Voters in Ecuador are casting their ballots in a presidential runoff election between conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa González – a race overshadowed by drug-fueled violence that has consumed the once-peaceful South American country.

“Tranquility … is the most important thing for the country because there is a lot of insecurity,” one voter said.

“Security is in pieces,” another voter said, adding that she hopes whoever wins will keep their promise to tackle violence.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. ET and are scheduled to close at 6 p.m. The first results are expected to be announced a few hours after that.

This is the latest electoral contest between the two candidates. In the 2023 snap election, Noboa defeated González with just over 50 percent of the vote.

Noboa, who won a special election in 2023 to complete his predecessor’s term, is seeking a full four-year term to continue his controversial war on gangs and drug traffickers, which has so far had limited results.

The 37-year-old leader has declared numerous states of emergency, deployed military units to tackle gang activity, and began construction on a new maximum-security prison after an infamous criminal leader escaped from custody last year.

But according to figures from the government, the start to the year has seen an unprecedented level of violence with more than 1,000 homicides. Data from organized crime research center InSight Crime suggests Ecuador has the highest homicide rate in Latin America.

González, a protégé of Ecuador’s left-wing former President Rafael Correa, is offering an alternative model for security based on what her party describes as “prevention, violence reduction and coexistence.”

Running on a campaign to “Revive Ecuador,” González is also proposing a return to high social spending to help the country’s poorest citizens. She says her party represents hope and transformation, arguing that “Noboa represents fear.”

Both candidates cast their ballots on Sunday morning, with Noboa guaranteeing a victory.

“We’ll win today. Today is a very important day for Ecuador,” he said in brief remarks to the press.

González, meanwhile, promised to defend democracy as she cast her vote.

“With all the faith, the homeland … with all the conviction of serving a country. And through that change, today we will change the history of Ecuador,” she said.

An Israeli air strike early on Sunday destroyed part of the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza City as the military expands and intensifies its campaign across the territory.

No casualties were reported from the strike but the Anglican church in Jerusalem – which runs the Al-Ahli Baptist hospital – said a boy with a head injury died in the rushed evacuation of patients. It said that the hospital had received only 20 minutes warning ahead of the strike and were forced to take patients into the streets.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that they had struck “a command-and-control center used by Hamas” in attack, without offering proof. They said steps had been taken ahead of the strike to mitigate harm to civilians. Hamas denied the allegation the hospital was being used for military purposes.

The Israeli military is extending its ground operations deep into Gaza, creating a large buffer zone between the Strip and Israeli territory and pushing hundreds of thousands of civilians into an ever-smaller area on the Mediterranean coast. In the south, the military announced it seized the Morag corridor, cutting off Rafah from the rest of Gaza

In all, according to the United Nations, some 400,000 people have been told to move over the past three weeks, with hospitals often used as a place of shelter throughout the conflict.

“We expected that we would all die inside the hospital… I have no treatment or anything right now. We have no option but to travel abroad for treatment,” Abu Naser added.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that the hospital was temporarily closed and directed people to three other hospitals.

The Jerusalem diocese condemned the strike and said that in addition to the damage to the emergency department the two-storey Genetic Laboratory was demolished. The diocese said it was the fifth time the hospital had been struck since October 2023.

As health facilities across Gaza come under pressure for lack of medicine and equipment, the World Health Organization said that two missions – to Al-Ahli and the Indonesian hospital – had been denied by the Israeli authorities.

In a post on X, WHO said that hospitals in Gaza are “in dire need, yet the shrinking humanitarian access is obstructing WHO’s ability to resupply them and preventing patients from safely receiving life-saving care.”

“The people here are exhausted, they’re hungry, they’re tired, they’re wounded, not just physically but also psychically,” he said.

Al-Ahli is one of the few functioning hospitals across Gaza, treating up to 1,000 patients a day. An Israeli siege left Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City – the largest in the territory – in ruins last year. It began accepting some patients months later.

Video showed another airstrike on a building in the area of Deir al Balah in central Gaza on Sunday.

The IDF said the building was another Hamas control center and at the time it was struck “numerous Hamas terrorists were operating from within the compound.”

Israel say it is expanding its campaign in Gaza as part of efforts to force Hamas to free the remaining hostages it is holding.

One of them – American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander – appealed directly to President Donald Trump in the second proof-of-life video of the captive released by Hamas Saturday.

Alexander – who is almost certainly speaking under duress in the three-minute propaganda video – says he believed Trump would succeed in bringing him out of Gaza.

It’s unclear when the video was shot, but Alexander references being in Gaza for 551 days, which would indicate the video was recorded quite recently. The video was released on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The Hostage and Missing Families Forum asked Jewish families to leave an empty place setting for the hostages to mark their time in captivity.

Alexander’s family asked the media not to share the video. Instead, they requested the publication of a screenshot of the 21-year-old from the video.

