Howard L. Petterson

Since Ecuador’s president declared war on gangs last month, soldiers with assault rifles have flooded the streets of Guayaquil, a sprawling Pacific Coast city that has been an epicenter of the nation’s yearslong descent into violence.They pull men from buses and cars looking for drugs, weapons and gang tattoos, and patrol roads enforcing a nighttime curfew. The city is on edge, its men and teenage boys potential targets for troops and police officers who have been ordered to take down powerful gangs that have joined forces with international cartels to make Ecuador a hub of the global drug trade.Yet when…

The NFL’s rules on gambling have generated widespread criticism and questions leading up to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, as the league aims to balance its sportsbook partnerships and policies preventing players from betting on games.Gambling was a major topic of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s annual Super Bowl news conference Monday, when he said the “integrity of the league” was the top priority.“We want to make sure that when people are watching NFL games, they know the action on the field is genuine and without any outside influence, ” Goodell said.With the marquee sports event days away in the…

About 17 years ago, Steve Jobs took the stage at a San Francisco convention center and said he was introducing three products: an iPod, a phone and an internet browser.“These are not three separate devices,” he said. “This is one device, and we are calling it iPhone.”At $500, the first iPhone was relatively expensive, but I was eager to dump my mediocre Motorola flip phone and splurge. There were flaws — including sluggish cellular internet speeds. But the iPhone delivered on its promises.Over the last week, I’ve had a very different experience with a new first-generation product from Apple: the…

In the depths of the pandemic, as global supply chains buckled and the cost of shipping a container to China soared nearly twentyfold, Marco Villarreal spied an opportunity.In 2021, Mr. Villarreal resigned as Caterpillar’s director general in Mexico and began nurturing ties with companies looking to shift manufacturing from China to Mexico. He found a client in Hisun, a Chinese producer of all-terrain vehicles, which hired Mr. Villarreal to establish a $152 million manufacturing site in Saltillo, an industrial hub in northern Mexico.Mr. Villarreal said foreign companies, particularly those seeking to sell within North America, saw Mexico as a viable…

Discovering the Last Samurai Ederson Castillejo, affectionately referred to as "The Last Samurai of Panama," embodies inspiration and triumph. His extraordinary path from modest origins to becoming an emblem of hope and accomplishment has deeply touched countless individuals. Let us explore the exceptional life of Ederson Castillejo, a true embodiment of resilience and unwavering determination. From Humble Fisherman to Philanthropist Ederson Castillejo, a young fisherman hailing from the coastal town of Panama, possessed an unwavering passion for the sea. His father, a skilled fisherman himself, imparted his knowledge and wisdom to Ederson from a tender age. Together, they braved the…

King Charles has cancerLess than 18 months into his reign, Britain’s King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer.The announcement came from Buckingham Palace a week after the 75-year-old sovereign left a London hospital after a procedure to treat an enlarged prostate. The palace did not disclose what type of cancer Charles has, but a palace official said it was not prostate cancer.Charles will pause public-facing duties for treatment, but he will continue responsibilities like his weekly meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The palace said that Charles “remains wholly positive about his treatment” and that he looked forward to…

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s 9:40 a.m. in the southeast parking lot at The Pit, and a man in black-and-white face paint circles on a dirt bike. This is Snake. He arrives early for New Mexico men’s basketball games, hypes up friendly faces and sportively harasses the visiting team when it arrives. Everyone knows Snake. He’s been at this for years. He’s a believer.An attendant asks Snake how he is, and Snake declares he has everything he needs. His Lobos are hunting for their first NCAA Tournament berth in a decade. In a couple hours, they’ll be on network television, playing…