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Vintage The Victory Tourist Ironer Chrome Electric Travel Clothes Iron Mid Century Works with cord! Approx. 7-1/4" long overall

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Israel and Hezbollah both claim victory after night of heavy fighting

Israel said it hit dozens of targets in Lebanon on Sunday morning local time in a preemptive strike ahead of what Israeli and U.S. intelligence said was expected to be a major missile and drone attack on Israel by Hezbollah.

Why it matters: Both Israel and Hezbollah tried to present their strikes on Sunday as a major success.

• Israel said it managed to thwart a large-scale Hezbollah attack with a preemptive strike.
• Hezbollah claimed its major attack was successful and said it had ended its military operations for the day.
• The exchange of blows, which U.S. and Israeli officials feared could ignite a much larger crisis in the region, appears contained for now, officials said.

Flashback: In recent weeks, Hezbollah has said it is preparing to launch a major attack against Israel in retaliation for the assassination of its top military commander in Beirut by Israel.

Driving the news: Over the past two days, the U.S. and Israel obtained intelligence that showed Hezbollah was preparing to launch its retaliation imminently, Israeli and U.S officials said.

• On Saturday morning, updated intelligence indicated Hezbollah decided to launch a major attack on Israel on Sunday at 5:00 a.m. local time, the officials said.
• Several minutes before 5:00 a.m. Sunday local time, more than 100 Israeli fighter jets launched the preemptive strike on 40 different launching compounds in southern Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement.
• He said several thousand rocket and missile launching barrels were destroyed in the strike.
• "‎‏We are operating in self defense from Hezbollah — and any other enemy that joins in their attacks against us — and we are ready to do everything we need to defend the people of Israel," Hagari said.

Zoom in: Most of the launchers were directed at northern Israel but some, including longer range precision missiles, were directed at central Israel, IDF officials said.

• They added the IDF also intercepted several dozen attack drones that made their way to central Israel.
• Israeli officials said Hezbollah planned to attack the headquarters of the Mossad and of Unit 8200 — the Israeli NSA — which are both in northern Tel Aviv. But Israeli officials said this attack was thwarted and no rockets or drones hit central Israel.

The other side: Hezbollah said in a statement that as part of its retaliation for the assassination of its top military commander, Fuad Shukr, it launched more than 320 rockets and several dozen attack drones against Israel.

• Hezbollah said its attacks were aimed at a dozen Israeli military bases in northern Israel and at a security compound in northern Tel Aviv.
• The Lebanese Shia militia said that despite Israel's claim of a preemptive strike, its attack was successful.

The latest: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah confirmed the militia launched drones towards the Unit 8200 intelligence base in northern Tel Aviv and towards an air defense base in central Israel. But he claimed Israel is lying when it says it thwarted the attacks.

• Nasrallah also claimed Israel was lying about the success of its preemptive strike and said none of the rockets and drone launchers used for the attack were damaged.
• Nasrallah stressed that this is only a first step because Iran and the Houthis are going to retaliate against the Israel assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran and the Israeli attack on the Port of Hodeida.
• He said Hezbollah has finished its response but added that if the militia will see that the results of the attacks are not sufficient it could launch another attack in the future.

Behind the scenes: The U.S. was informed in advance of the Israeli strike, a senior Israeli official said.

• "Israel is acting alone against Hezbollah, but in full coordination with the U.S. The update the Biden administration received was not in the 90th minute," the official said, referring to then final moments of a soccer match.
• White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said President Biden was "closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon."
• "At his direction, senior U.S. officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts. We will keep supporting Israel's right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability," he said.
• Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles Q Brown landed in Israel on Sunday for meetings with Israeli Defense officials.
• Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant and stressed the U.S. "resolve to support Israel's defense," the Pentagon said. Austin also ordered two carrier strike groups to remain in the region.

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant spoke on the phone with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and briefed him on the IDF strikes. They discussed "the importance of avoiding regional escalation," a statement from the Ministry of Defense said.

• Gallant said "Israel's defense establishment is determined to defend the citizens of Israel and will use all the means at its disposal to remove imminent threats," the statement continued.

The big picture: Several hours after the strikes on Sunday, Israeli negotiators decided to travel to Cairo for talks with CIA director Bill Burns, Qatar's prime minister and Egypt's intelligence chief on the deal to release hostages being held by Hamas and establish a ceasefire in Gaza.

• Israeli officials said this was also a way to signal that for Israel the incident is over and it is not interested in further escalation.

Yes, but: Israeli and U.S. officials say the attacks on Sunday morning were just part one: Iran still hasn't retaliated for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and its response, while delayed for several weeks now, could take place in the coming days and weeks.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details throughout

Get the rundown of the biggest stories of the day with Axios Daily Essentials.

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Ricciardo needs Monza miracle with F1 future in the balance

Daniel Ricciardo isn't one for dwelling too much on the past, but it might be time to make a rare trip down memory lane.

With his Formula 1 future very much still up in the air, the Australian is set to make his return to the circuit on which he arguably enjoyed his finest moment in the sport.

F1 HEADLINES: Hamilton replacement twist emerges as McLaren announce new driver signing

READ MORE: Mercedes announce driver REPLACEMENT for Italian GP

And he'll be hoping to draw some shreds of inspiration from his stunning 2021 triumph in Monza as he aims to remind everyone what he can still do when at the top of his game.

2021 victory secures rare moment of McLaren joy

Having endured an underwhelming spell at Renault following his surprise departure from Red Bull, the Perth-born racer made the move to McLaren in the hope of getting his career back on track.

It didn't do the trick, however, as he suffered a collapse in both form and confidence over two years at the iconic British team.

Despite his well-documented struggles to get the better of fresh-faced team-mate Lando Norris, he did at least enjoy one special afternoon in the northern Italian sunshine .

Following on from his P11-finish the previous week in Zandvoort, Ricciardo's triumph in Monza was as surprising as it was impressive.

