Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, making the first visit to Israel by a senior Biden administration official, said Sunday that the U.S.-Israeli relationship was “enduring and ironclad,” amid growing Israeli concern over American efforts to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

President Biden hoped to put the brakes on a surge of U.S.-bound Central American families by relying on a Trump-era policy to return them to Mexico. But increasingly, this country is straining to cope with the influx. Mexico is now limiting the number of families it will allow back. That’s forced the U.S. government to accept most of them, as their numbers soar: About 53,000 members of family units were taken into custody in March, compared with 7,300 in January.

U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry is expected to travel to China next week in an attempt to carve out climate change as an area of closer collaboration amid deepening tensions between the two countries.

Philippine and U.S. soldiers started two weeks of military exercises Monday against a backdrop of rising tensions in the South China Sea, though the drills were reduced in scale due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Djibouti’s veteran ruler Ismail Omar Guelleh was reelected for a fifth term as president with more than 98 percent of the vote, according to provisional results announced early Saturday, after the election in the tiny but strategically important country was boycotted by the main opposition.

Vote counting has started in Chad after a tense presidential election Sunday that is likely to see President Idriss Deby extend his three-decade rule, despite signs of growing discontent over his handling of the nation’s oil wealth.

Vote counting began in Benin on Sunday after a presidential poll that was boycotted by some opposition parties over pre-election violence and their objection to President Patrice Talon’s quest for a second term.

Mogadishu’s police chief announced he had suspended parliament Monday, saying he was acting unilaterally to prevent lawmakers from extending the president’s term, only to be fired moments later by the police commissioner.

A regional governor in Somalia has escaped a suicide bombing that killed at least three people, including two of his bodyguards, according to officials.

Conflict is impoverishing the region and destroying decades of donor-funded projects.

More from WPR: Tigray Is Being Deliberately Starved to Death

Guillermo Lasso, a 66-year-old conservative former banker, was set to win Ecuador’s presidential election and beat out Andres Arauz, a 36-year-old leftist handpicked by former President Rafael Correa.

Peruvian far-left candidate Pedro Castillo is set to win the Andean country’s first-round presidential election, though he will face a run-off vote in June with an electorate fragmented after a year of political and economic crisis.

More from WPR: Is Peru’s Crowded Presidential Election a Bridge to Nowhere?

One year after the Honduran government paid $47 million for seven mobile hospitals to expand its bed space for the COVID-19 pandemic, only two are in use and two former government officials involved in their purchase are jailed on fraud charges.

A Mexican ruling party state candidate accused of rape, who later had his candidacy canceled by regulatory authorities on other grounds, said Sunday he will not allow elections in his home state unless he is allowed to run.

Salazar’s appalling murder further exposed a couple of troubling trends in Mexico.

The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention conceded that the efficacy of Chinese coronavirus vaccines is “not high” and that they may require improvements, marking a rare admission from a government that has staked its international credibility on its doses.

Ant Group, the financial-technology giant controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, will apply to become a financial holding company overseen by China’s central bank, overhauling its business to adapt to a new era of tighter regulation for internet companies.

More from WPR: Alibaba Got Too Big for China’s Comfort

At least five people were killed by gunfire in election-related violence at two polling stations in India’s West Bengal state, police said Saturday.

Voters in Kyrgyzstan supported handing greater powers to the presidency in a referendum Sunday, confirming public trust in the populist head of state Sadyr Japarov, although the turnout was low.

The executive committee of Germany’s Christian Democrats backed party chairman Armin Laschet on Monday as the conservative bloc’s candidate for chancellor at federal elections in September, party sources said.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of blocking attempts to begin talks aimed at calming military tensions sparked by the deployment of tens of thousands of Russian troops close to the Ukrainian border.

More from WPR: How the U.S. Should Respond to Russia’s New Escalation in Ukraine

Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek, who frequently warned against risks posed by Russia and China, was sacked Monday after losing a bid to lead his own centre-left Social Democratic party party last week.

Despite COVID, the European Union is in better shape politically than the U.S. or U.K.

The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, vowed revenge against Israel on Monday morning, a day after a blackout at an Iranian nuclear enrichment site was attributed to an Israeli attack.

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun arrived in Iran on Sunday to help try to restore a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and free up $7 billion in Iranian funds trapped in South Korea, Seoul officials said.

As part of a push to carve a canal alongside the waterway, Turkey’s president signaled that he could scrap a treaty that has kept peace in the region for decades.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh and a delegation of ministers will make their first visit to Turkey on Monday since taking office last month, the Turkish presidency said Sunday.

A cycle of deadlocked elections has left the country without a functioning administration—and a foreign policy set on autopilot.

More from WPR: Israel’s Latest Election Could Realign Its Politics