World
Chad’s ruling party wins majority in controversial parliamentary election
Electoral body says President Mahamat Idriss Deby’s party secured 124 of 188 National Assembly seats in vote boycotted by opposition.
Chad’s governing party has taken the majority of seats in last month’s parliamentary election that was mostly boycotted by opposition parties, according to provisional results.
President Mahamat Idriss Deby’s party, the Patriotic Salvation Movement, has secured 124 of the 188 seats at the National Assembly, Ahmed Bartchiret, head of the electoral commission, announced late on Saturday.
The participation rate was put at 51.56 percent, which opposition parties said showed voter doubts about the validity of the contest.
The December 29 election was presented by Deby’s party as the last stage of the country’s transition to democracy after he took power as a military ruler in 2021.
The takeover followed the death of Deby’s father and longtime President Idriss Deby Itno, who spent three decades in power. Mahamat Deby eventually won last year’s disputed presidential vote.
The vote, which also included municipal and regional elections, was Chad’s first in more than a decade.
Deby had said the election would “pave the way for the era of decentralisation so long-awaited and desired by the Chadian people”, referring to the distribution of power beyond the national government to the various provincial and municipal levels.
‘Charade’
The election was boycotted by more than 10 opposition parties, including the main Transformers party, whose candidate, Succes Masra, came second in the presidential election.
The main opposition had called the election a “charade” and expressed worries that it would be a repeat of the presidential vote, which election observers said was not credible.
Last month’s vote came at a critical period for Chad, which is battling several security challenges – from attacks in the Lake Chad region by the Boko Haram armed group to ending decades-long military cooperation with France, its former colonial power.
The severing of military ties echoes recent moves by Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which all kicked out French troops and fostered closer ties with Russia after a string of coups in West and Central Africa’s Sahel region.
This week, security forces foiled an attack on the presidency that the government referred to as a “destabilisation attempt”.
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The U.S. military on Sunday announced a lethal strike on another vessel in the Caribbean carrying alleged narco-traffickers, killing two people.
The U.S. Southern Command said it conducted a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations” at the direction of the leader of the Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps.
The military claimed, citing intelligence, that the vessel “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
ALLEGED NARCO-TERRORISTS KILLED AS US FORCES STRIKE SUSPECTED DRUG-TRAFFICKING VESSEL IN CARIBBEAN
A U.S. military strike on a vessel in the Caribbean on June 21, 2026. (U.S. Southern Command)
There were six male survivors in addition to the two men killed in the strike.
“Following the engagement, USSOUTHCOM immediately notified U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors,” the military said.
This is the latest attack that the Trump administration has said was launched in an attempt to eliminate alleged narco-terrorists, with the death toll in these strikes carried out since September sitting at more than 200.
The military claimed, citing intelligence, that the vessel “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” (U.S. Southern Command)
The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed in the strikes since last fall or provide evidence of drugs on board.
The administration has been scrutinized in recent months over the strikes by Democrats and even some Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has raised concerns about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people.
RAND PAUL SAYS GOP COLLEAGUES ‘DON’T GIVE A S‑‑T ABOUT THESE PEOPLE IN THE BOATS’: THEY ‘SAY THEY’RE PRO-LIFE’
The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed in the strikes since last fall or provide evidence of drugs on board. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
“I look at my colleagues who say they’re pro-life, and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give a s‑‑- about these people in the boats,” Paul said in January. “Are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know. They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.”
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The senator previously cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.
The attacks have also been denounced by human rights groups as “extrajudicial killings.”
In this newsletter: A high-ranking EU official visits Jerusalem on Monday, exposing a vacuum of information about the trip; UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to lay-out how he will vacate Number 10 Downing Street; plus, the EU-Moldova summit gets underway in the Belgian capital.
World
‘Criminal Minds’ Star Paget Brewster Tells TV Journalist to ‘Work at a Shelter’ After Mixed Review, Sparking Outrage From Other Critics
“Criminal Minds” star Paget Brewster lashed out at ScreenRant staffer Shealyn Scott over X on Saturday afternoon for her story lamenting the changes Paramount+ has brought to the long-running procedural drama.
“Hello critic Shealynn Scott,” Brewster wrote in the since-deleted post. “You’re young. You don’t know that bad pics and bad reviews can lead to 350 people losing their jobs. Sell vintage. Work at a shelter. Do something better than what you do now. Because right now you suck.”
Film and TV critics were quick to hit back in the replies. David Rooney, chief film critic at The Hollywood Reporter, wrote in his response to Brewster, “This is a very bad look. An actor on a long-running show attacking a young reviewer who contextualizes her respectful criticisms with obvious knowledge of the material — says way more about u being thin-skinned than it does about her professionalism. ‘Work at a shelter,’ really?!”
Senior ScreenRant writer Andy Behbakht also came to the defense of Scott, writing, “This is disgusting behavior on your part, and really tragic to see you tearing down a young female journalist whom you are literally telling that she ‘sucks’ and that she shouldn’t be in the field that she is in. I stand by my colleague, and you owe her an apology.”
Brewster released an apology for the post on Sunday. She wrote on X, “Hi guys, I was mean to Shealyn Scott last night and I profoundly regret it. Shame on me for insulting a human being for doing their job. I’m very sorry, Shealyn. And I’m sorry to those who follow me that you saw me behave like that. Turns out, last night, I sucked.”
“Criminal Minds” premiered its 15th and final season on CBS in 2020, and then was revived for Paramount+ in 2022 under the title “Criminal Minds: Evolution.” Scott’s piece discussed the changes “Criminal Minds” underwent when it went from linear to streaming.
“From details as small as a ratings change to TV-MA— which allows David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) the occasional heated expletive— to new main cast members like Tyler Green (Ryan-James Hatanaka), there’s no doubt that ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ has its own unique identity,” Scott wrote in her story. “Plenty of the continuation’s changes have been received warmly, and ‘Criminal Minds’ unquestionably still works as a gripping crime drama, but there are just as many tweaks that feel more like downgrades— including the new 10-episode season structure. Though logical in theory, the shortened seasons are unfortunately working against ‘Criminal Minds’’ greatest strengths.”
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