Joe Biden is set to close the border with Mexico under a new executive order clamping down on asylum seekers.
Signed on Tuesday, the order allows the US to suspend entry of non-citizens crossing from Mexico once the average number of daily encounters hits 2,500 between official ports of entry.
A senior administration official said that under the order, the border would be shut down immediately as the threshold has already been met.
They added the border - which the White House says is "overwhelmed" - would only reopen once the number of migrant encounters at the US border falls to 1,500 a day.
Once the order is in effect, migrants who don't express fear at returning to their home countries will be subject to immediate removal from the US. They could also face a five-year ban on re-entering the country, and possibly be criminally prosecuted.
Speaking at the White House after signing the order, Biden said Republicans "have left me no choice" but to "do what I can on my own to address the border".
Image:Pic: AP
In a statement, the White House added the order has "humanitarian exceptions" including for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.
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But the Biden administration does expect legal challenges against the order, with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) already saying it intends to do so.
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said: "A ban on asylum is illegal just as it was when [Donald] Trump unsuccessfully tried it."
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Lindsay Toczylowski, the executive director for the California-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center, also told Sky's partner network NBC: "It is a betrayal of what we were told in [Biden's] campaign four years ago.
"We were told that President Biden would be restoring humanity at our border... But what we are seeing is that history is repeating itself."
The former president attempted to enact similar restrictions in 2018, only to be blocked by courts. During the 2020 presidential election, Biden called Trump's policies on immigration "criminal".
And speaking on Tuesday, the president further distanced himself from Trump and said: "I will never demonise immigrants. I'll never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country.
"And further, I'll never separate children from their families at the border. I will not ban people from this country because of the religious beliefs."
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In January, Biden said he had "done all I can do" to control the border. He has also regularly accused Republicans of refusing to pass laws on strengthening restrictions, and in February demanded they show "spine".
Posting on Truth Social after Biden signed the order, Trump said the Democrat has "totally surrendered our Southern Border" and that the order was "all for show" ahead of their 27 June presidential debate.
At a press conference, Republican house speaker Mike Johnson also said: "It's window dressing. Everybody knows it... If he was concerned about the border, he would have done this a long time ago."
The BJP’s manifesto promises a national code that will replace religion-specific civil laws in the country, a move many Muslims say is aimed at curbing centuries-old religious practices that the minority follows. Currently, Indians from different religions can follow laws specific to their faith or opt for a secular code. Laws on who and how many people a person can marry, how to end a marriage, and inheritance differ by religion. The new code will spell out the same set of rules for everyone.
After Modi inaugurated a temple to the Hindu God Ram at a fiercely contested site earlier this year, fulfilling a long-held promise, party leaders have said another emphatic electoral victory would help them build temples on other disputed sites. Hindu groups have for long claimed that for centuries Muslim invaders built mosques over demolished Hindu temples. Courts are hearing cases against two such mosques in BJP-run Uttar Pradesh state: in Modi’s Varanasi constituency and in Mathura.
Modi’s party has promised to implement an official report recommending elections to India‘s 28 state assemblies and national parliament at the same time, every five years. Currently, state elections do not need to coincide with national elections, leading to a situation where the country hosts one election or another every few months.
Modi’s party also promises to maintain peace in the nation’s northeast, without mentioning the BJP-run and violence-torn state of Manipur where ethnic clashes have killed at least 220 people and displaced thousands. Many state residents say there is widespread disappointment over the inability of Modi’s government to end what critics have called a mixture of anarchy and civil war. Rahul Gandhi, Modi’s key rival from the Congress party, has repeatedly questioned Modi’s failure to visit the state despite the prolonged conflict.
There is little doubt among Indians that Narendra Damodardas Modi’s 10 years in power have already left an indelible mark on the country. To some it is the optimistic story of India rising to become the world’s fastest-growing economy, courted by powerful western leaders and multinational corporations; of efficient governance and technological advancements that have benefitted the public; and of the country freeing itself from the politics of elites and the “chains of colonisers” while reclaiming its historic Hindu civilisational greatness.
Yet to others it is a story of democratic backsliding and growing authoritarianism; of crony capitalism and a growing chasm between rich and poor; of the erosion of freedom of the media and judicial independence; attacks on secularism, liberal institutions and civil society; of publicly condoned Islamophobia and growing state-sponsored persecution of minorities, primarily India’s 200 million Muslims.