Russian missiles hit the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy in the deadliest attack this year, killing at least 24 people, including one child, as residents gathered for Sunday church services, local officials said.

At least 84 people, including seven children, have also been wounded in the strike on the city’s center, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, making it the worst single attack on Ukrainian civilians since 2023.

Last week, a Russian missile attack killed 20 people in the central city of Kryvyi Rih.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the deadly strikes were carried out by ballistic missiles and called for a “strong response from the world” in a statement.

“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war,” Zelensky said. “Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talking has never stopped ballistic missiles and bombs. We need to treat Russia as a terrorist deserves.”

The strikes hit the city center on Palm Sunday as residents were attending church services on one of the busiest church-going days of the year, according to Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

Two ballistic missiles were fired by Russia into the city center, said Volodymyr Artyukh, head of the military administration in the region. “At that time, a lot of people were on the street,” he said.

“The enemy was hoping to inflict the greatest damage on people in the city of Sumy.”

Artem Kobzar, acting mayor of Sumy, confirmed the death toll, saying, “Many people were killed today as a result of the missile strike.”

A video posted by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko shows firefighters responding at the scene, putting out cars on fire and evacuating a woman from her home. Among the destruction seen in the city center are destroyed buildings, blown-out windows and piles of rubble. Bodies covered in emergency blankets can be seen on the ground.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it “absolute evil” to launch the attacks on a Christian holiday and noted that the missiles hit a residential area of the city.

“We urge partners to provide Ukraine with additional air defense capabilities and increase pressure on Moscow,” Sybiha said in a statement posted to X. “Strength is the only language they can understand and the only way to put an end to the horrific terror.”

Unverified photos and video from the scene show bodies lying on the street and rescue efforts underway. Footage posted to Telegram shows the moment strikes hit the city, registering a loud noise and a large cloud of black smoke billowing into the air.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, called the incident a “horrific example of Russia intensifying attacks while Ukraine has accepted an unconditional ceasefire.”

Russia has increased air attacks and missile strikes on the Sumy region in recent weeks as it has pushed Ukrainian forces out of much of the adjoining Russian territory of Kursk. Its forces have also occupied a few small settlements just inside Sumy region.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Xi Jinping has appealed to Vietnam to join China in upholding multilateral trade, as he begins a high-stakes diplomatic tour of the region’s major export-reliant economies in a bid to position his country as a stable partner in contrast to the United States.

Xi arrived in communist-ruled Vietnam on Monday and is set to visit Malaysia and Cambodia from Tuesday to Friday – countries that have seen growing trade and investment ties with China in recent years.

The trip comes just days after US President Donald Trump paused his “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries for 90 days – narrowing the focus on his trade war squarely on China.

As Washington and Beijing exchange record-high levies, Southeast Asian nations – still catching their breath from the now-suspended US tariffs – are growing increasingly anxious about being caught in the crossfire between the world’s two largest economies.

Seeking to capitalize on the turmoil unleashed by Trump’s tariff whiplash, Xi is expected to cast China as a reliable partner and defender of global trade. Vietnam and Cambodia were among the highest hit by Trump’s tariffs, set at 46% and 49% respectively before the pause.

But while countries are rolling out the red carpet for Xi, they also need to tread carefully – and avoid the appearance they are siding with China, and potentially risk provoking Trump during their own negotiations over pending tariffs.

Some are wary of being flooded with cheap Chinese goods that are now shut out of the US markets due to the sky-high tariffs. China already runs a trade surplus with Vietnam, exporting 1.6 times the value it imports from its southern neighbor.

As a bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has overtaken the US and the European Union as China’s largest export market since 2023, according to Chinese customs data.

In a signed article published Monday in Vietnam state media, Xi reiterated that there are no winners in a trade war or tariff war, and protectionism will lead nowhere.

“Our two countries should resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment,” Xi wrote, according to China’s official state news agency Xinhua.

Vietnam, a rising manufacturing powerhouse, has seen a surge in Chinese investments in recent years as manufactures move supply chains out of China to take advantage of lower labor costs and hedge against US levies. China’s trade with Vietnam nearly doubled between 2017 and 2024, making the communist state China’s biggest trade partner in Southeast Asia.

While in Hanoi, Xi is expected to further strengthen those ties. The two countries are set to sign about 40 agreements across multiple sectors – including cooperation on railways, agricultural trade and the digital and green economy, Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

Vietnam has approved plans to build a $8.3 billion railway linking its northern port city of Haiphong to China, which will be partially funded by Chinese loans. The country is also looking to purchase China’s homegrown mainline passenger aircraft made by Chinese state-owned planemaker COMAC.

Wen-ti Sung, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Xi’s high-profile visit is two pronged: economically, it’s about finding a way to diversify China’s economic footprint around the world; on the foreign policy front, it’s also aimed at pulling countries closer to China while they are unsettled by Trump’s on-and-off-again tariffs.