Taking advantage of a collision between championship rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton , he raced into the lead and took the chequered flag, sparking wild celebrations within the McLaren garage.

The victory - his first in more than three years – was a stark reminder to everyone of just what he was capable of when performing at the peak of his powers.

Unfortunately, that emotional win was to be nothing more than an outlier, as more struggles followed before his rocky relationship with the former world champions came to an abrupt end the following year .

READ MORE: Dutch Prince drops BOMBSHELL after Verstappen handshake snub

Change in scenery brings no change in fortunes

After spending some time in the F1 wilderness, Ricciardo was offered a lifeline at Visa Cash App RB, and despite having lofty ambitions of eventually earning a return to Red Bull, has found the going tough.

In 2024 and with his future on the line, the Aussie has accumulated just 12 points, 10 behind that of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who recently signed a new deal with the team .

Surprisingly, despite his lack of consistency and with reserve driver Liam Lawson breathing down his neck, Ricciardo has emerged as a shock potential replacement for Sergio Perez .

The Mexican seems hellbent on doing everything in his power to prove that Red Bull’s decision to extend his contract was - as many suggested - a colossal mistake, having collected a meagre total of 36 points from his last nine outings.

But that prospect has been put on hold for the time being, at least, and Ricciardo’s 12th-place finish in Zandvoort last weekend did little to inspire confidence.

READ MORE: Ricciardo given huge boost as date outlined for Red Bull promotion

Time running out for ex-Red Bull star

Ricciardo is now approaching last-chance-saloon territory. The 35-year-old is fast running out of races to make his case that he should be considered one of the top-20 drivers in the world, but a return to Monza may just provide a timely, and much-needed boost, to his chances.

While it may be a bit much to expect a repeat of his 2021 heroics, you would suspect he’d bite your hand off for a spot in the top 10 come Sunday evening.

Of course, that won't be enough to completely appease the doubters – not that he pays much attention to them, mind you – but it would at the very least put them back in their boxes for another week.

But more importantly, it would buy himself some valuable time.

And in a campaign which hasn't provided a whole lot to be giddy about, perhaps that would be a victory in itself.

In 2021, Ricciardo was front and centre of a McLaren miracle. With so much at stake this time around, the 2024 edition is the perfect setting for us all to witness a Ricciardo redemption.

READ MORE: Audi in talks with big name driver over amazing F1 comeback

Perez tipped to trigger Red Bull 'CIVIL WAR' after F1 race

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Want to catch a coastal cruise from navy pier you can in 2025..

Jack Grieve is a Crain’s reporter covering the news people are talking about, from Chicago and West Michigan to Cleveland , Detroit and New York .

Navy Pier's only coastal cruises traversing the Great Lakes are making a comeback in 2025.

The two Victory Cruise Lines vessels, Victory I and Victory II, will return to Chicago after a yearlong hiatus. The 190-passenger vessels were out of commission in 2024 after their previous owners went bankrupt and were forced to sell the ships at auction in April.

The ships were long operated by American Queen Voyages under the names Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator. John Waggoner, who founded American Queen Voyages in 2011 but left the company a few years ago, came out of retirement to buy the vessels back for a relatively cheap $1.9 million. He has since refurbished them and established the Victory brand.

"As long-time enthusiasts of maritime adventures, my wife Claudette and I are thrilled for the team to open reservations of the inaugural season and we prepare to sail these magnificent waters," Waggoner said in a statement announcing their return. "Our cruise experience will offer many special touches, including being the only cruise line to dock at Chicago’s Navy Pier, and most of all, our ships will be a home away from home exploring all five Great Lakes."

Most other Great Lakes cruises originate or end in Milwaukee, but the Victory line is unique in that it is bookended by Chicago and Toronto. Itineraries vary by voyage, but the vessels touch all five Great Lakes and make stops at Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Cleveland, Detroit, Niagara Falls and more.

Cruises are an increasingly popular way to explore the Great Lakes for those seeking an elevated experience and willing to pay for it. There's the inherent beauty of the lakes and the surrounding nature, of course, but sailing back and forth between two countries is also a big selling point. Another driver is that vacationers are seeking "experience" travel. People also increasingly want to explore destinations closer to home. Companies therefore are significantly increasing their investments in the region with new and larger ships, longer routes and more frequent service.

The return of the Victory coastal cruises promises to be a boon to Navy Pier's businesses. "I think this is a great tourism booster," said Navy Pier President and CEO Marilynn Gardner.

Victory will offer 36 voyages on the Great Lakes each season and bring thousands of maritime tourists to the pier.

"We always like to say the pier is the city's welcoming front porch and a gateway to the Great Lakes, so it's really just a great opportunity to ensure international tourists are able to see our incredible city from the lake and experience all the incredible ports in between," she added.

The victory boats were built in 2001. They span 286 feet in length, small for cruise ships but necessary to navigate the Great Lakes waters. "None of the cruise lines on the Great Lakes are big because they can't be," a spokesperson for Great Lakes Cruises said. "If they're too big, they can't fit through the canals and the locks that they have to go through."

Still, the ships boast 101 suites and decks and can accommodate 84 crew members in addition to the 190 passengers.

Victory says the boats are "purpose-built to cruise on all five Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the French-Canadian Maritimes, offering a refreshing alternative to river and ocean cruises. The size and maneuverability of these ships are perfectly suited for coastal cruising in this region." The ships are currently registered in Nassau, Bahamas.

A nine-night cruise from Chicago to Toronto starts at $5,799 per guest, an 11-night cruise from Chicago to Montreal runs $6,999 and a 14-night roundtrip from Chicago costs $8,699.

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Business travel still isn't back, but this hotelier is betting on downtown Chicago with a hospitality model that doesn't need it to be — plus a Korean American restaurant.

