Authorities in El Salvador have arrested a prominent attorney critical of President Nayib Bukele, in a move criticized by rights groups who say it reflects an increasing trend of “authoritarianism” in the country.

Ruth Eleonora López, the head of the Anti-Corruption and Justice Unit of the rights organization Cristosal, is accused of collaborating in the “theft of funds from state coffers,” the Attorney General’s Office of El Salvador said.

“According to the investigations and information gathered during the raids carried out … her active participation in the acts of which she is accused has been identified,” the Attorney General’s Office said.

Speaking at a press conference alongside the leaders of Cristosal on Monday, López’s mother and husband said the arrest was part of a recurring pattern in which activists are detained, denied contact with their families, and their whereabouts concealed.

They alleged that authorities appeared at her home “under false pretenses,” claiming there had been a traffic accident to lure her outside. She was then detained and not allowed to see a warrant, they said. They added they still do not know the formal charges beyond what the Attorney General’s Office posted on X.

“This sends a message that the government is willing to repress, to violate human rights – and at this point, it’s barely trying to hide it. It’s practically admitting it,” said Abraham Ábrego, director of Strategic Litigation at Cristosal.

The organization labeled the move as a “short-term forced disappearance,” as it does not know where López, a lawyer and university professor, is being held. It has asked authorities to allow López’s lawyer to meet with her.

López has led criticism of the Bukele government’s lack of transparency, denouncing abuses allegedly committed by the state during an ongoing state of emergency to crack down on crime, as well as the increase in public debt without detailing its investment or the use of public funds to purchase Bitcoin. She has also criticized the government’s decision to endorse mining, among other things.

López, who in 2024 was recognized by the BBC on a list of 100 influential and inspiring women, was previously an adviser to the former president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Eugenio Chicas, between 2009 and 2014.

Chicas faces criminal proceedings after being arrested last February for alleged illicit enrichment to the detriment of public administration, a crime to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Since taking office in 2019, Bukele has enacted controversial measures to stem the crime and gang violence that has plagued the country for years.

In 2022, with the support of lawmakers, he declared a state of emergency which allowed the government to temporarily suspend constitutional rights, including the right to legal defense provided by the state. The measure was intended to last 30 days but has been extended dozens of times and continues to this day.

In the three years since it was declared, security forces have arrested nearly 87,000 people nationwide, or more than 1% of the Salvadoran population, according to authorities.

The government insists the crackdown has made the country safer, but critics say it has violated people’s rights and resulted in countless wrongful detentions.

International groups including Amnesty International condemned López’s arrest in a joint statement on Monday, saying that the state of emergency in El Salvador “has not only been used to address gang-related violence but also as a tool to silence critical voices.”

Think of Japan’s famed yakuza gangs and you might think of heavily tattooed men getting into bloody fights – the stuff of action films and video games.

But last week four men were arrested in Tokyo for a more mundane crime – operating a yakuza office too close to a library.

The suspects, ages 55 to 77, “conspired” to operate an office from June 2024 to February 2025, “despite the fact that the area was within a 200 meter radius around a library,” said police in a statement. The city has strict rules on where yakuza offices can operate, as part of their campaign to eliminate organized crime.

The oldest man, 77, was a “member of an organization affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai organized crime syndicate,” one of Japan’s biggest yakuza groups, the statement added.

Known for their strict hierarchies and honor codes, the yakuza – also known as the boryokudan – engage in everything from extortion and money laundering to drugs and sex trafficking.

Far from being underground organizations, many are registered with the police and have an established presence across the country.

The National Police Agency (NPA) even lists the business addresses of some yakuza organizations on their website; for instance, the Sumiyoshi-kai’s main office is located in Tokyo’s upscale Akasaka district, not far from the parliament building.

During their heyday in the 1960s, the yakuza operated internationally and had more than 184,000 members, according to the NPA. But their numbers have declined steadily over recent decades after police crackdowns to curb their activities.

Though they are legally still allowed to exist, regulations made it harder for gangsters to survive as it became illegal to recruit yakuza, pay them off, or share profits with them. Even securing mobile phone contracts and renting out apartments became more difficult.

In 2024, the number of members of organized crime syndicates fell below 20,000 for the first time to a record low of 18,800, according to police data.

In Tokyo, yakuza offices cannot operate within 200 meters of schools, child welfare centers, community halls, museums, probation offices and family courts – as well as libraries.

Businesses cannot hire yakuza members as bouncers, offer them payoffs for services, or sign any contracts with yakuza that “encourage” their activities.

The result is shrinking yakuza groups that nowadays largely make headlines for disbanding, pursuing new law-abiding lives, or promising to behave.