Such is the power of “brand Modi” that the BJP sits firmly in the shadow of its strongman leader. Modi’s face and name are attached to almost every government welfare scheme, and are visible on every government poster and even on people’s food rations and Covid vaccination certificates. The prime minister primarily refers to himself in the third person in speeches and will often address the people as “Modi ka parivar” [Modi’s family]. The party’s election manifesto was simply named “Modi’s guarantee”.
According to Modi’s biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, even as a child Modi displayed traits that would later define his political career. Recalling a conversation with one of Modi’s teachers from his time at school, Mukhopadhyay said: “Modi liked theatre a lot in school, but would only do leading roles. If he did not have the main role, he would not perform in that play. It’s a small glimpse into how he has always put himself at the centre of his own universe.”
Modi was born in 1950 in a small town in northern Gujarat, as the third of six children, to a poor, lower caste family. Growing up, their house did not have electricity and his father produced cooking oil and ran a small tea shop next to the local railway station.
It was as an eight-year-old child that Modi first wandered into the offices of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the rightwing Hindu paramilitary organisation that has worked for almost a century to push India towards becoming a Hindu state.
To this day, over six decades on, RSS ideology remains the foundation of Modi’s political beliefs and his agenda as prime minister. Under his two terms, militant Hindu nationalism has become the dominant political ideology in India, while core RSS policies have been brought to fruition and RSS figures are present in almost all main institutions.
Critics of Modi and the BJP say his government has become increasingly authoritarian, fracturing the country along religious lines and threatening India’s secular democracy. At the same time, the space for freedom of speech has been shrinking while disinformation and hate speech has exploded on social media.
The Guardian’s video team travelled through India to explore how fake news and censorship might be shaping the outcome of the election:
Just under an hour into the count the bloc led by Modi’s BJP is leading in 272 seats to the opposition INDIA bloc’s 178 seats.
Modi has set a target for the NDA bloc, led by the BJP, of winning 400 of the 543 seats, well over the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution.
While it is unlikely that the opposition INDIA bloc will win a majority, it will be hoping to win at least 181 seats to prevent a two-thirds majority for the NDA.
At least 33 Indian polling staff died on the last day of voting from heatstroke in just one state, a top election official said Sunday, after scorching temperatures gripped swathes of the country.
While there have been reports of multiple deaths from the intense heatwave – with temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in many places – the dozens of staff dying in one day marks an especially grim toll.
The India Meteorological Department said temperatures at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh reached 46.9C (116F).
Navdeep Rinwa, chief electoral officer for the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where voting in the seventh and final stage of elections ended Saturday, said 33 polling personnel died due to the heat.
The figure included security guards and sanitation staff.
“A monetary compensation of 1.5 million rupees ($18,000) will be provided to the families of the deceased,” Rinwa told reporters.
False information was detected across the political spectrum but the leader of the opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, was one of the leading targets, AFP reports.
His statements, videos and photographs were shared on social media, but often incompletely or out of context.
Here are some examples, all widely shared by BJP supporters, according to AFP:
One digitally altered video analysed by AFP used Gandhi’s real boast that the opposition alliance would triumph, but flipped it to say Modi would win a third term when the result is declared on Tuesday.
Others purported to show Gandhi falsely appealing to people to vote for Modi.
Among the more egregious examples were those falsely linking him to India’s rival neighbours, Pakistan and China. Those included a photograph that claimed Gandhi was waving the “Chinese constitution” during an election rally. It was in fact that of India.
Other posts portrayed Gandhi, a Hindu, as being against India’s majority religion, capitalising on Modi’s efforts to cast himself as the country’s most staunch defender of the faith.
One video of a ruined Hindu temple, a real image from Pakistan, was widely shared. However, the post falsely claimed it was from Gandhi’s constituency and that he was responsible for its destruction.
Another manipulated video falsely showed him refusing to accept a statue of a Hindu god.
Another claimed he was paying young people to support him on social media, when in reality he was talking about youth unemployment.
India’s six-week election was staggering in its size and logistical complexity, but also in the “unprecedented” scale of online disinformation, APF reports.
The biggest democratic exercise in history brought with it a surge of false social media posts and instant messaging, ranging from doctored videos to unrelated images with false captions.
Raqib Hameed Naik, from the US-based India Hate Lab, said they had “witnessed an unprecedented scale of disinformation” in the elections.
“Conspiracy theories... were vigorously promoted to deepen the communal divide,” said Naik, whose organisation researches hate speech and disinformation.
With seven stages of voting stretched over six weeks, AFP factcheckers carried out 40 election-related debunks across India’s political divide.
There were fake videos of Bollywood stars endorsing the opposition, as well as those purporting to show one person casting multiple votes. Some were crude or poked fun. Others were far more sinister and sophisticated productions aimed to deliberately mislead.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance, the NDA bloc, is enjoying an early lead as votes are counted, pulling ahead in 154 seats of the total 543 in the lower house of parliament.
Early trends show the opposition INDIA alliance leading in 120 seats.
The first votes counted are postal ballots, which are paper ballots, mostly cast by troops serving outside their home constituencies or officials away from home on election duty.
This year, postal votes were also offered to voters over 85 years of age and people with disabilities to allow them to vote from home.
According to some exit polls, Modi and the BJP could be headed for a two-thirds majority in parliament, giving them an even stronger victory than in the 2019 elections.
Should the BJP achieve such a historic win, it could have far-reaching consequences for India’s future. The greatest fear among many is that this would enable the BJP to have the votes to amend India’s constitution, which currently enshrines India as a secular democracy where all religions are regarded as equal.
But during his decade in power, Modi and the BJP have pursued a Hindu nationalist agenda, an ideological project which believes India should be a Hindu state. Opponents say that the ultimate aim of the BJP would be to remove references to secularism from the constitution document, reshaping India - particularly for its minorities - forever. Modi has denied he plans to change the constitution but during the campaign several BJP candidates spoke of the need to get a two-thirds majority in order to protect India as a nation for Hindus.
“We have created a world record of 642 million proud Indian voters. This is a historic moment,” Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told reporters on Monday.
Although the 2024 turnout is higher than the 612 million voters who cast their ballots in 2019, it is about one percentage point lower than the 67.4% turnoutin 2019.
Analysts have partly blamed the lower turnout on a searing heatwave across northern India with temperatures in excess of 45C (113F).
At least 33 polling staff died from heatstroke on Saturday in Uttar Pradesh state alone, where temperatures hit 46.9C (116.4F).
Polling should have been scheduled to end a month earlier, Kumar acknowledged. “We should not have done it in so much heat”, he said.
Just under 20 minutes into the count, and only postal votes counted so far, the NDA bloc leads in 45 seats to the opposition INDIA bloc’s 31, out of 543 total seats.
Before counting even began the BJP had won one seat, in the constituency of Surat, where Mukesh Dalal, from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), won the seat by default after every other candidate was either disqualified or dropped out of the race. It was the first time in 73 years that Surat’s candidate was appointed, not elected.
Guardian correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen reported at the time: Surat is not the only constituency in Gujarat to witness swathes of candidates going up against the BJP suddenly withdrawing from the race. In Gandhinagar, where Amit Shah, the home minister and prime minister Narendra Modi’s right-hand man, is running, 16 opposition candidates dropped out before last Tuesday’s voting.
With counting underway for just 10 minutes, the NDA bloc, led by Modi and his BJP, is leading in 11 seats to the opposition INDIA bloc’s four seats.
Along with the electronic record of each vote cast through the Electronic Voting Machines, a corresponding paper slip is also produced, which is visible to the voter, and then stored in a sealed box.
The poll watchdog, the Electoral Commission of India (ECI), counts and verifies these paper slips against electronic votes at five randomly selected polling stations – drawn by lots – in different segments of each constituency.
While critics and some members of civil society, including some political parties, want verification to be done at more booths to increase transparency, the Supreme Court has declined to order any change in the vote-counting process.
The ECI has dismissed allegations that EVMs can be tampered, calling them foolproof.
Vote counting is now underway at counting stations in India’s 543 constituencies. Paper ballots, cast by those who cannot vote electronically, will be counted first. Then electronic votes will be counted. These are cast on electronic voting machines, which have been used since 2,000.
Results are announced for each constituency as soon as counting is completed. India follows the first-past-the-post system, under which a candidate with the highest number of votes wins, regardless of garnering a majority or not.
Result trends generally become clear by the afternoon of counting day and are flashed on television news networks. The official count from the Election Commission of India can come hours later.
