries.

Rising crime has been widely attributed to foreign criminal groups, coinciding with a doubling of Chile’s migrant population since 2017. Migrants now make up 8.8 percent of the country’s residents.

Jara has promised to expand the police force, lift banking secrecy rules to combat organised crime, and address cost-of-living pressures.

Kast, frequently compared to United States President Donald Trump, has pledged to erect walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to block migrants arriving from poorer northern neighbours such as Venezuela.

Despite leading in the first round, Jara faces a difficult path to a December 14 run-off victory, as the combined vote share of right-wing candidates is far higher than that of the left.

Polls have consistently projected that Kast would defeat her in a head-to-head matchup. Jara’s tally fell short of pre-election forecasts, while Kast outperformed them. Pollsters had expected her to secure between 27 and 29 percent, compared with 20 to 22 percent for Kast.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo kept their hopes of a World Cup place alive as they edged Nigeria 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at the end of extra time to win the African qualifying playoffs in Morocco.

DR Congo now await the draw on Thursday for the inter-confederation playoffs in March, where six teams will chase two places at the 48-team finals.

Captain Chancel Mbemba converted the decisive kick on Sunday after Congolese substitute goalkeeper Timothy Fayulu, brought on a minute before the shootout, made two saves.

Frank Onyeka had Nigeria ahead in the third minute, but Meschack Elia equalised for the two sides to be level 1-1 after extra time.

The mini-tournament in Rabat was for the best runners-up across the nine African qualifying groups, whose fixtures were completed last month with the nine winners automatically booking a berth at the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States next year.

Nigeria, who have been to six previous World Cups, were off to a perfect start as the Congolese cleared an early cross but only onto the edge of their penalty area, where Onyeka snapped up the ball and powered home an effort, helped into the net by a slight deflection off Axel Tuanzebe.

But the Congolese could have been level within nine minutes had Ngal’ayel Mukau not put his close-in effort over the crossbar after Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali had flapped at the ball.

They did equalise in the 32nd minute after Alex Iwobi had been stripped of possession inside the Congolese half, and a quick counter saw Cedric Bakambu square for Elia to score despite the efforts of Nigeria captain Wilfred Ndidi to intercept the ball.

A clever back-heel at a corner early in the second half from Bakambu saw Nwabali make a sharp stop, and there looked a decent penalty shout for the Congolese as Noah Sadiki was upended by Benjamin Fredrick in the Nigeria box in the 55th minute, but the referee did not show any interest, and there was no VAR check.

DR Congo looked more ambitious as the contest wore on, but it was characterised by a wary approach from both sides, keen not to make any mistakes with so much at stake.

Nigeria needed extra time to get past Gabon in their Thursday semifinal and looked much more fatigued than their opponents, who beat Cameroon inside 90 minutes in their semi later the same night.

There were two opportunities in extra time on either end, with Nigerian substitute Tolu Arokodare heading over, and then with the last effort of the game, Mbemba had his effort saved by Nwabali.

DR Congo went on to hold their nerve in the shootout and still have a chance to compete at their first World Cup since 1974, when the country was still known as Zaire.

Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Ghana, Cape Verde, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria and Tunisia have already qualified directly for the 2026 World Cup from Africa.

Bolivia from South America and New Caledonia from Oceania have already reached the six-team continental playoffs.

In Asia, United Arab Emirates host Iraq in their second leg on Tuesday to decide another playoff entrant. The first leg was 1-1.

Also included will be the best two group runners-up from the North American, Central American and Caribbean federations, once the final matches of the qualifying rounds end on Tuesday.

The United States’ most advanced aircraft carrier has arrived in the Caribbean Sea in a flex of military power by the President Donald Trump administration, as it raises pressure on Venezuela and prompts questions about what the influx of troops and armoury could portend.

The arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford and other warships, announced by the US Navy in a statement on Sunday, marks a potentially pivotal moment in what the administration has pitched as a counterdrug operation, but is seen in many quarters as an aggressive push against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The US has been conducting military strikes on vessels the administration alleges are transporting drugs. In recent months, the campaign has carried out about 20 strikes in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coasts of Latin America, killing some 80 people.

