Voters in Gabon are set to pick their next president on Saturday, and on paper they have plenty of options: anti-French firebrands, a general who staged a coup, a tax inspector and a female candidate in this oil-rich Central African country. But most candidates and experts agree that the election might be a done deal….
When Yoon Suk Yeol was running for president, he had the word “king” written on his palm. South Koreans dismissed — and ridiculed — it as a shamanistic ritual that reflected his desire for top government office. But after his inauguration in May 2022, it didn’t take long for them to see an authoritarian streak…
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, will face trial on charges that he oversaw a vast scheme to cling to power after losing the 2022 elections, including an attempt to overturn the vote and a plot to assassinate the nation’s president-elect, the country’s Supreme Court decided on Wednesday. The ruling marks a significant effort to hold…
Its soldiers are underpaid and underarmed. Its ranks are riddled with factions pursuing their own interests. And successive presidents are said to have kept it weak for fear of a coup. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s army has appeared too weak and dysfunctional to stop a militia that has swept through the eastern part of…
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, was charged Tuesday with overseeing a vast scheme to try to undermine his nation’s trust in the 2022 elections and then overturn that vote even after his allies could not find evidence of fraud. Brazil’s attorney general, Paulo Gonet Branco, indicted Mr. Bolsonaro and 33 other people for a series…
Sudan’s military has used chemical weapons on at least two occasions against the paramilitary group it is battling for control of the country, four senior United States officials said on Thursday. The weapons were deployed recently in remote areas of Sudan, and targeted members of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries that the army has been…
Jair Bolsonaro has had a rough couple of years: election losses, criminal cases, questionable embassy sleepovers. So when he finally received a piece of good news last week — an invitation to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration — it lifted his spirits. “I’m feeling like a kid again with Trump’s invite. I’m fired up. I’m…