Ecuador, Maldives, Papua New Guinea.

Today's three stories you should know.

Ecuador

Ecuadorians have voted in favor of tough new security measures as gang-related violence spirals out of control. Initial tallies showed overwhelming support for referendum proposals, including the expansion of military and police powers, a tightening of gun control, and longer sentences for drug trafficking and murder. The country, once one of the most peaceful in Latin America, has blamed its rising insecurity on powerful regional drug gangs that use its ports to ship narcotics to the US and Europe. At least a dozen politicians have been murdered since January 2023, including presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Maldives

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu’s People's National Congress (PNC) party has won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections. Preliminary results indicated the PCN won 71 seats out of 93 seats available. Muizzu is a pro-China leader who wants to reduce India’s longstanding influence over the Indian Ocean archipelago. Analysts see the result as an endorsement of those plans.

More from Reuters here.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has responded to a claim from US President Joe Biden that his uncle may have been eaten by cannibals after his plane was shot down over the country during World War Two. Biden’s uncle was indeed onboard a plane that crashed over the Pacific in May 1944 and he remains unaccounted for. However, official records show the plane went down due to engine failure. “President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” Marape said in a statement given to AP. He’d earlier said Biden had had a “blurry moment.”

More from AP here.