Salvage crews have recovered the boom from the $40 million Bayesian luxury yacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily in August 2024, killing seven people, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.

The boom, which was connected to the 72-meter (236-foot) mast — one of the tallest on any sailboat—is the first known piece of debris to be lifted from the water.

The 55.9 meter (184-foot) yacht, which still has 18,000 liters of fuel onboard, went down in a sudden storm on August 19 while moored near Porticello, Sicily near Palermo.

Fifteen people, including nine crew members, survived.

British investigators, who were on the scene days after the accident, published a “desktop” report last week in which they concluded that the ship sank due to structural problems with the vessel.

Italian investigators have publicly dismissed the findings and have told local reporters that until the vessel can be examined once out of the water, no conclusion into the cause of the sinking can be determined. The ship is lying on its starboard side on the seabed, meaning no images have been taken of that part of the vessel to determine its condition.

No one has been charged with any criminal culpability in the accident, but the ship’s captain James Cutfield and two other crew members are under investigation for their role in the deaths of the passengers, which included one crew member.

The timetable to lift the yacht from the 50-meter deep seabed originally stated that the mast and boom would be left on the seabed until after the hull of the luxury yacht is lifted. The boom was instead brought out first to aid in the investigation into the diver’s death. It is unclear when the mast, which is being cut from the vessel, will be pulled from the water.

The hull of the yacht is scheduled to be brought up between May 26 and May 28, weather permitting. Once emptied of water, the wreckage will be lifted by crane to the port of Termini Imerese where it will be sequestered and examined by officials. A full report is expected by the end of the summer.

Ukraine and Russia accused each other of launching attack drones on one another overnight, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with his US counterpart Donald Trump – and again refused an immediate ceasefire.

Russia launched 108 Shahed drones and “various types of decoy drones,” Ukraine’s Air Force said on its Telegram channel Tuesday, adding air defenses had destroyed 93 of them in the east, center and north of the country.

The strikes come after Trump and Putin spoke for nearly two hours on Monday – Trump from the Oval Office and Putin phoning in from a visit to a music school in the city of Sochi.

Following the call Trump said Kyiv and Moscow would begin ceasefire negotiations ‘immediately.’

But Putin said the Kremlin was ready to work with Ukraine on a “possible ceasefire for a certain period of time, provided the corresponding agreements are reached.”

Neither Putin nor Trump discussed a timeframe for a possible truce, said Kremlin presidential aide Yury Ushakov.

Putin has previously ignored a proposal from Washington and Kyiv for a 30-day ceasefire and last week snubbed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s call to meet face-to-face for talks in Istanbul.

As the Turkey talks sputtered, Trump said he didn’t think there would be a significant breakthrough on peace talks until he spoke directly with Putin.

“Unfortunately, following the Trump–Putin phone call, the status quo has not changed,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, Adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky

European leaders decided to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions after Trump briefed them on the call with Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in an X post late on Monday.

Trump said he would not join in any new sanctions on Russia “because there’s a chance” of progress.

“I think there’s a chance of getting something done, and if you do that, you could also make it much worse. But there could be a time where that’s going to happen,” Trump said.

Following the call Zelensky said discussions would take place about the future location of a further round of talks – which would be aimed first at achieving a ceasefire.

Russian state news agency TASS cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters that “so far, no specific decisions have been made regarding the location for the continuation of possible future contacts” with Ukrainian officials.

“We are primarily interested in a prompt settlement by eliminating the root causes of this conflict,” Peskov said.

“He wants Ukraine to capitulate. He wants Ukraine to disarm… to be in a position where… the Ukrainians cannot defend themselves,” said Taylor.

“That’s what Putin means when he says ‘the root causes.’”

Russia has battered Ukraine overnight with its largest drone attack since the war began, Ukraine’s military said Sunday, as Moscow intensified its military assault despite holding direct peace talks with Kyiv Friday.

Russia launched 273 Shahed drones in one night, the Ukrainian Air Force said, predominantly targeting the central Kyiv region.

A 28-year-old woman was killed, and three others including a four-year-old child were injured, according to Mykola Kalashnik, the governor of the Kyiv region.

Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of Ukraine’s parliament, said in a social media post Sunday: “The air raid alarm lasted almost nine hours. This is what Putin’s ‘sincere desire for peace’ looks like.”

The attack destroyed residential buildings, damaged a high-rise and set garages on fire, Stefanchuk wrote, adding: “This is terror in its purest form.”

The “massive attack” caused a number of fires, Ukraine’s emergency services also said, adding that 55 rescue workers had been deployed.