International law and human rights experts have repeatedly said that such attacks amount to extrajudicial executions, even if those targeted are suspected of drug trafficking.

The administration has said that the build-up of American forces in the region is focused on stopping the flow of drugs into the US, but it has provided no evidence at all to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were what they term “narcoterrorists.”

‘Operation Southern Spear’

The Reuters news agency reported on Saturday that senior Trump administration officials held three meetings at the White House this week to discuss options for possible military action against Venezuela, citing unnamed officials.

The reported meetings come as the Trump administration has continued to significantly expand the US military’s presence in the Latin America region, including with F-35 aircraft, warships and a nuclear submarine.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon said the Gerald R Ford Carrier Strike Group, which includes the world’s largest aircraft carrier, had arrived in the Caribbean with at least 4,000 sailors and dozens of “tactical aircraft” on board.

In total, there are now about 12,000 US sailors and Marines in the region, in what US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday formally named “Operation Southern Spear”.

Under the US Constitution, Congress has the sole power to declare war.

But Trump has said that he would not “necessarily ask for a declaration of war” in order to continue killing people “that are bringing drugs into our country”.

Rear Admiral Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the strike group, said it will bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere”.

In Trinidad and Tobago, which is only 11 kilometres (seven miles) from Venezuela at its closest point, government officials said troops have begun “training exercises” with the US military.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Sean Sobers described the joint exercises as the second in less than a month, adding they are aimed at tackling violent crime on the island nation, which has become a stopover point for drug shipments headed to Europe and North America. The prime minister has been a vocal supporter of the US military strikes.

Venezuela’s government has described the training exercises as an act of aggression. It had no immediate comment Sunday on the arrival of the aircraft carrier.

President Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the US, has said the US government is “fabricating” a war against him. On his Facebook page, Maduro wrote on Sunday that the “Venezuelan people are ready to defend their homeland against any criminal aggression”.

Syria has arrested members of the country’s security and military services as part of a probe into sectarian violence in the southern province of Suwayda earlier this year that left hundreds dead.

Judge Hatem Naasan, head of a committee investigating the eruption of violence in Suwayda in July, said that members of security services and the military “who were proven to have committed violations” based on findings and videos posted online had been detained.

“Videos posted on social media clearly showed faces, and they were detained by the authorities concerned,” Naasan said, adding that security personnel were detained by the Interior Ministry while members of the military are being held by the Defence Ministry.

Videos that surfaced online had shown armed men killing Druze civilians kneeling in public squares and shaving the moustaches off elderly men in an act of humiliation.

Naasan did not specify how many arrests were made. Nor did he announce a death toll, saying this would come in the final report that is expected by the end of the year.

He acknowledged that “some foreign fighters randomly and individually entered the city of Suwayda”, saying that some had been detained and questioned. He stated that none of them were members of the Syrian armed or security forces.

Fighting broke out in the Druze-majority province after a Druze truck driver was abducted on a public highway, drawing in Bedouin tribal fighters from other parts of the country.

Government forces were deployed to restore order, but were accused of siding with the Bedouins. Hundreds of civilians, mostly Druze, were killed, many by government fighters.

A ceasefire was established after a week of violence.

Claiming that it was protecting the Druze, Israel also intervened, launching dozens of air attacks on government forces in Suwayda and even striking the Syrian Ministry of Defence headquarters in the centre of the capital Damascus.

Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes around the country since the end of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty in December, mainly targeting, it says, assets of the Syrian army, but also carrying out incursions.

After the acts of violence in July, many in Suwayda now want some form of autonomy in a federal system. A smaller group is calling for total partition.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been painstakingly trying to usher Syria back into the international fold, with notable successes. In September, he was the first Syrian leader to address the United Nations General Assembly in six decades, and he was invited to the White House on Monday for a second meeting with United States President Donald Trump.

Al-Sharaa, who wants to unify his war-ravaged nation and end its decades of international isolation, was the first-ever Syrian leader to visit the White House since the country’s independence in 1946.

Both the US and European Union have dropped sanctions against Syria, and major Gulf Arab investment is giving the war-devastated nation a critical economic lifeline.