The Central Asian nation is aggressively courting President Trump’s Washington to counterbalance its powerful neighbors, Russia and China.

Dahiya, a sprawling area and Hezbollah stronghold, is stirring back to life amid a tense truce with Israel. “This war has brought so much loss,” one resident said.

The Democratic primary on Tuesday is likely to decide the next governor, and Senator Michael Bennet, once seen as a shoo-in, is in a dogfight with Attorney General Phil Weiser.

Behind the scenes, the Trump White House went to extensive lengths to advance its theory of executive power, potentially giving the president remarkable leeway to install loyalists at nearly every echelon of government.

Zohran Mamdani did it last year. So did Claire Valdez in her recent run for Congress. Some candidates are campaigning after dark to court young voters.

If she reaches the Senate, Ms. Letlow would replace Senator Bill Cassidy and become the first G.O.P. woman to represent Louisiana in the chamber.

The president said he was nominating Lance Schroyer, an adviser to Markwayne Mullin, the D.H.S. secretary, to lead the high-profile agency.

A medical team set out from the capital to rescue people in the hardest-hit part of the disaster zone, La Guaira. They found silence in the ruins instead.

The outpouring of volunteer aid after Venezuela’s earthquakes clogged the only road into the disaster zone, delaying rescue crews.