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• El Salvador
• How Nayib Bukele’s ‘Iron Fist’ Has Transformed El Salvador

You can read the transcript of the interview here and the Spanish version here .

Before he became arguably the most popular head of state in the world, Nayib Bukele was an adman. The President of El Salvador has branded himself the “world’s coolest dictator” and a “philosopher king,” but he is, perhaps above all, a former publicist attuned to the power of image—his own and his country’s. On the day we met in late June, at the presidential offices in San Salvador, Bukele was dressed all in black. Nine brilliant peacocks roamed the lawn outside. “A leader should be a philosopher before he is a king,” Bukele told me, reclining in a chair as the sun set over the lush jungle grounds, “rather than the typical politician who is hated by their people.”

It was Bukele’s first interview with a foreign reporter in three years. The occasion was something of a victory lap. At 43, he has remade a nation that was once the world’s murder capital, turning it into a country safer than Canada , according to Salvadoran government data. Bukele’s policy of mano dura —iron fist—drove an aggressive crackdown on vicious gangs that has jailed 81,000 people and led to a precipitous drop in homicides. After decades of violence , fear, and extortion, citizens can move freely in former gang-controlled “red zones,” lounge in parks, and go out at night. El Salvador now markets itself as the “land of surf, volcanoes, and coffee,” hosts international events like the Miss Universe pageant, and draws tourists and cryptocurrency enthusiasts to coastal enclaves like “Bitcoin Beach.” The transformation helped Bukele cruise to re-election earlier this year; his approval rating these days tops 90% according to the latest CID Gallup poll. His picture adorns key chains, mugs, and T-shirts at souvenir stands; prominent portraits of him and his wife greet visitors at the airport. As we spoke, blue-and-gold banners festooned the streets of the capital, remnants of his second inauguration three weeks earlier.

Bukele’s popularity has come in spite—or perhaps because—of his defiance of constitutional, political, and legal constraints. Since 2022, he has ruled under emergency powers that suspend key civil liberties, including due process. His security regime can make arrests without warrants, including of minors as young as 12, and hauls hundreds of suspects into mass trials. One in every 57 Salvadorans is now incarcerated—triple the rate of the U.S. and the highest in the world. Bukele’s allies have fired top judges and packed the courts with loyalists, allowing him to dodge a constitutional prohibition to run successfully for a second term—all with broad public support.

Read More: A Controversial Facial-Recognition Company Quietly Expands Into Latin America

Organized political opposition has, in the President’s words, been “pulverized.” Defense attorneys, journalists, and NGOs say the government has intimidated, surveilled, or attacked them, spurring many to flee. “El Salvador’s institutions have been totally co-opted, subdued, and made obedient to the presidency,” says Celia Medrano, a Salvadoran human-rights activist.

Human-rights groups have accused Bukele’s government of abuses including arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, and torture. Salvadoran lawyers tell TIME they have documented thousands of cases of innocent people who were caught in the dragnet with no legal recourse. Bukele appears to consider them collateral damage in a larger war, the cost of guaranteeing the safety of the nation’s 6 million people. “Go anywhere,” he dares me. “Ask the people. It will be incredibly rare to find a negative opinion in the population.” He resents foreign critics’ focus on preserving El Salvador’s fragile democratic institutions—a corrupt system that, as many see it, only allowed the gangs to flourish. “Everything in life has a cost,” Bukele says, “and the cost of being called authoritarian is too small to bother me much.”

For Bukele’s admirers, El Salvador has become a showcase for how populist authoritarianism can succeed. His second term will be a test of what happens to a state when its charismatic young leader has an overwhelming mandate to dismantle its democratic institutions in pursuit of security. The results will have sweeping implications not just for El Salvador but also the region, where political leaders are eager to replicate what many call el milagro Bukele —the Bukele miracle.

Whether it can be sustained is a different question. While most Salvadorans say they are satisfied with the state of the country’s democracy, 61% say they fear negative consequences if they publicly express their opinions about its problems, according to a survey by Chilean firm Latinobarometro. Supporters hail Bukele as a visionary, but critics call him a millennial caudillo: a social-media-savvy strongman repackaged for the TikTok age. Some close to him say he worries about losing support as Salvadorans’ concerns shift from security to the economy. El Salvador remains one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, and Bukele has made a series of gambles that have not been well received by many foreign investors and creditors, including adopting Bitcoin as legal tender and investing some of the country’s reserves in the cryptocurrency .

Read More: Javier Milei’s Radical Plan to Transform Argentina

Even so, others are following the Salvadoran leader’s blueprint. His name is invoked on the campaign trail from Peru to Argentina. Some of his harshest critics, including in the Biden Administration, are now courting his favor. Ecuador and Honduras are building mass prisons inspired by Bukele’s. His popularity in El Salvador may export a brand of “punitive populism” that leads other heads of state to restrict constitutional rights, especially in a region where voters are increasingly gravitating toward authoritarianism. “The international community has been paralyzed by Bukele’s popularity and his success crushing the country’s bloodthirsty gangs,” says Benjamin Gedan, director of the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program. “But we know how this story ends. And when Salvadorans tire of Bukele, they might have no options to express their political preferences.”

The seeds of El Salvador’s transformation were first planted in Nuevo Cuscatlán, a sleepy town of 8,000 people on the outskirts of the capital. It was there, in 2012, that the sharply dressed scion of a wealthy local family arrived to run for mayor. “He would come with bodyguards to give speeches,” recalls Rosa Mélida, a 62-year-old resident, standing in the shade of a corner store. “He handed out food baskets to older people and paid to fix our houses.” As Mélida and her neighbors talk about the young mayor who became their President, they wave their hands toward the sky, gesturing at the green hills above. Bukele still lives up there, in a gated community called Los Sueños: The Dreams.