In past years, key trends have been clear by mid-afternoon with losers conceding defeat, even though full and final results may only come late on Tuesday night.
Celebrations are expected at the headquarters of Modi’s BJP if the results reflect exit poll predictions.
The winners of the general election are expected to form a new government by the middle of June.
After the ECI announces the results for all 543 seats, the president invites the leader of the party, or an alliance, which has more than half the seats to form the government.
The party or coalition with 272 or more seats then chooses a prime minister to lead the government.
Vote counting in India is decentralised and done simultaneously at counting stations in each of the 543 constituencies around the country.
Counting is set to begin at 8 am (02.30 GMT) with the tallying of postal ballots that only select groups can use, including people with disabilities, or those involved in essential services including security forces and some government officials.
After paper ballots, votes from the Electronic Voting Machines are counted. India has used the machines since 2000, moving away from paper ballots for national and state elections.
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of India’s election results with me, Helen Sullivan.
This election was the largest in world history, with almost a billion eligible voters and 642 million people turning out to vote, according to the Election Commission of India.
The Lok Sabha, “House of the People” or lower house, election started in mid-April and progressed over seven phases until 1 June, as a deadly heatwave gripped the country. Dozens of voters and election officials died during the process as temperatures approached 50C in some areas.
Most voters used electronic voting machines, which means results will be declared today. Exit polls predict the election will be easily won by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his ruling Bharatiya Janata party-led alliance.
But Modi will be eyeing a two-thirds majority, which would have significant implications for India’s 1.4 billion citizens. The opposition INDIA bloc needs to win more than 180 of the 543 seats to prevent the two-thirds majority for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Vote counting is about to start, around 8am IST (in roughly 15 minutes’ time). We’ll have more detail shortly on how the process works.
Here is what we know so far:
According to exit polls released on Saturday night, Modi and the BJP are looking at a decisive win and may even gain enough seats to win a two-thirds majority in parliament, which would allow the government to make far-reaching amendments to the constitution.
Voting in the seventh and final staggered round of the six-week poll ended on Saturday, held in brutally hot conditions across swaths of the country. At least 33 polling staff died from heatstroke in Uttar Pradesh state alone on Saturday, where temperatures hit 46.9C (116.4F), election officials said.
A top opponent of Narendra Modi vowed on Sunday to keep fighting “dictatorship” before he returned to jail, following elections widely expected to produce another landslide victory for the Hindu-nationalist leader. Arvind Kejriwal is among several opposition leaders under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest the month before the general elections began in April as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by Modi’s BJP.
Modi’s political opponents and international rights groups have long sounded the alarm about threats to India’s democracy. US thinktank Freedom House said this year the BJP had “increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents”.
Modi’s party won the regional vote in Arunachal Pradesh, a state borderingChina, while a local party swept to power in Sikkim, a Himalayan state, officials and politicians said on Sunday. Provincial elections in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim were held on 19 April simultaneously with the first phase of the national polls. The BJP comfortably retained power in Arunchal Pradesh by winning 46 of the 60 seats.
Sheinbaum, a 61-year-old climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with 59.5% of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority.
During the campaign, Sheinbaum portrayed herself as a continuity candidate, vowing to keep the policies of her populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known popularly as Amlo, who founded the Morena party in 2014 and forged a bond with voters disenchanted with democracy.
López Obrador was constitutionally unable to run again, but chose Sheinbaum as his successor – and she appears to have won 5m votes more than he did six years ago.
“In the 200 years of the republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum told supporters in a victory speech late on Sunday, to loud cheers of “presidenta, presidenta” – the feminine form of the country’s top political post.
Thanks in part to a constitutional amendment that set the goal of gender parity in all races for elected office and in appointments for top jobs in government, women now hold half the seats in Mexico’s congress and almost half the jobs in cabinet and one-third of the governorships.
Activists will hope to see this prominence of female leaders translate into policy.
In 2023, Mexico’s supreme court ruled that prohibiting abortion was unconstitutional, but this has been slow to manifest in safe and accessible abortion at the state level. Meanwhile, gender-based violence continues to rise.
Although female presidents have been elected in countries across Latin America, Sheinbaum’s victory makes her the first woman to lead a North American country.
