PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker returned to the starting lineup for the team's game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night.
The four-time All-Star missed the previous three games with a strained right groin. He suffered the injury against the Lakers on Dec. 1.
The 29-year-old leads the team with 25 points per game and is also averaging 6.7 assists and 4.3 rebounds. The Suns lost two out of three games in his absence.
Suns forward Dillon Brooks was also in the starting lineup. He was listed as questionable with left Achilles soreness.
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Phoenix Suns forward Oso Ighodaro (11) high-fives guard Devin Booker, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile's ultra-conservative former lawmaker José Antonio Kast secured a stunning victory in the presidential election Sunday, defeating the candidate of the center-left governing coalition and setting the stage for the country's most right-wing government in 35 years of democracy.
Kast won 58.2% of the votes as Chileans overwhelmingly embraced his pledge to crack down on increased crime, deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status and revive the sluggish economy of one of Latin America’s most stable and prosperous nations.
His challenger, communist candidate Jeannette Jara, clinched 41.8% of the vote. She called Kast to concede the election and congratulate him on his successful campaign after his lead became irreversible. Kast's supporters erupted into cheers in the street, shouting his name and honking horns.
“Democracy spoke loud and clear,” Jara, who served as labor minister in the center-left government of President Gabriel Boric, wrote on social media.
Speaking at a public square in downtown Santiago, Chile's capital, she encouraged her supporters not to be deterred by the outcome. “It is in defeat that we learn the most,” she said.
Kast was declared the winner less than two hours after polls closed. His campaign spokesman, Arturo Squella, struck a solemn tone, saying that the party feels “very responsible for the tremendous challenge of taking charge of the crises that Chile is going through.”
Chileans are not alone in their demand for radical change.
Kast’s election represents the latest in a string of votes that have turfed out incumbent governments across Latin America, vaulting right-wing leaders to power from Argentina to Bolivia as U.S. President Donald Trump looks to assert American dominance in the Western Hemisphere, in many cases punishing rivals and rewarding allies.
The Trump administration was among the first to congratulate Kast on his victory.
“Under his leadership, we are confident Chile will advance shared priorities to include strengthening public security, ending illegal immigration and revitalizing our commercial relationship,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
“The United States looks forward to working closely with his administration to deepen our partnership and promote shared prosperity in our hemisphere.”
The victory for Kast signaled a new era for Chile, representing the first radical right-wing president since the country returned democracy in 1990, following the bloody dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Centrist parties on the right and the left have largely alternated power in the decades since.
On the surface, the two candidates in this tense presidential runoff could not have been more different, fundamentally disagreeing on weighty matters of the economy, social issues and the very purpose of government.
A lifelong member of Chile’s Communist Party who pioneered popular social welfare measures in Boric’s government and hails from a working-class family that protested against Pinochet's 1973-1990 military dictatorship, Jara was a dramatic foil to her rival.
Kast, in contrast, is a devout Catholic and father of nine whose German-born father was a registered member of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party and whose brother served as a minister in the dictatorship.
Kast's moral conservatism, including fierce opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion without exception, was rejected by many in the increasingly socially liberal country during his past two failed presidential bids.
But throughout Boric's tenure, fears about uncontrolled illegal migration and unprecedented organized crime roiled the country, dominating this election and fueling support for a hard-line approach to insecurity.
Today his supporters run the gamut, including business people enthused about his free-market instincts, middle-class families scared of venturing out at night for fear of carjackings and extreme right-wing activists who glorify the military dictatorship.
Among those waiting for Kast to speak late Sunday after his victory were young Chileans holding up framed photos of Pinochet.
Presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast, of the opposition Republican Party, and his wife Maria Pia Adriasola wave to supporters after winning the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Presidential candidate Jeannette Jara, of the ruling Unity for Chile coalition, addresses supporters after conceding to Jose Antonio Kast, of the opposition Republican Party, in the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Supporters hold a portrait of Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate of the opposition Republican Party, after results show hime leading in the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate of the opposition Republican Party, celebrate preliminary results after polls closed for a presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Supporters react to early results at the campaign headquarters of Jeannette Jara, presidential candidate of the ruling Unity for Chile coalition, in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Jeannette Jara, presidential candidate of the ruling Unity for Chile coalition, speaks after voting during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Supporters of Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate of the opposition Republican Party, celebrate preliminary results after polls closed for a presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for the Republican Party, waves after voting in the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Voters arrive to a polling stating during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Jeannette Jara, presidential candidate of the ruling Unity for Chile coalition, shows her ballot during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for the Republican Party, prepares to vote during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Jose Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for the Republican Party, arrives to vote during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A voter casts his ballot during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Luis Soto prepares to vote in the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Richard Ferreira, a Venezuelan residing in Chile, waits for polls to open during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Police guard the Mapocho station polling station during the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Presidential candidate Jeannette Jara of the Unidad por Chile coalition addresses supporters during a rally ahead of the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A man cycles past campaign ads for presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast and Argentina's President Javier Milei reading in Spanish "Our future is in danger" ahead of the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast of the Republican Party addresses supporters, from behind a protective glass panel, during a rally ahead of the runoff election in Temuco, Chile, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
A campaign banner reads in Spanish "Neither Jara nor Kast will make our lives better, don't vote, rebel and fight" ahead of the presidential runoff election in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Presidential candidates Jose Antonio Kast of the Republican Party and Jeannette Jara of the Unity for Chile coalition shake hands during a debate ahead of runoff elections in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