Bukele grew up in San Salvador, the fifth of 10 children of Armando Bukele Kattán, an affluent businessman and imam of Palestinian descent. He attended an elite, bilingual private school, where he was shielded from the brutal civil war that devastated El Salvador during the 1980s. As the son of an outspoken Muslim cleric, he learned how to define himself as an outsider and wield snark as a weapon. In an early sign of his tendency to troll his critics, Bukele captioned himself the “class terrorist” in the high school yearbook in 1999.

Although he enrolled in college to become a lawyer, Bukele soon dropped out. He ran a nightclub, a Yamaha dealership, and a political-advertising firm before deciding it was time to jump into politics himself. He decided to run for mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, a small town that was looking for a candidate. Bukele’s first campaign video shows a smiling 30-year-old with a starched white shirt and neatly gelled hair, promising to use his business background to transform the town into a modern “model of development.”

It was soon clear that Bukele had larger ambitions. As mayor, he donated his salary to fund high school scholarships, poured funds into construction projects, and tripled the number of security officers patrolling the streets, documenting all his exploits on YouTube . When people questioned where the money came from, he debuted what would become a trademark slogan: “There’s enough money to go around if no one steals.” (In fact, the town would go into heavy debt during his term, according to Salvadoran investigative outlet El Faro.) At that point, Bukele belonged to the left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) party, like his father. Yet he conspicuously shunned its traditional red colors and outdated revolutionary slogans. More than a decade later, the town’s clinic, library, and park are still emblazoned with the peeling cyan N he adopted as a logo—branding that entwined Bukele’s first initial with the town’s. “He is allergic to anything that looks old or smells like your grandmother’s closet,” says a foreign diplomat who worked with him.

In 2015, Bukele ran for mayor of San Salvador and won in a close race. He continued to promote attention-grabbing public projects, including the construction of a flashy upscale market and an effort to put lights on every corner of the capital to combat crime. Bukele posted about these moves on social media, where he amassed a following that soon eclipsed that of the country’s then President. “He’s like a cinematographer,” says a former associate. “Before he even makes a decision, he’s thinking about what the end result will look like as a movie reel.” He cultivated an image of modern irreverence, often wearing a backward baseball cap, jeans, and a leather jacket. One popular image, visible on posters and magnets across El Salvador, shows him with his feet on his desk in the mayor’s office, sporting aviator sunglasses.

FMLN officials soon became wary of the young politician’s presidential ambitions. Bukele openly criticized the party’s leaders, crafting a parallel political brand with his trademark cyan symbols. His inner circle consisted of his brothers and several friends from his private-school days, all of whom have followed him into the presidency. After a series of clashes, Bukele seemed to decide he was popular enough to have outgrown the party. After one incident in 2017, in which he reportedly threw an apple at a fellow FMLN official, the group expelled him.

Within a month, Bukele had launched his own party, Nuevas Ideas, and ran in the 2019 presidential election as an antiestablishment populist. He wielded his social media machine effectively, bragging that while his opponents traveled the country he could campaign from his phone, as his media team created viral Twitter challenges and emotive ads. “It was a way to reach the population directly without going through the press filter,” he tells me. Campaigning with his pregnant wife Gabriela, a prenatal psychologist and former ballet dancer, Bukele offered the chance of a fresh start after decades of corrupt, unpopular governments. At age 37, he won the presidency with 53% of the vote.

Soon the musty red drapes and dark-paneled wood of the presidential palace were gone, replaced by gleaming cream walls with gold molding. Government social media accounts were given a facelift and began to pump out coordinated messaging. Bukele announced ambitious plans to renovate the capital’s historic center and attract foreign businesses and tech investors. In his first speech before the U.N., he created a viral moment by turning around and snapping a photo: “Believe me, many more people will see that selfie than will hear this speech.” The adman wanted to project a new, modern nation that was breaking with its past.

Yet El Salvador was paralyzed by entrenched violence. Its two largest gangs, Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, were American imports—both formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by civil-war refugees who were eventually deported back to El Salvador. In a country tentatively emerging from that brutal conflict, the gangs grew their ranks by forcibly conscripting young people. They controlled vast territories and forced everyone—from working-class street vendors to large companies—to pay “rent,” or extortion fees. They killed with impunity. Salvadorans were gunned down for not crossing the street, for looking a split second too long at someone’s sister, for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Previous governments had used emergency powers to briefly instate mano dura in a limited way, including in the early 2000s to stem gang violence. Though popular, the crackdowns eventually backfired, driving gangs to regroup and change tactics. Like his predecessors, Bukele allegedly sought to broker a truce with the gangs. Early in his presidency, according to U.S. officials and audio recordings published by Salvadoran media, he cut deals that provided financial incentives to MS-13 and Barrio 18 “to ensure that incidents of gang violence and the number of confirmed homicides remained low,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which sanctioned two Bukele associates for their involvement in 2021. (Bukele denies this.)

At the same time, he moved to consolidate power. In February 2020, Bukele entered the national parliament, flanked by armed soldiers and police in a brazen show of force, to demand lawmakers vote on new security funding. Political opponents called it an unprecedented act of intimidation. Yet Bukele succeeded in tightening his grip on the legislature, ushering in electoral reforms that cut the number of seats from 84 to 60. In May 2021, lawmakers aligned with Bukele voted to remove El Salvador’s Attorney General, who had reportedly been investigating Bukele’s deals with the gangs, as well as the top judges on the country’s Supreme Court.

The move drew international condemnation, including from the Biden Administration . “We have deep concerns about El Salvador’s democracy,” Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted. Though privately infuriated by the rebuke, according to advisers, Bukele publicly embraced the outrage. He changed his social media bio to “world’s coolest dictator” and posted photos of soldiers helping civilians with the hashtag #quebonitadictadura—nice dictatorship. When international bodies raised alarms, he trolled their concerns. “Where is the dictatorship?” he tweeted when protesters demonstrating against what they saw as Bukele’s unconstitutional power grab blocked the city in 2021 without government interference. “Few countries can say this: We have never repressed a demonstration,” Bukele tells me, clearly angry at what he sees as foreign double standards. “We have never used a tear-gas can or a baton.”