Sheinbaum’s main challenger was another woman, Xóchitl Gálvez, who won 27.6% of the vote as candidate of the opposition coalition. She was unable to overcome the unpopularity of the traditional parties backing her, which many voters view as serving the elites.
Aside from the presidency, more than 20,000 posts were up for grabs in Mexico’s biggest election ever.
Morena and its allies are poised to win a two-thirds supermajority in one and perhaps both houses of congress, which would allow it to amend the constitution at will.
Amlo has already laid out a desired packet of reforms that is wide-ranging and occasionally eccentric, including pension reform but also outlawing animal abuse, as well as banning fracking and the sale of vapes.
But the most controversial would be a reform to elect supreme court justices by popular vote. The court has often stood against Amlo, and such a reform could place it under Morena’s control.
On Monday, Amlo said he did “not want to impose anything” on Sheinbaum, before later adding: “I do think we have to address the issue of judicial reform … There has to be a judiciary that represents the Mexican people, that is incorruptible, because if not, we will not move forward.”
Of the nine gubernatorial races, Morena held six and won the state of Yucatán, meaning it now controls 24 of Mexico’s 32 federal entities.
Altogether, Morena will hold more political power than any party since Mexico’s transition to democracy in 2000. The peso slid against the dollar as investors reacted with jitters to Morena’s projected hegemony.
Sheinbaum will take power on 1 October with a huge mandate but substantial challenges to address – not least the violence, corruption and impunity that failed to improve under Amlo, as organised crime groups fight to deep their control of territory and local businesses.
“Security, and the wake of victims, of pain, of anger, sown through great parts of the country – these are the hardest parts of the legacy that [Amlo] leaves Claudia,” said Blanca Heredia, a political analyst.
Amlo also hugely expanded the role of the military into areas typically reserved for civil society, such as domestic security and infrastructure construction. “Managing the army will require great intelligence from Sheinbaum, because they have been given many responsibilities, many resources,” said Heredia.
“Another pending issue is perhaps national reconciliation,” said Vanessa Romero, a political analyst. “These elections were particularly incendiary, as if there were two Mexicos and they don’t talk to each other.”
A month after Sheinbaum takes power, the US is set for its own election and a showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
The countries’ economies are deeply intertwined, with Mexico the top trading partner of the US. Mexico is also the immediate source of the fentanyl that kills 70,000 Americans a year, and a transit country for US-bound migrants – meaning it will play a key role in the US election.
“I look forward to working closely with President-elect Sheinbaum in the spirit of partnership and friendship that reflects the enduring bonds between our two countries,” said Biden in a statement.
In her victory speech, Sheinbaum said the US-Mexico relationship would be based on “mutual respect” before adding: “We will always defend Mexicans who are on the other side of the border.”
Sheinbaum, a 61-year-old climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with 59.5% of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority.
During the campaign, Sheinbaum portrayed herself as a continuity candidate, vowing to keep the policies of her populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known popularly as Amlo, who founded the Morena party in 2014 and forged a bond with voters disenchanted with democracy.
López Obrador was constitutionally unable to run again, but chose Sheinbaum as his successor – and she appears to have won 5m votes more than he did six years ago.
“In the 200 years of the republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum told supporters in a victory speech late on Sunday, to loud cheers of “presidenta, presidenta” – the feminine form of the country’s top political post.
Thanks in part to a constitutional amendment that set the goal of gender parity in all races for elected office and in appointments for top jobs in government, women now hold half the seats in Mexico’s congress and almost half the jobs in cabinet and one-third of the governorships.
Activists will hope to see this prominence of female leaders translate into policy.
In 2023, Mexico’s supreme court ruled that prohibiting abortion was unconstitutional, but this has been slow to manifest in safe and accessible abortion at the state level. Meanwhile, gender-based violence continues to rise.
Although female presidents have been elected in countries across Latin America, Sheinbaum’s victory makes her the first woman to lead a North American country.
Sheinbaum’s main challenger was another woman, Xóchitl Gálvez, who won 27.6% of the vote as candidate of the opposition coalition. She was unable to overcome the unpopularity of the traditional parties backing her, which many voters view as serving the elites.
Aside from the presidency, more than 20,000 posts were up for grabs in Mexico’s biggest election ever.
Morena and its allies are poised to win a two-thirds supermajority in one and perhaps both houses of congress, which would allow it to amend the constitution at will.
