What happened
Mexico’s military yesterday killed the country’s most-wanted drug kingpin, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, during an operation to capture him. The killing sparked a wave of retaliatory violence and arson attacks in Jalisco and other states across Mexico.

Who said what
Oseguera, 59, was wounded during his capture and died while being airlifted by helicopter to Mexico City, Mexico’s Defense Department said. The “forceful reaction” from his cartel left “at least 14 dead, including seven National Guard troops,” The Associated Press said. Guadalajara, Jalisco’s capital and a World Cup host city, “was turned into a ghost town” last night as civilians “hunkered down” amid burning vehicles and shops.

President Claudia Sheinbaum “has criticized the ‘kingpin’ strategy of previous administrations that took out cartel leaders only to trigger explosions of violence as cartels fractured,” the AP said, but she has been “under tremendous pressure” from President Donald Trump to crack down on drug trafficking. Oseguera’s “power and control of the underworld rose after the U.S. pressured Mexico to crack down on the Sinaloa Cartel,” where he got his start before splitting off in 2009, The Wall Street Journal said. The “Sinaloans pioneered the manufacturing and smuggling of fentanyl,” and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is now one of the top traffickers of that and other drugs to the U.S.

What next?
Oseguera’s death is a “major victory for the Mexican government and could help reduce pressure” from Trump, The New York Times said. But “criminal empires in Mexico have a track record of outlasting the authorities’ best efforts to weaken them,” and whether Oseguera’s cartel survives or splinters into a bloody power struggle may depend on whether its leaders “have established a clear line of succession.” 

What happened
The 2026 Winter Olympics concluded in Italy yesterday with a closing ceremony in Verona’s 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheater. Verona is about halfway between Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the two host cities for the Games, and people in the stadium watched via video link as the Olympic flames were extinguished in each city’s cauldron. In the final competition of the Games, the U.S. men’s hockey team beat Canada in overtime yesterday to win their first Olympic gold medal since 1980.

Who said what
“Thank you Italy, for these magical Games,” International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry said, in Italian, at the closing ceremony. “You delivered a new kind of Winter Games and you set a very high standard for the future.” If the “opening ceremony emphasized the unprecedented spread-out nature of these Games,” The Athletic said, “the closing ceremony brought them back together.” It “opened with a whimsical tribute to Italian lyric opera,” and included aerial ballet, Italian rock and a DJ set, before ending with a light show, The Associated Press said. 

Italy won its highest Winter Olympics medal count ever — 30, including 10 gold — putting it in third place behind Norway (41 medals, including 18 gold) and the U.S. (33 medals, including 12 gold). It was a “Winter Olympics to remember,” with “drama, thrills, moments of hilarity and plenty of gripping medal action,” CNN said. And the concluding “frenetic” men’s hockey final was “an instant classic.”

What next?
The Winter Olympic baton “now passes to the French Alps, which are expected to follow a similar blueprint of using multiple existing winter sports venues in 2030,” Reuters said. But first, the Milan Cortina Paralympics will begin March 6 with an opening ceremony in the same Verona Arena, and Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics.