The 2024 presidential campaign season officially kicked off this week with the Republican caususes in Iowa
The 2024 presidential campaign season officially kicked off this week with the Republican caususes in Iowa. (The Democratic caucuses will be held on March 5.) It feels like eons since December 2022, when Ron DeSantis was outshining even Donald Trump in the polls. The Florida governor traveled to every one of the Hawkeye State’s 99 counties in a bid to rack up an early win, and anything but a strong showing is presumed lethal to his campaign.
The final Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll had DeSantis in third place with 16%, behind Nikki Haley at 20%, a distant second to the former president, who leads with 48%. Still, there’s plenty of ground to cover, and candidates are strategizing how to gather votes of those left in the dust — particularly erstwhile supporters of former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who ended his second presidential bid having generated plenty of headlines, but garnered significant support only in New Hampshire.
The government of Ecuador’s attempt to curb the power of drug cartels has been given a harsh reality check. New president Daniel Noboa, sworn in two months ago, tried to strike a tough pose but instead sparked a revolt in seven prisons, resulting in at least 16 deaths and hundreds injured. The most dramatic scenes unfolded at a television station, as a criminal gang brazenly attacked during a live broadcast.
The drug cartels have kidnapped over a hundred people and helped give Ecuador the highest homicide rate in South America and the fifth-highest globally, with 46.5 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Many cartels chose Ecuador as a strategic distribution point for the drug trade.
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