Amlo has already laid out a desired packet of reforms that is wide-ranging and occasionally eccentric, including pension reform but also outlawing animal abuse, as well as banning fracking and the sale of vapes.
But the most controversial would be a reform to elect supreme court justices by popular vote. The court has often stood against Amlo, and such a reform could place it under Morena’s control.
On Monday, Amlo said he did “not want to impose anything” on Sheinbaum, before later adding: “I do think we have to address the issue of judicial reform … There has to be a judiciary that represents the Mexican people, that is incorruptible, because if not, we will not move forward.”
Of the nine gubernatorial races, Morena held six and won the state of Yucatán, meaning it now controls 24 of Mexico’s 32 federal entities.
Altogether, Morena will hold more political power than any party since Mexico’s transition to democracy in 2000. The peso slid against the dollar as investors reacted with jitters to Morena’s projected hegemony.
Sheinbaum will take power on 1 October with a huge mandate but substantial challenges to address – not least the violence, corruption and impunity that failed to improve under Amlo, as organised crime groups fight to deep their control of territory and local businesses.
“Security, and the wake of victims, of pain, of anger, sown through great parts of the country – these are the hardest parts of the legacy that [Amlo] leaves Claudia,” said Blanca Heredia, a political analyst.
Amlo also hugely expanded the role of the military into areas typically reserved for civil society, such as domestic security and infrastructure construction. “Managing the army will require great intelligence from Sheinbaum, because they have been given many responsibilities, many resources,” said Heredia.
“Another pending issue is perhaps national reconciliation,” said Vanessa Romero, a political analyst. “These elections were particularly incendiary, as if there were two Mexicos and they don’t talk to each other.”
A month after Sheinbaum takes power, the US is set for its own election and a showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
The countries’ economies are deeply intertwined, with Mexico the top trading partner of the US. Mexico is also the immediate source of the fentanyl that kills 70,000 Americans a year, and a transit country for US-bound migrants – meaning it will play a key role in the US election.
“I look forward to working closely with President-elect Sheinbaum in the spirit of partnership and friendship that reflects the enduring bonds between our two countries,” said Biden in a statement.
In her victory speech, Sheinbaum said the US-Mexico relationship would be based on “mutual respect” before adding: “We will always defend Mexicans who are on the other side of the border.”
Claudia Sheinbaum is set to become Mexico's first woman president after she was projected to have won the country's election.
The ruling party candidate, 61, had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote - an unassailable lead, a statistical sample showed, according to the National Electoral Institute, which is responsible for organising federal elections in Mexico.
Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez, a female rival who is also 61, received 26.6%-28.6%, while Jorge Alvarez Maynez, 38, picked up 9.9%-10.8%.
Speaking outside a hotel in the capital Mexico City, Morena candidate Ms Sheinbaum said: "For the first time in the 200 years of the republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico."
She said her two competitors had called her and conceded she had won.
The climate scientist, who is a former Mexico City mayor, campaigned on continuing the political course set over the last six years by her mentor, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was elected in 2018.
His popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph at the ballot box.
In her victory speech, Ms Sheinbaum thanked Mr Lopez Obrador, describing him as "a unique person who has transformed our country for the better".
She has vowed to carry on with his policies, including a universal pension for the elderly and a programme paying youths to undertake apprenticeships.
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Ms Sheinbaum said: "We will dedicate public funds to continue the president's social programmes."
She also said there would be a "friendly relationship" with the United States, adding "we will always defend Mexicans" in the US.
Image:Claudia Sheinbaum is a former Mexico City mayor. Pic: AP
Ms Sheinbaum will have to balance promises to increase popular welfare policies while inheriting a large budget deficit and low economic growth.
The ruling coalition was also on track for a possible two-thirds super majority in both houses of Congress, which would allow the coalition to pass constitutional reforms without opposition support, according to results from the electoral authority.
Mexico's election was its biggest ever, with more than 20,000 congressional and local positions up for grabs, according to the National Electoral Institute.
Image:Opposition presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez has conceded. Pic: AP
Image:Jorge Alvarez Maynez was set to come third in the election. Pic: AP
Ms Sheinbaum has vowed to improve security but has given few details, and analysts said organised crime groups expanded and deepened their influence during Mr Lopez Obrador's term.
More than 185,000 people have been killed during his rule - more than during any other administration in Mexico's modern history, although the homicide rate has been edging down.