Bukele turned the controversy to his advantage. He began to tweet mostly in English, noticing “an interesting audience for our country’s agenda,” he says. “It was an opportunity. We found that my social media presence served as a window for investors, investment funds, banks, important figures, and politicians.”

To market his vision of a new El Salvador, Bukele still needed a modern pitch. In September 2021, he made the nation the first to use Bitcoin as legal tender , earning global headlines and the attention of the growing crypto-currency community. Bukele installed Bitcoin ATMs, announced plans to build a geothermal-powered “Bitcoin city,” and boasted the move would draw foreign investment and benefit Salvadorans, many of whom lacked bank accounts or internet access, let alone digital wallets. Advisers admit it was a PR stunt. “We call it the Great Rebranding. It was genius,” says Damian Merlo, a Miami-based lobbyist. “We could have paid millions to a PR firm to rebrand El Salvador. Instead, we just adopted Bitcoin.”

As policy, the gimmick has flopped. Investing some of El Salvador’s national reserves into crypto was not well received by many foreign investors or the International Monetary Fund. Today Bukele concedes that Bitcoin “has not had the widespread adoption we hoped” among ordinary Salvadorans. Fewer than 12% have made a single transaction. But the move had the desired effect, putting El Salvador on the map for something other than its violence. “It gave us branding, it brought us investments, it brought us tourism,” says Bukele.

Amid the bitcoin hype, however, the alleged secret truce with the gangs fell apart. In March 2022, more than 87 people were murdered in a single weekend, the deadliest killing spree since the end of the civil war. One of the victims, later identified as a local surf instructor with no known gang ties, was left on the highway to Bitcoin Beach, hands and feet bound, a bullet wound in his head. It was a clear message to Bukele from the gangs, and an inflection point for the young President.

Bukele’s response was to implement a new, aggressive mano dura. He declared a 30-day “state of exception,” restricting free assembly and permitting arrests without warrants and detention without trial. The military surged into gang-controlled areas. Police barged into homes and strip-searched residents. Suspected gang members or collaborators were arrested at school, at work, on the street. “We were arresting more than 1,000 people per day,” says René Merino, the Defense Minister, who downplays the military’s role in the effort. “We had to do it in a way where the medicine would not be worse than the sickness.”

The police advertised a hotline to “bring more terrorists to justice.” By dialing 123, Salvadorans could anonymously report anyone they suspected of having links to gangs. In the swirling atmosphere of fear, however, it was often hard to separate violent criminals from innocent teenagers with rock-band tattoos, or clothing or colors associated with gangs, according to local defense attorneys. Some people denounced business rivals or called in neighbors to settle petty scores. Salvadoran security forces, under pressure from superiors to meet hefty arrest quotas, were happy to carry out the often indiscriminate sweeps. “If they didn’t find the person they were looking for, they would just arrest whoever was at home,” says Alejandro Díaz Gómez, a lawyer with local human-rights group Tutela, citing videos filmed by family members. (Bukele officials say that 7,000 people have been freed owing to lack of evidence.)

The approach succeeded at curbing the rampant violence . Homicides in El Salvador dropped by half in 2022 and more than 70% in 2023, according to government data. “It was an overwhelming victory,” says Bukele. “We were fighting an irregular army of 70,000 men and suffered no civilian casualties.” Jails filled with gang members and suspected associates; the population of the country’s largest prison, designed to hold 10,000, swelled to more than three times that number.

Next Bukele built the Centro de Contenimiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a sprawling detention facility that could house 40,000 more inmates. In slick videos set to upbeat music, Bukele’s government advertised the prison’s spartan conditions. Meals were reduced to two a day, prisoners slept on bare metal slats, and inmates were stripped to their underwear and frog-marched through corridors. Under previous governments, “there used to be YouTube videos posted by gangs showing them in prison with prostitutes, strippers, parties, drugs,” Bukele says. The images of the brutal crackdown became an unlikely sensation, making El Salvador’s President the most-followed world leader on TikTok. He issued a public warning that if the gangs moved to retaliate, “I swear to God they won’t eat a grain of rice, and we’ll see how long they last.”

Read More: Inside a Prison Cell for Gay Former Gang Members in El Salvador

Salvadoran and international human-rights groups have accused the government of a range of abuses, including forced disappearances, torture, deaths in custody, and targeting poor and marginalized communities. Bukele scoffs at the allegations. The roughly 140 prisoners who have died in Salvadoran prisons per year during the state of exception amount to “an incredibly low mortality rate by Latin American standards,” he says, “indeed lower than the U.S.” He questions the focus on conditions in El Salvador’s prisons compared with those in notorious jails in neighboring countries. “How can I ask the Salvadoran people, who often have modest meals like beans and tortillas for dinner, to pay taxes to provide meat and chicken to prisoners who have killed their family members?” he asks.

Salvadoran officials say the punitive approach is part of the Bukele government’s appeal. “There are 660 million Latin Americans who are seeing what is possible with clear common-sense criminal procedures,” says Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro, whose office features a large screen depicting the location of every police car in the country, with different dashboards to keep track of reported crime. Villatoro says that the government “studied the enemy, like in any war.” He shows me a 90-page handbook cataloging gang tattoos, graffiti, and slang to identify suspects’ affiliations. If Bukele “hadn’t had the courage to send the hypocritical international groups to hell, we would have fallen into the same mistake that the six former Presidents made,” he says. Those predecessors had faltered in seeing through the draconian measures required to root out the gangs, Villatoro argues, whereas Bukele had persevered. “There are many priests,” Villatoro adds, “but few are exorcists.” 

