Category News

In a contest over which US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off aid to the nation, the nation’s National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras called for “patience” on Tuesday as it conducted a manual count of votes.

Voting has been delayed due to technical issues with the results website. Right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura was reportedly in a close second at the most recent count of the November 30 election, despite the fact that there is still a “technical tie” and no official winner has yet been determined.

Trump has publicly endorsed Asfura and threatened to stop providing aid to Honduras if his favorite candidate loses. He has also criticized CNE for “trying to change” the outcome by calling it a “technical tie” at this point, and he has also retaliated in posts that have been made available on his Truth Social platform.

Observers claim that this is the most recent instance of Trump’s interference in South American nation’s internal affairs.

What do the primary candidates stand for, and who are they?

Asfura, 67, from the right-wing National Party of Honduras, has campaigned for increased foreign investment, economic stability, and a tougher security stance.

Trump has endorsed Asfura, calling him the “only real friend of freedom in Honduras” in a Truth Social post, and urging people to cast ballots for him.

Salvador Nasralla, 72, is Asfura’s main rival and declares himself to be a centrist reformer who wants to end corruption and restore the rule of law.

Rixi Moncada, the candidate for President Xiomara Castro’s left-leaning legacy, presents herself as the supporter of the left-leaning legacy.

By expanding credit, increasing national production, and creating an economic model that “creates real opportunities for everyone,” Moncada, 60, has proposed “democratizing the economy.” In an effort to combat corruption, she has also suggested constitutional amendments to support judicial reform.

“We are fiercely anti-corruption,” says the statement. There is only one way to reform the justice system: to win the majority in Congress, Moncada claimed during the campaign.

Polling has suggested a dispersed electorate with no clear favorite throughout the campaign, setting the stage for the tight count that is currently taking place.

How has Trump gotten involved in this election?

Trump vowed that if election officials tampered with the results of the vote, Honduras would have “hell to pay.” If his preferred, right-wing candidate doesn’t win, he has threatened to stop US aid to the nation.

Trump has not specified the precise amount of aid he would suspend, but the US provides Honduras with a sizable package of economic, development, and security assistance annually. Honduras, which has a population of 11 million, has a population of about 11 million.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, a former president of Honduras and a member of the nation’s right-wing National Party, was pardoned and released from a 45-year jail term, which the US president also pardoned. Hernandez was released from USP Hazelton’s high-security facility in West Virginia on Monday.

He was arrested in the US in 2022 and found guilty of conspiring to import cocaine into the country and of possessing machine guns in the US in 2024. In a social media post on Friday, Trump defended his decision to pardon Hernandez by claiming that he had been “treated very harshly and unfairly”

What kind of assistance does the US give Honduras?

Using government data, the US gave Honduras just under $ 93.5 million in aid in 2024.

According to the US State Department’s website, the majority of that came from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and through programs aimed at assisting small businesses, strengthening local governance, improving the agricultural sector, and expanding education and health services. The Honduran government received a direct payment of about $10 million.

The Trump administration earlier this year shut down USAID. How that amount of money will be distributed in the future is unknown.

Another important pillar is security cooperation through the US State Department and the Central American Regional Security Initiative, which provide funding for youth and community-violence prevention initiatives and training for police.

Honduras’ social and security infrastructures are deeply rooted in these programs. According to experts, a sudden cutoff could affect everything from the ability of the police to the fundamental work that NGOs can do.

How would Trump’s cut-off of aid affect Honduras?

Aid is far more symbolic than just symbolic for one of the region’s poorest nations, which is a major source of migration to the US. In regions where migration is a problem, it supports essential state functions.

Experts and human rights organizations earlier this year issued a warning that abrupt cuts to Honduras’ funding would likely worsen insecurity, weaken already stretched public services, and stifle migration.

Almost 30 000 Honduran citizens have been deported from the US since Trump’s January return, according to government data. Remittances from overseas accounted for about 25% of the country’s GDP in the year prior to the clampdown.

Is this another instance of Trump veering off in South American nations’ affairs?

Trump’s remarks regarding the Honduran election are in line with a wider pattern, according to observers. In a number of nations, most notably Venezuela, he has publicly pressed on governments or supported particular opposition parties.

Trump has been accused in Venezuela of plotting a “regime change” against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government through military exercises against Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, which the Trump administration claims are involved in drug trafficking.

More than 80 people have been killed by US forces since September 2 as a result of at least 21 strikes on boats. Trump claims that he has not rejected military engagements on land. However, the US has not provided any proof of drug trafficking.