The country's constitution prohibits the president from being re-elected.
Ms Sheinbaum, who is Jewish, is the first woman to win a general election in the US, Mexico or Canada.
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Mexico is home to the world's second-biggest Roman Catholic population, which for years pushed more traditional values and roles for women.
"I never imagined that one day I would vote for a woman," said 87-year-old Edelmira Montiel, a Sheinbaum supporter in Mexico's smallest state Tlaxcala.
"Before we couldn't even vote, and when you could, it was to vote for the person your husband told you to vote for. Thank God that has changed and I get to live it," she added.
Benjamin Netanyahu is once again trying to balance the demands of centrist and far-right members of his government after a threat from his extremist allies to collapse the coalition if Israel moves forward with a new ceasefire plan for Gaza announced by the US president, Joe Biden.
“Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says they want a ceasefire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it. Hamas needs to take the deal,” he said.
But in remarks on Saturday, Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, immediately undermined Biden, reiterating that Israel seeks the complete destruction of the Palestinian militant group before it will agree to ending the war. Any deviation from that condition is a “non-starter”, he said.
Hamas provisionally welcomed the president’s announcement, although it also said as recently as Thursday that it still views a full withdrawal of Israeli troops as a precondition to talks.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera: “Biden’s speech included positive ideas, but we want this to materialise within the framework of a comprehensive agreement that meets our demands.”
As expected, Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners – the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir – immediately voiced opposition to the new truce plan when Shabbat ended on Saturday night, threatening to resign if it goes ahead.
Such a deal would be “foolhardy, constituting a victory for terrorism and a threat to Israel’s national security,” Ben-Gvir, the head of the ultranationalist Jewish Power party, said on X.
An aide to the prime minister confirmed on Sunday that Israel had put the framework forward, but described it as “flawed” and in need of more work.
However, Netanyahu is also under increasing pressure from his military and intelligence chiefs, as well as the centrist members of his war cabinet, to accept a ceasefire and hostage release deal. Benny Gantz, a leading rival who joined Netanyahu’s emergency unity government after 7 October, has said he will resign if the prime minister does not commit to a “day after” plan for Gaza by 8 June.
Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, also urged Netanyahu to agree to a hostage and ceasefire deal, saying his centrist Yesh Atid party would support it even if rightwing factions in the government rebelled – meaning a deal would be likely to pass in parliament.
“The government of Israel cannot ignore President Biden’s consequential speech. There is a deal on the table and it should be made,” he said on Saturday.
Netanyahu, long plagued by corruption charges he denies, sees staying in office as his best chance of avoiding prosecution, as well as putting off investigations and hearings into the security failures that contributed to Hamas’s 7 October assault.
During Saturday night’s now-weekly protest in Tel Aviv led by the families of hostages held by Hamas, thousands of people called on the government to act on the new proposal. A joint statement from ceasefire mediators the US, Egypt and Qatar said the three countries “jointly call on both Hamas and Israel to finalise the agreement … [to] bring immediate relief both to the longsuffering people of Gaza as well as the longsuffering hostages and their families”.
Despite Biden’s description of the peace deal as an Israeli proposal, the president’s speech – his most pointed call to date for the war to end – appeared to be designed to pressure the Israeli government into coming to the table, as well as Hamas.
On Sunday, the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said in an interview with ABC News: “We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal as was transmitted to them, an Israeli proposal – then Israel would say yes.”
In his remarks on Friday, Biden anticipated rightwing opposition to a deal, saying: “I’ve urged the leadership in Israel to stand behind this deal despite whatever pressure comes … Think of what will happen if this moment is lost.
“Lose this moment, [and continue] an indefinite war in pursuit of an unidentified notion of total victory will only bog down Israel and Gaza and further Israel’s isolation in the world.”
Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist and former negotiator with Hamas, told the Associated Press: “It was a very good speech … It seems that Biden is trying to force it on the Israeli government. He was clearly speaking directly to the Israeli people.”
Friday’s announcement is the third “last-ditch” ceasefire proposal endorsed by the US: in February, a Ramadan ceasefire that Biden said was “very close” did not materialise, and some progress towards a new truce last month was scuppered by the launch of Israel’s invasion of Rafah, the last pocket of Gaza to be spared ground fighting.