After his allies removed Supreme Court judges and replaced them with supporters who reinterpreted the Constitution in his favor, Bukele decided to run for a second term in spite of a pre-existing ban. In February, he won a landslide victory, with 84% of the vote. Nuevas Ideas, a party that did not exist six years ago, won 54 of the nation’s 60 congressional seats. El Salvador had effectively become a one-party state, controlled by a single man.

Bukele insists his consolidation of power has been “100% democratic.” If other world leaders aren’t able to get such results, he argues, that’s on them: “We’re not going to artificially grant half of the Congress to the opposition just to say that we are a democracy.” Other heads of state, he suggests, would use any means necessary to achieve the transformation El Salvador has. “Their failure,” says Bukele, “can’t be our road map.” 

Bukele’s second inauguration in early June was a far cry from his first. A parade of high-level political figures made the trek to San Salvador, including King Felipe VI of Spain, regional leaders, more than a dozen U.S. officials and lawmakers, Donald Trump Jr. , and Tucker Carlson . “It was the hottest ticket in the Americas,” says Merlo, Bukele’s U.S. lobbyist. Bukele arranged a dramatic spectacle, designing new capes for the military guard and sporting a striking suit with a stiff, gold-embroidered collar and cuffs that evoked a cross between Latin American revolutionary war heroes and Star Wars. Visitors were ushered into the best restaurants, shown the gleaming new Google regional offices, and taken to the renovated historic center at night to showcase the country’s safety.

Bukele casts himself as an independent operator, but he has conspicuously cultivated ties to the American right. Though he came up in a left-wing party, “the left has lost its way across the world,” says Bukele. “It has a serious identity crisis, and the right is at least setting a course.” Bukele, who speaks English fluently, has given two rare interviews to Carlson and spoken at the Heritage Foundation and Conservative Political Action Conference. His tweets use tropes common in right-wing online circles. Bukele has baselessly accused the billionaire philanthropist George Soros of funding journalists who write critically about him, one of the reasons he says he has stopped speaking to the press. “At least state propaganda openly acknowledges it’s propaganda,” he says. “When we put out a video spot, no one’s hiding that it’s propaganda.” 

In recent months, he has invited Carlson and Florida Representative Matt Gaetz to spend the weekend at his lakeside retreat, staying up into the early morning discussing everything from politics to AI, according to advisers. Gaetz, a Trump acolyte who has recently visited El Salvador several times and posed for photos at the CECOT prison, says he considers Bukele a “kindred spirit” and an inspiration to the Western world. “He sees himself as a liberator, not an authoritarian,” Gaetz tells TIME. “Sometimes, to solve third-world problems, you need some third-world solutions.”

In July, Gaetz led the launch of a bipartisan El Salvador caucus in Congress which includes several Democrats, including Representative Lou Correa of California. “Whether you agree with his methods or not, he has brought peace to his people,” Correa tells me. “His popularity among the Salvadoreños in my district is unbelievable,” he says. “They love the guy. My job is to work with him.” 

Even the Biden Administration has softened its previous criticism. In 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department had sanctioned some of Bukele’s top officials for covert negotiations with the gangs and “multiple-ministry, multi-million dollar corruption,” and U.S. officials criticized his moves as antidemocratic. For his second inauguration, the Administration dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to attend, a marker of his growing clout. It’s clear that Bukele feels vindicated. When it comes to his controversial policies, “suddenly it’s better to embrace them [...] and try not to fight against something that is too popular, not just in El Salvador but throughout all of Latin America,” he tells me. 

Privately, U.S. diplomats agree. There is little to be gained by feuding with a leader with overwhelming popular support, they say. It’s more valuable to keep an open line, especially since they need El Salvador’s help to stem migration to America’s southern border and are seeking ways to counter Chinese influence in the region. Under Xi Jinping , China has invested $500 million in infrastructure projects in El Salvador, including a huge futuristic library that now flies the Chinese flag in front of the country’s National Palace and main cathedral.

At the same time, U.S. officials and international pro-democracy groups worry Bukelismo is catching on in the region. Political parties in Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, and Argentina have incorporated the Salvadoran President’s name into their platforms and echoed his tough-on-crime language. Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich recently spent four days in the country learning about the “Bukele model” and signing a cooperation agreement. Citing Bukele’s example, Honduras has announced plans to build an emergency megaprison for 20,000, and Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has declared an unprecedented state of “internal armed conflict” to crack down on criminal gangs.

But the long-term success of the “Bukele model” is far from certain. The security gains won’t guarantee long-term stability without a plan to keep the next generation from relapsing into a cycle of violence, Salvadoran officials and analysts say. Mass arrests have left more than 40,000 children without one or both parents. While military and police budgets have ballooned, funding for victim-care programs amounts to less than 1% of the security budget, says David Morales, the chief legal officer of Cristosal, a Salvadoran human-rights group. The state of exception, which has been renewed 29 times, “has now become permanent, and victims have been totally abandoned,” he says. “An autocracy has now been installed in El Salvador with a great human cost.” Bukele officials say they are seeking to make the current policies “irreversible” through a series of legal reforms. Then, Bukele tells TIME, he hopes to lift the state of exception and “return to normal constitutional processes and maintain the peace we’ve achieved.”

Security has also come at a steep financial cost for El Salvador. Under Bukele, its public debt has skyrocketed to more than $30 billion, or 84% of the country’s gross domestic product. The economy remains anemic. “Bukele has built a house of cards, because it’s an incredibly expensive security policy,” says Christine Wade, an El Salvador expert at Washington College in Maryland. “It’s not financially sustainable, and his future will depend on his ability to address that.” More than a quarter of the country still lives in poverty, and remittances from Salvadorans abroad amount to the equivalent of 20% of its GDP. Bukele needs a deal with the IMF to regain access to international markets and finance its debt, says Will Freeman, a fellow of Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. One stumbling block has been the Bitcoin gamble; another is the lack of budgetary transparency by his government, which has hidden its spending and contracting from public view. “Bukele has been very resistant to it,” Freeman suggests, because it could reveal corruption. But if El Salvador is left to face a brutal fiscal adjustment on its own, he adds, “that will be the big moment when we test how deep his popularity runs.”

