Our daily victory lap around the world

🇸🇻 El Salvador President Nayib Bukele was re-elected to a second term. The self-proclaimed “world's coolest dictator" won 83% of votes (with 31% voter turnout), while Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party won at least 58 of the 60 seats in the National Assembly. Bukele is credited for a 70% drop in El Salvador’s murder rate last year after the arrests of ~75,000 suspected gang members, though his move was criticized by human rights groups. El Salvador’s constitution technically prohibits reelection, but a high court ruling in 2021 allows the president to run again if they step down before a second term (which Bukele did weeks ago).

🇸🇾🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran-backed militants attacked an American military base in Syria, killing six US-backed troops. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a collective of Iran-backed armed groups, claimed responsibility for yesterday’s drone strike that killed six Kurdish soldiers. Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria have carried out 165+ airstrikes on American bases since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Over the same period, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched dozens of attacks on commercial and US naval vessels in the Red Sea. The attacks have prompted dozens of retaliatory US and UK airstrikes.

🇿🇲 A startup backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos discovered a major copper deposit in Zambia. KoBold Metals, a mining startup that uses AI to search for minerals crucial to the global green-energy transition, discovered what the company believes will be one of the world’s largest high-grade copper mines. KoBold aims to start producing copper from the mine within 10 years. Experts say the discovery could help the US cut its reliance on China for metals vital to green-energy projects.