There is only one substantial difference between the new plan and previous proposals: the first phrase, which is a six-week ceasefire in which a limited number of Israeli hostages would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, would be indefinitely extendable while negotiators thrash out the next stage.
In phase two, all remaining hostages would be released, Israel would completely withdraw from Gaza, and both parties would commit to a lasting truce. The third phrase is supposed to implement as-yet unspecified plans for Gaza’s future, including administration and reconstruction.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Hamas’s assault on 7 October, with a further 250 taken hostage: about 100 were released in a week-long ceasefire in November.
More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israel in the war in Gaza – according to the Palestinian health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths – which has decimated the strip’s infrastructure, displaced 85% of the population from their homes and created a dire humanitarian crisis. Israel’s decision to invade Rafah last month has significantly disrupted aid deliveries, leading relief organisations to again warn of widespread famine.
Biden’s initial full-throated support for Israel’s right to defend itself after the 7 October attack has given way to censure of the suffering and death in Gaza after widespread criticism at home over his position on the war. However, the US remains the Jewish state’s most important ally and principal weapons supplier.
Being seen to broker an end to the conflict in Gaza would be a foreign policy boon for the president, who is facing an uphill battle for re-election in November.
North Korea called its campaign a ‘countermeasure’ against propaganda leaflets floated into the country by South Korean activists.
North Korea says it will stop sending trash-filled balloons across the border into South Korea, claiming its campaign has been an effective countermeasure against propaganda sent by anti-regime activists in the neighbouring country.
Since Tuesday, North Korea floated hundreds of balloons carrying bags of rubbish containing everything from cigarette butts to bits of cardboard and plastic, Seoul’s military said on Sunday, threatening to retaliate if the provocations do not stop.
Hours later, North Korea said it would halt the campaign.
“We made the ROK [Republic of Korea] clans get enough experience of how much unpleasant they feel and how much effort is needed to remove the scattered wastepaper,” said Kim Kang Il, a North Korean vice defence minister, in a statement carried by state media.
However, he warned that if South Korean activists float anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets via balloons again, North Korea will resume flying its own balloons to dump trash hundreds of times the amount of the South Korean leaflets found in the North.
‘Low class’
South Korea has called the balloons and simultaneous GPS jamming from its nuclear-armed neighbour “irrational” and “low class”. But unlike the spate of recent ballistic missile launches, the refuse campaign doesn’t violate United Nations sanctions on Kim Jong Un’s isolated regime.
Seoul warned it would take strong countermeasures unless Pyongyang called off the balloon bombardment, saying it runs counter to the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War hostilities.
Activists in the South have also floated their own balloons over the border, filled with leaflets and sometimes cash, rice or USB thumb drives loaded with K-dramas.
Earlier this week, Pyongyang described its “sincere gifts” as a retaliation for the propaganda-laden balloons sent into North Korea.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons had been landing in northern provinces, including the capital Seoul and the adjacent area of Gyeonggi, which are collectively home to nearly half of South Korea’s population.
The latest batch of balloons were full of “waste such as cigarette butts, scrap paper, fabric pieces and plastic,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that military officials and police were collecting them.
“Our military is conducting surveillance and reconnaissance from the launch points of the balloons, tracking them through aerial reconnaissance, and collecting the fallen debris, prioritising public safety,” it said.
A balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea [Yonhap via Reuters]
Balloon wars
South Korea’s National Security Council met on Sunday and a presidential official said Seoul would not rule out responding to the balloons by resuming loudspeaker propaganda campaigns along the border with North Korea.
In the past, South Korea has broadcast anti-Kim propaganda into the North, which infuriates Pyongyang.
“If Seoul chooses to resume anti-North broadcast via loudspeakers along the border, which Pyongyang dislikes as much as anti-Kim balloons, it could lead to limited armed conflict along border areas, such as in the West Sea,” said Cheong Seong-Chang, director of the Korean Peninsula strategy at Sejong Institute.
In 2018, during a period of improved inter-Korean relations, both leaders agreed to “completely cease all hostile acts against each other in every domain”, including the distribution of leaflets.
South Korea’s parliament passed a law in 2020 criminalising sending leaflets into the North, but the law – which did not deter the activists – was struck down last year as a violation of free speech.
Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong – one of Pyongyang’s key spokespeople – mocked South Korea for complaining about the balloons this week, saying North Koreans were simply exercising their freedom of expression.
