Egypt’s authoritarian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has declared victory after a noncompetitive election. Human Rights Watch reports this month’s poll followed a campaign of arrests, intimidation and onerous requirements for candidates that effectively prevented any meaningful competition. In 2019, Egypt’s Constitution was amended to allow Sisi to run for a third term, while lengthening presidential terms to six years; he’s now set to remain in office until 2030. Sisi came to power in 2013 when he led the coup that removed Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, opening a crackdown on dissent that’s been described as the end of the Arab Spring.

In September, the Biden administration approved $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt, withholding just a small fraction of the aid — $85 million — even though the aid was contingent on Sisi’s government releasing some of Egypt’s tens of thousands of political prisoners, which it failed to do.