When José Antonio Kast was elected as Chile’s next president in late 2025, it was “one more alarming case of a worldwide trend toward nativist authoritarianism,” said the Chilean American author Ariel Dorfman at The New York Times. It was also a sign of the “rehabilitation” of former dictator Augusto Pinochet, one of the continent’s “most infamous autocrats.” As a vocal supporter of the notoriously brutal Chilean strongman, Kast was elected in part for his hard-right bona fides, only to take office in a very different world than the one in which he campaigned. 

‘Celebration of a movement’
Kast “built his career” in government by “railing against liberal values from the fringes of Chilean politics,” said NPR. But during this recent election, he “avoided all mention of the hard-line moral agenda” that has been “synonymous” with his decades-long career in public office.

With Kast’s victory, the global right-wing excitement transformed the “routine transfer of power” at last week’s inauguration into a “celebration of a movement that’s gaining momentum across the hemisphere,” said The New York Times. For his supporters, Kast’s electoral victory and now presidency come as part of his promise to take a “harder line” on migration, crime and poverty — issues Chileans claim have “eroded the country’s sense of order,” said Zeteo. Critics counter that Kast’s “strongman rhetoric, Trump-style political playbook, and backing from hard-right coalitions” revives acute “fears of authoritarianism.”

‘Increasingly challenging’ geopolitical landscape
Kast now assumes the Chilean presidency, a position whose relationship with the U.S. had “deteriorated significantly under the second Trump administration,” said the AP. Kast’s predecessor had been a “vocal critic” of Trump, at one point labeling Trump’s leadership as that of a “new emperor.”

Although Kast seems interested in renewed rapprochement with the U.S., he enters office in an “increasingly challenging international geopolitical landscape,” including “economic risks from the Iran war, the U.S.’s security strategy in the region, and China’s influence in Latin America,” said Guillermo Holzmann, a political analyst from the University of Valparaíso, to Reuters. Chinese sway, in particular, poses an acute risk to Chile, the “world’s ​largest copper producer,” given that ⁠China is the “biggest purchaser of the metal.”

Back in 1988, then property mogul Donald Trump talked about how the U.S. should respond to Iranian aggression. “One bullet shot at one of our men or ships, and I would do a number on Kharg Island,” he said to The Guardian. Situated northwest of the Strait of Hormuz, Kharg has long been seen as Tehran’s Achilles’ heel, said The Telegraph, and seizing it now could let President Trump “beat Iran without sending a single soldier.”

What’s Kharg? 
Roughly 15 nautical miles off the Iranian mainland, the small coral outcrop is just 5 miles long and 3 miles wide. But beyond its “imposing steel fences and military watchtowers” is the “beating heart of Iran’s modern energy empire,” said Al Jazeera. Kharg is linked to major oilfields by underwater pipelines and processes about 90% of the nation’s total oil exports, handling approximately 950 million barrels a year. 

What would capturing Kharg mean? 
Seizing Kharg Island would “cut off Iran’s oil lifeline, which is crucial for the regime,” said Petras Katinas, of U.K. security think tank Royal United Services Institute, to The Telegraph. Oil exports make up nearly 40% of the Iranian government’s budget, so this would “give the U.S. leverage during negotiations,” regardless of “which regime is in power after the military operation ends.” The move would be “reminiscent” of the U.S. intervention in Venezuela, when it “effectively took control of the country’s oil sector,” said oil analyst Tamas Varga to CNBC. 

Why hasn’t Trump seized it? 
Taking the island would involve making U.S. and Israeli troops vulnerable to attacks by Iranian forces. In the longer term, it would damage any future regime’s chances of managing the economy, which Washington may be keen to avoid. 

It’s “unlikely” that Trump would take over the territory, said Neil Quilliam, of U.K. think tank Chatham House, to The Independent. Previous presidents have “steered away from Kharg, understanding its strategic importance to global oil markets.” But if Trump did control the island, said The Telegraph, he could pressure the existing regime into “compliance” or “all-out collapse,” forcing any new government to “toe Washington’s line” if it wanted to “regain sovereignty over oil exports.”

Worshippers gather at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi for prayers to mark Laylat al-Qadr. Occurring during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the Night of Power is when the Koran is believed to have been revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
Ryan Lim / AFP / Getty Images

Eating well is a gift you should give yourself this spring after a doozy of a winter. French cooking through the lens of the West Coast, a neo-bistro in Chicago, Hawaiian on the run in New York City — map your meals now.

Bar Nouveau, Portland, Oregon
Chef Althea Grey Potter cooks French food “without Francophile reserve,” said Jordan Michelman at Portland Monthly about this new-ish restaurant off the well-trod paths of the Rose City. Chicken liver mousse is piped in ruffles on savory sablé cookies, and a thimble-size complimentary cocktail begins the meal. The restaurant “reminds me of what it was like to go out to eat in Portland a decade ago, and I mean that as a compliment.”

Creepies, Chicago
Creepies may be Chicago’s “first true neo-bistro,” said John Kessler at Chicago magazine. That means the roast chicken is the “one to beat” in town, the fries “stop conversation,” and a butterscotch custard has a “narrative arc in every bite.” None of this comes as a surprise for those who know Chicago’s dining scene. After all, some of the team behind the stellar Elske are running Creepies.

Huli Huli, New York City
A delicious well-executed takeout joint is forever welcome in Manhattan. Enter Huli Huli, the new rotisserie from the team of the modern-Hawaiian Noreetuh. The menu is tight — just roast chicken with shiitake-ginger rice, as well as fried chicken with cucumber-radish pickles. Flesh out the bird with sides like steamed bok choy and island-style mac salad, plus a choice of four sauces, including the “zippy, umami scallion sauce,” said The Infatuation.