The US claims that this is necessary to protect national security and to stop Venezuelan drug gangs from “invading” the country. It also has a significant military presence in the Caribbean.

Maduro claims that Maduro is being “fabricated by the US government into a new, eternal war” against him.

Trump made a public question in Brazil about the legitimacy of the earlier in the year criminal coup charges against former president Jair Bolsonaro, supporting Bolsonaro’s claims of political persecution and suggesting that Brazil’s courts were being used to defame a right-wing ally of the US. Bolsonaro received a final prison sentence of 27 years.

Brazilian lawmakers who claim the US president is trying to delegitimize their institutions harshly criticized his remarks.

Trump has also attributed the Mexican government’s role in fentanyl trafficking to the cartels this year. If the government doesn’t extradite anyone who is involved, he has threatened to raise trade tariffs, and he has also made an implication about US military action.

Trump has praised Argentine president Javier Milei for his right-wing populist policies and said the US would not “waste our time” by supporting Argentina if Milei’s party does not win any upcoming elections. Trump claimed that if “a socialist wins,” the US would feel “a lot differently” about supporting Argentina despite the fact that a presidential election is not scheduled until 2027.

In separate incidents in the occupied West Bank of Hebron and Ramallah, Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian teenagers.

According to the Israeli army, Muhannad al-Zughair, 17, was killed in the Abu Daajan, Hebron, following what it claimed was a ramming attack that left two soldiers injured.

Nour Odeh, a journalist from Ramallah, stated in an interview that “we do not know whether that attack occurred because no investigation has been launched.”

The teenager fled toward Hebron because she was hurt. He was later discovered inside a car and died. In what is now the practice of “standard operating procedure,” Israeli forces are now withholding the body.

In the same area of Ramallah, Muhammad Asmar, 18, was killed close to the village of Umm Safa. According to Odeh, the alleged assailant was “held by soldiers, was then shot while on the ground and left to bleed for hours”

A Palestinian who “had begun stab soldiers near the settlement,” the Israeli army claimed in a statement. Two Israelis had minor injuries, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

Hamas praised what it called a “heroic stabbing operation,” saying it sends a “natural response to the]Israeli] occupation’s crimes” and sends a “secular message” that “its attempts to defy the will of our people through military operations, daily killings, arrests, and field executions will not be successful.

Israeli forces have continued to carry out raids throughout the West Bank occupied territory. Two apartments were destroyed in al-Walaja village, west of Bethlehem, and three hospitals were taken over by the troops in Hebron.

Additionally, Israeli settlers attacked Burqa village northwest of Nablus, setting a tractor on fire and trying to torch a vehicle, while others sprayed graffiti on a home.

International law prohibits Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that are occupied by Israel. Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory must end, according to the International Court of Justice’s ruling last year.

Journalist killed in the drone strike in Gaza

Palestinian photojournalist Mahmoud Wadi was killed by an Israeli drone strike in the center of Khan Younis in the wake of Israel’s continued attacks in Gaza.

According to the Wafa news agency, the same attack also claimed the lives of journalist Muhammad Abdel Fattah Aslih.

Hassan Aslih’s brother, a photographer killed in a drone attack on Nasser Hospital in May, is Aslih.

Wadi’s body is shown in a video posted on Instagram that Al Jazeera verified, and it is covered in mourners.

Since October 2023, more than 260 journalists have died in Gaza, making it the most notorious journalist-related conflict ever.

Since October 2023, Israel’s occupation of Gaza has resulted in the deaths of at least 70, 100 Palestinians and 170, 965 injuries. During the October 7 attacks, 139 people were killed in Israel, and about 200 were taken prisoner.

Despite a ceasefire that began on October 10, Israel has continued to attack Gaza. In those attacks, more than 356 Palestinians were killed by Israelis.

Towards the end of the healthcare system

Authorities in Israel have received “findings” from Gaza that could contain the remains of two captives whose bodies have not yet been returned, according to the prime minister’s office.

The material was transported to Israel’s forensic medicine center for identification, according to the office, which received it through the Red Cross.

As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas had agreed to return captives’ bodies, but it has claimed that Gaza’s continued devastation has hampered recovery efforts.

Healthcare workers in Gaza claim to be in desperate need of equipment and medications. The situation has been referred to as “catastrophic” by the UN.

Less than half of Gaza’s hospitals and just over a third of its clinics are at low capacity, according to statistics.

Al-Ahli Hospital is able to accommodate more patients than three times as many as it was able to, and the hospitals in Al-Shifa, Nasser, and al-Rantisi are also overburdened. According to the UN, more than half of the world’s needy medicines and two-thirds of medical supplies are in short.