For now, Bukele’s support remains unshakable among ordinary Salvadorans, including many who have family members in prison. Anyone who did not live through the terror of life under the gangs will never understand how much things have changed, says Alvaro Rodriguez, a 39-year-old taxi driver. “Thanks to Bukele, the most dangerous thing here are these pigeons,” he says, gesturing at a plaza in downtown San Salvador that citizens used to have to pay gang members to enter. 

Which is why Merino, the Defense Minister, believes the government has a mandate to continue mano dura. “No matter how much these human-rights groups cry and complain about the state of emergency, people here are much freer than in countries where there isn’t a state of exception,” he says. “Once you have the support of the population, there is nothing to stop us.”

No one, including Bukele, knows how El Salvador’s experiment will end. While he rules out running for a third term, he knows what happens to Latin American strongmen when they leave office. Three of his predecessors have been arrested or indicted. But for the former adman, it’s all part of a narrative: Bukele the Messiah. “I used to be the safest person in the country, I had bodyguards and armored cars,” he says, gesturing with his arms in our interview in his office. “Now the country has safety but I do not. I traded my security for that of the Salvadoran public.” He pauses. “As I said,” he adds, “everything in life has a cost.” — With reporting by Simmone Shah

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Write to Vera Bergengruen / San Salvador at [email protected]

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Toronto’s 1st black female police superintendent demoted after helping black cops cheat for promotions.

Toronto’s first black female police superintendent was dinged with a demotion after she admitted to helping several black officers cheat in an attempt to get them promoted.

Trailblazing cop Stacy Clarke was disciplined after it was determined she played a “lead role” in the 2021 corruption scandal, which was ruled Wednesday by a tribunal as “extremely serious” misconduct, the Toronto Star reported.  

“Honesty and integrity are non-negotiable character traits of a police officer. Superintendent Clarke’s actions demonstrated both were absent,” tribunal adjudicator Robin McElary-Downer reportedly said.

Clarke found herself in hot water when she confessed last year to taking photos of confidential interview questions and messaging them to six black candidates vying for sergeant jobs, the newspaper reported.

She claimed during a sentencing hearing in May she did it in “a desperate effort to level the playing field.” 

“I felt at the time that (the six officers) did not have a fair chance in this process and my own history and experience of racial inequity compounded this feeling,” Clarke insisted in an internal report.

The high-ranking official was demoted to the role of inspector for two years before she can reapply for her old gig, CBC reported. Her defense team argued the demotion should only last a year to 18 months and she should get the job back automatically.

“Just very disappointed and very sad about it,” Clarke told outlets following the decision as supporters of hers called the punishment harsh.

McElary-Downer, the adjudicator, reportedly said the superintendent’s conduct “undoubtedly shook the confidence and trust the public had in her, and on a broader scale, the Toronto Police Service.”

She noted outside of this scandal, Clarke has led an “admirable career” and is a “rock star.”

Toronto police said it respected the outcome, noting leaders at the department are held to the “highest standard” while also saying the agency needs to do a better job of diversifying all ranks.

“We acknowledge this case brought forward a number of issues that the Service is addressing,” Chief Myron Demkiw said, per CBC.

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Ukraine war latest: Ukraine keeping close eye on Belarus border as troops amass

Russia has launched several air attacks on Ukraine this week, costing Moscow a reported £1.1bn. Meanwhile, Ukraine says it's keeping a close eye on its border with Belarus after a build-up of troops there in recent days.

Thursday 29 August 2024 18:18, UK

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• Ukraine keeping close eye on Belarus border as troops amass  
• Putin's attack on Ukraine in single day 'cost more than £1bn'
• Kyiv hit by third attack in four days as drone debris injures three
• Ukraine heading 'closer and closer' to total blackout
• Battlefield situation: Latest frontlines in maps
• Watch: Who are Ukraine's secret resistance?
• Your questions answered: Strategic consequences for Ukraine if Pokrovsk falls
• Reporting by Mark Wyatt

We'll be back with more updates and analysis tomorrow, but before we go, here's a recap of the key developments that took place today:

• Ukrainian shelling in Russia's Belgorod region killed one person and injured others, according to officials;
• A fighter jet from Belarus attempted to shoot down a Russian drone that flew into the country's airspace this morning;
• Russia's huge air attacks across Ukraine this week cost Moscow more than £1bn, the UK representative to the UN said;
• Ukraine said it was keeping a close eye on its border with Belarus after a build-up of troops there in recent days;
• Ukraine's top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said fighting in Pokrovsk is "exceptionally tough";
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would not forgive Russia "for a single destroyed Ukrainian life" as the country marked the Day of Remembrance of Defenders of Ukraine.

A military court in Moscow has placed Pavel Popov, a former deputy defence minister, in detention on suspicion of fraud in the latest of a string of corruption probes of officials tied to ex-defence minister Sergei Shoigu.

The case against Popov, who has served in his role since 2013, is the third investigation into a senior defence official relating to construction work at Patriot Park - a military theme park near Moscow.

The war-themed tourist attraction near Moscow displays a vast collection of Russian and Soviet weaponry and offers visitors the chance to clamber on tanks and take part in combat simulations.

Investigators said Popov, beginning in 2021, had diverted various building materials from the park to his own country house for installation work.

Popov has been detained until 29 October.

He denies guilt, his lawyer told the RIA state news agency.

Popov joins at least a dozen officials who, since April, have been caught up in the biggest wave of corruption scandals to hit the Russian military and defence establishment in years.

In May, soon after the first arrests, Vladimir Putin unexpectedly removed Mr Shoigu as defence minister and replaced him with Andrei Belousov in what was widely seen as a move to ensure tighter management of Russia's vast defence budget.