Elsewhere, Russian shelling killed one person and injured eight in the Donetsk region Saturday, according to the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin. Russian drones also targeted the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, regional military chiefs said.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have downed 75 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours, TASS, a Russian state news agency, reported Sunday, citing Russia’s defense ministry.

The latest assault comes after a Russian drone attack on a bus in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy killed at least nine people and injured seven Saturday, just hours after the two countries met for the first direct peace talks since the early weeks of Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The negotiations in Turkey failed to produce a major breakthrough. The two countries discussed a possible meeting between their presidents, a ceasefire and agreed a prisoner swap.

The talks capped days of back-and-forth: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin called for the face-to-face meeting but did not attend himself, instead sending a junior delegation after rejecting Ukraine’s proposal of a 30-day ceasefire.

Donald Trump is set to speak with Putin Monday on ending the Ukraine war, the US president announced Saturday. Trump has previously said he doesn’t think there will be a significant breakthrough on peace talks until he speaks with Putin directly.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Saturday that preparations were underway for a phone conversation between the two leaders.

Allegations of a secret nose job are threatening Peruvian President Dina Boluarte’s grip on power – and that’s only the tip of her problems.

The Latin American leader, whose popularity has cratered to among the lowest in the world – with a disapproval rating of 93%, according to a recent Datum Internacional poll – is facing a string of investigations at the hands of Peru’s Attorney General.

The most serious of these involve the deaths of more than 60 people during a crackdown by government security forces on the protests that followed the ouster of her predecessor Pedro Castillo in December 2022; the more lurid include allegations she accepted Rolex watches and other jewelry as bribes and transported a fugitive politician in a presidential vehicle.

But it is the plastic surgery on her nose in the summer of 2023 that has currently captured the attention of the country’s headline writers.

Boluarte, who denies all the allegations against her, has been accused of abandoning her post to have the surgery because she did not inform congress or delegate her powers during her almost two-week absence for an operation she has insisted was “essential” for her health, as she was constitutionally required to do.

Last week, the plastic surgeon Mario Cabani cast doubt on that account, telling a local TV show that of the five procedures he carried out on Boluarte – including rhinoplasty, septoplasty, a procedure on the lower eyelids, and a fat graft on the nasolabial folds (smile lines) – all but one were aesthetic procedures.

Cabani, who said he had judicial authorization to disclose the procedures, also claimed Boluarte was sedated and at times unconscious during the procedure – which is at odds with the account of Boluarte, who has likened the procedure to a tooth extraction, and her lawyers who have maintained she never lost consciousness and did not abandon her post.

As if the controversy over Boluarte’s nose were not damaging enough, it follows another controversy over her wrist.

In March 2024, police raided her home (and later the presidential palace) as part of the “Rolexgate” scandal in which she is accused of illicit enrichment and failing to declare her ownership of several luxury watches. Boluarte has insisted the watches were in fact a “loan” that she mistakenly accepted.

It’s a state of affairs that might seem shocking to those not well-versed in Peruvian politics and the well-documented troubles of its leaders in recent decades.

But in this country, presidential scandals – proven or alleged – are so commonplace that one of its prisons has housed four disgraced former leaders.

Call it the curse of the Peruvian presidency: Since the turn of the millennium, no fewer than seven presidents have been brought to trial or faced legal challenges relating to allegations of corruption or human rights abuses. An eighth shot himself dead when police were closing in.

Falling like dominoes into disgrace

Peru’s notorious political instability – Boluarte became the sixth president in just seven years when she took over without an election in 2022 – is often traced back to the presidency of Alberto Fujimori, who was ousted in 2000 following a scandal involving his intelligence chief and convicted on charges of corruption, embezzlement and human rights violations that included authorizing a death squad.

Since then, the political careers of most of Fujimori’s successors have also ended in disgrace.

Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) the first man to be elected president after Fujimori, was last year sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for receiving millions in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, in a scandal that has tainted political elites across Latin America.

Alan García (2006-2011) died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2019, on the day prosecutors and police were due to arrest him as part of an investigation also linked to Odebrecht.

Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) was sentenced this month by a first instance court to 15 years in prison for receiving illicit campaign contributions from Odebrecht and the Venezuelan government.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018) resigned after two years in power after he too was caught in the grip of the Odebrecht scandal when allegations of money laundering surfaced. Today, he is under house arrest while the trial against him continues.

Martin Vizcarra (2018-2020) dissolved Congress the year after coming to power. He did not finish his term either but was removed by the legislature on grounds of “moral incapacity” after he was accused of taking bribes during his time as governor. He is currently on trial.

Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), a rural teacher and union leader, was relatively unknown when he won an election after a brief period of rule by two interim presidents, one of whom resigned in less than a week. He was taken into custody for the alleged crime of rebellion and dismissed by Congress after attempting to dissolve it and set up an emergency government.

Boluarte, his vice president, took over in 2022.

All those accused and convicted have rejected the accusations against them.

Where did it all go wrong?

Many experts point to Fujimori’s inauguration in 1990 as ushering in a return to authoritarian rule for a country that had spent the whole of the 1970s as a military dictatorship.

The son of Japanese immigrants and the host of a TV show focused on the environment, Fujimori started off democratically, winning election by campaigning for change at a time of economic crisis and defeating a right-wing coalition led by the future Nobel prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa.

He also won early plaudits for his “Fujishock” austerity policies that reined in hyperinflation as well as his fight against rebel guerilla groups responsible for tens of thousands of deaths.

Yet an authoritarian streak soon emerged and while abuse of power and corruption allegations began to swirl, he turned to his security forces to repress his opponents.

Within two years of his triumph at the ballot box, Fujimori carried out a “self-coup” in which he closed down Congress and the judiciary, revised the constitution, and installed a dictatorship “that demolished the political parties,” according to constitutionalist lawyer Luciano López.

“(For Fujimori) it was an anti-value to belong to a political party, an anti-value to do politics,” said Anibal Quiroga, dean of the Law and Political Science faculty at Cesar Vallejo University.

Ever since, according to Quiroga, political parties have been “permanently replaced by personalist, populist, improvised movements.”

For the country’s next elections, scheduled for April 2026, there are 43 candidates registered to run for the presidency, dozens of whom are not supported by traditional party structures. As Quiroga puts it, “What Peru produces most after coffee is presidential candidates.”

Congress vs. The President

López points to another legacy of Fujimori as playing into the instability – the revised constitution he brought in after his self-coup, which handed greater powers to Congress.

The problem those revisions made for the presidency did not become clear until 2017, when for the first time the opposition had a majority in Congress and used its powers to topple Kuczynski. Since then it has become harder for presidents to hold on to power.

Amplifying the problem is that the present Congress has amended several articles of the constitution, according to López, increasing the imbalance of power and leaving an “all-powerful” Congress.

López fears this is storing up problems for the future. If a president wins election, but does not have the backing of Congress to govern, what will he or she do, López asks. “I sincerely hope I’m wrong, but we are very exposed to a new April 5, 1992,” he says, referring to the day of Fujimori’s self-coup.

‘Prison of the presidents’

Perhaps there’s no greater symbol of the curse than the Barbadillo prison in Lima, known popularly in Peru as the ‘prison of the presidents,’ that once housed Fujimori and has also held three of the leaders that followed him – Toledo, Castillo and Humala.

But some experts caution against viewing Peru’s struggles with corruption – it is ranked 127th out of 180 in Transparency International’s corruption perception index – only through the lens of its disgraced ex-presidents.

As Quiroga points out, while there have been cases of presidential corruption, there have also been cases of “lawfare,” he says; a “use and abuse of judicial proceedings, or of the legal system in general, for political ends and objectives, often with the aim of eliminating, damaging or delegitimizing an adversary.”

Meanwhile, the former prosecutor and ex-president of Transparency International José Ugaz points out that the list of cursed presidencies may show Peru is “part of a club of countries shamefully plagued by corruption,” but it also shows it is a country “able to bring seven former presidents to justice.”

Romania’s pro-European Union presidential candidate Nicușor Dan has the lead in the country’s election on Sunday after more than 80% of the votes were counted.

Hard-right candidate George Simion, who opposes providing military aid to Ukraine and is critical of the EU, looked on track to win the election after he swept the first round on May 4. However, Dan gained ground after trouncing Simion in a televised debate.

The election comes five months after the result of the original vote, which saw former far-right outsider Calin Georgescu surge in popularity, was annulled over allegations of Russian interference.

Georgescu was later banned from this month’s rerun after being charged with various crimes, including founding a fascist group.

Sunday’s election was widely seen as a choice between East and West and a litmus test for the rise of Trump-style nationalism in Europe.

Dan, who is currently the mayor of the capital Bucharest, is a strong supporter of Romania’s NATO membership and has pledged to continue providing aid to Ukraine, which he sees as key to Romania’s own security against the threat from Russia. He has also promised to crack down on corruption.

Simion appears to have the support of Romania’s diaspora, one of the largest of any country in the world. About 60% of the diaspora voted for Simion in the first round. Since then, he spent a lot of time outside Romania, traveling to Austria, Italy, Poland, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, in an effort to win over voters abroad.