“What Xi is trying to do now is to go there in person. Instead of fear and pressure, Xi is going to show them love, maybe some ‘souvenirs’ along the way,” he said, referring to possible new trade deals and upgrades to their strategic partnerships.

“All these are ways for China to show that I’m on your side. It’s safe to hang out with China, especially if you’re concerned about the US.”

But relations between China and its neighbors have been strained in recent years, with tensions flaring over claims of disputed sovereignty in the South China Sea. In February, Chinese warships held live-fire drills in waters near Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, known as the Beibu Gulf in China, after Hanoi published a map defining its territorial claims there.

In his signed article in Vietnam’s Nhan Dan Newspaper, Xi urged the two countries to “properly manage differences and safeguard peace and stability in our region.”

“The successful delimitation of our boundaries on land and in the Beibu Gulf demonstrates that with vision, we are fully capable of properly settling maritime issues through consultation and negotiation,” Xi was quoted as writing.

New satellite images show what could be North Korea’s biggest warship ever – possibly more than double the size of anything in leader Kim Jong Un’s naval fleet.

Images taken by independent satellite providers Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs on April 6 show the ship under construction in the water at the Nampo shipyard on North Korea’s west coast, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of the capital Pyongyang.

Analysts say the pictures show ongoing construction of weapons and other internal systems of the ship, which is likely a guided-missile frigate (FFG) designed to carry missiles in vertical launch tubes for use against targets on land and sea.

“The FFG is approximately 140 meters (459 feet) long, making it the largest warship manufactured in North Korea,” an analysis by Joseph Bermudez Jr. and Jennifer Jun at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said.

For comparison, the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are about 505 feet long and its under-construction Constellation-class frigates will be 496 feet long.

The existence of the warship is not a surprise.

The Kim regime has been engaged in a rapid modernization of its armed forces, developing a range of new weapons and testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach almost anywhere in the United States.

It’s done that despite United Nations sanctions that have puts strict limits on its access to the materials and technology to develop those weapons.

But the closer ties with Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine war could be helping North Korea overcome that sanctions, analysts say.

Kim Duk-ki, a retired South Korean admiral, said he thinks Moscow may be providing the technology for the frigate’s missile systems.

Pictures of the vessel appeared in a report by state-run Korean Central Television released late last year on the ruling Workers’ Party’s end-of-year plenary session. The images showed leader Kim inspecting the ship’s construction.

The images shown in the KCTV video show the warship could have the kind of weaponry possessed by modern navies, including vertical launch cells that could be used to fire a variety of missiles.

Analysts also noted the ship seems to be set up to have phased-array radar, which can track threats and targets more quickly and accurately than previously displayed North Korean capabilities.

Despite those indications of advanced warfighting abilities, analysts urged caution in making assumptions.

The challenge of building warships

Almost any shipbuilder can get the hull and propulsion systems right, said Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain and Hawaii-based analyst.

“However, modern warships represent an integration challenge of communications, electronics, weapons, and both electronic and acoustic sensor technologies” that is not so easily achieved, he said.

“Operating such a big military warship takes significant amount of budget. They not only have to build a warship, but make a team that would operate it, and it costs to operate it including the equipment and fuel. Also, one huge warship cannot go out on its own. So the question is, can North Korea afford the cost?” he said.

Kim, the retired South Korean admiral, was cautious on not underestimating what the final product may look like, especially its lethality.

“If North Korea equips the new frigate with the hypersonic ballistic missile it claimed to have successfully tested in January, that will cause a game changing impact in the regional security,” the former naval officer said.

“This ship’s construction is being delayed by the lack of the superstructure, sensor and weapons systems intended for installation,” he said.

North Korea’s aged fleet

North Korea’s navy has about 400 patrol combatants and 70 submarines, according to the most recent estimate from the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in a 2021 report.

Though that’s a large number of vessels, most of them are old and small.

Joseph Dempsey, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, wrote in a January blog post that Pyongyang has only two principal surface combatants. Those Najin-class frigates – 1,600-ton warships dating to the early 1970s – are obsolete, he wrote.

The DIA report said the North Korean navy would largely be reduced to coastal defense in any conflict with South Korea or the United States, both of which have vastly superior naval forces.

But North Korean leader Kim has been pushing to modernize his naval fleet. It is also developing submarine-launched missiles and the subs to carry them.

In September, Kim inspected the site for a new naval port.

“Now that we are soon to possess large surface warships and submarines which cannot be anchored at the existing facilities for mooring warships, the construction of a naval base for running the latest large warships has become a pressing task,” he said at the time.

Yu Yong-won, a South Korean lawmaker, said the ship under construction at the Nampo yard is only one example of Kim trying to modernize his navy.

A nuclear-powered submarine is under construction at a shipyard in the North Korean port of Sinpo and another frigate or destroyer is in the works in Chongjin, Yu said.