Russian political commentators said the investigation into Popov was clearly linked to a broader anti-graft crackdown undertaken by Belousov against those with ties to Mr Shoigu.

A Ukrainian F-16 fighter jet was destroyed in a crash on Monday, a US defence official has said.

According to the official, the cause has not yet been determined - pilot error or mechanical failure.

It comes after Russia staged a missile and drone attack on Ukraine on Monday.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that F-16 jets were used to repel the attack on Monday and showed good results.

He had announced earlier this month that Ukraine had started flying F-16s for operations within the country, confirming the long-awaited arrival of the US-made fighter jets which Ukraine has been pushing for since the start of the war.

Four nuclear power units at two different power plants in Ukraine were disconnected from the grid during the Russian attack on Monday, Ukraine's presidential office head, Andriy Yermak, reports.

In a statement on Telegram , Mr Yermak said power units at Rivne NPP, in northwest Ukraine, and South Ukrainian NPP in the south, had been disconnected.

What happened on Monday?

Russian forces unleashed 236 drones and missiles in a massive attack on Ukraine. 

Seven people were killed and 15 regions were struck, with explosions heard in the capital, Kyiv. 

Ukraine said hypersonic missiles were used in the assault.

Fighting in Pokrovsk is "exceptionally tough", Ukraine's top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi has said. 

Mr Syrskyi, who has spent several days on the eastern front, also said that Russia was throwing everything it could into its assaults, trying to break through Ukrainian defences.

"Fighting is exceptionally tough," he said, adding that Ukraine had to constantly use unorthodox methods to strengthen its positions.

For context : Russia's army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defence in the area. 

The region, which had a pre-war population of about 60,000, is one of Ukraine's main defensive strongholds.

Its capture would compromise Ukraine's defensive abilities and supply routes and would bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region.

Ukraine says it's keeping a close eye on its border with Belarus after a build-up of troops there in recent days.

Kyiv's foreign ministry accused Minsk last week of concentrating a "significant number of personnel" in the Gomel region near Ukraine's northern border "under the guise of exercises".

It swiftly warned Belarusian officials not to make "tragic mistakes under Moscow's pressure" and withdraw its forces.

The Institute for the Study of War said Belarus's troop deployment was likely intended to divert Ukrainian soldiers from other fronts.

It also assessed that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was "extremely unlikely to risk combat with Ukraine that could weaken his regime".

Speaking on television today, a spokesperson for Ukraine's border guard service said it had detected no immediate threats on the border, but that Ukrainian troops were keeping it constantly monitored.

"This is tens of kilometres from our border, at different points – different distances," said Andriy Demchenko.

"What is happening on the territory of Belarus is actively monitored by intelligence units, the ministry of defence and the state border service in order to understand how the situation is changing, how threatening it can be for Ukraine.

"So that all components of our defence forces, which strengthen this direction, have the opportunity to react in time to any actions."

Ukraine is calling on the civilian population in its eastern city of Pokrovsk to evacuate as Russian troops draw closer to its outskirts.

Readers have been sending in their questions to our senior correspondents and military experts for their take on what could happen next.

Today, Malcolm asks:

How serious is the situation in Pokrovsk? If the city falls to Russian forces, what are the strategic consequences for Ukraine?

Military analyst Sean Bell says...

It is very difficult to provide clarity over the tactical progress of the war given the relative paucity of detailed information about progress, challenges and opportunities.  

However, it appears likely that Vladimir Putin's near-term objective of his "special military operation" is to secure Crimea, the Donbas and the land bridge between the two areas.  

This summer, Russia's main effort appears to have been securing the final component of the Donbas, and despite the much-publicised casualty rate being suffered by Moscow's forces - more than 1,000 casualties a day - Russia continues to make slow but steady progress.  

Pokrovsk is a strategically important logistics and transport hub for Ukrainian forces in the region, and Russian forces are now reported to be only six miles away from the town, leading the Ukrainians to evacuate the civilian population.

The Russian president knows that it is very difficult to maintain momentum during the winter months, so he has perhaps 10 to 12 weeks available to achieve his objectives before the winter weather settles in.   

If Russian forces can seize Pokrovsk before the winter, it is possible that Mr Putin will indicate he is ready to negotiate an end to the conflict.  

Depending on the outcome of the forthcoming US presidential elections, that raises the prospect of Mr Putin being rewarded for his brutal invasion of Ukraine, which would have profound implications for global security.

Ukraine's invasion of Russia's Kursk region will soon enter its fourth week, with around 500 square miles of territory captured so far, according to the head of Kyiv's military.

Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Tuesday that around 100 settlements, including the town of Sudzha, were now under Ukraine's control.

In one of his evening addresses this week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said troops were still expanding their territory in the region.

Here, we look at some key images from the start of the invasion into Kursk.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine will not forgive Russia "for a single destroyed Ukrainian life" as the country marks the Day of Remembrance of Defenders of Ukraine.

The holiday marks the 10th anniversary of the battle of Ilovaisk, where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed by Russian troops as they began to withdraw from the encircled town.

"This was a planned, cynical Russian crime that Ukraine will never forget and will not leave unpunished," Mr Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel.

"Today, Ukraine honours the memory of all its defenders. All those who fought for our state, for Ukrainian independence and sacrificed the most precious thing – their lives.

"And we will not forgive Russia for a single destroyed Ukrainian life."

Ukraine was forced to disconnect several nuclear power units from the grid on Monday after Russia's widespread drone and missile attacks on the country.

Kyiv's mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency has said the attack was intended to paralyse the operation of the power generation facilities of Ukraine.

It added that the attacks posed a significant risk to the stable operation of nuclear facilities. 

As a result of the attack, three out of four power units of the Rivne nuclear power plant were disconnected from the grid, it said.

Another nuclear power plant, the South Ukrainian, was also forced to decrease its output "due to fluctuations in the national power grid".

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