A state judge in Idaho appeared to slightly broaden access to abortion there by ruling on Friday that an exception to the state’s ban does not require the woman to be facing impending death.

Idaho’s ban, one of the strictest in the nation, prohibits abortion in almost all cases. One exception is when it is necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman. Judge Jason D. Scott ruled that abortions are allowed if a doctor deems that the woman is likely to die sooner without an abortion than she would otherwise — even if her death “is neither imminent nor assured.”

The ruling, which kept the law in place, handed a partial victory to reproductive rights advocates and Idaho doctors who said the ban had forced them to wait for patients to reach the brink of death before they could act, or rush them out of state to get care elsewhere.

“I feel very reassured” by the ruling, said Dr. Emily Corrigan, an Idaho obstetrician-gynecologist who is one of the plaintiffs. “I think there’s many, many more case scenarios where the patient’s condition would squarely fall within that exception.”

Idaho’s attorney general, Raúl Labrador, who was one of the defendants, said in a statement that Idaho law has never required doctors to wait until a woman’s death is certain or imminent before providing an abortion. “While we still disagree with portions of the ruling, it confirms what my office has argued in courts from Boise to Washington, D.C. — that Idaho’s abortion laws are constitutional and protect both unborn children and their mothers,” he said.

It was unclear on Saturday whether his office would appeal the decision.

The Idaho judgment arose from a lawsuit filed in September 2023 by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of four women who said they had to leave the state to receive abortions after learning that they faced serious health risks or that their fetuses would not survive. The suit was joined by Dr. Corrigan, another physician and a family physicians’ organization.

The plaintiffs argued that state law should permit abortions in cases where continuing a pregnancy is unsafe or where the fetus has been diagnosed with a fatal condition.

Judge Scott of Idaho’s Fourth District did not go as far as the plaintiffs wanted, rejecting the claim that abortions should be allowed when a fetus won’t survive.

But he found that doctors may provide an abortion when, in their medical judgment, a patient “faces a non-negligible risk of dying sooner without an abortion,” even if death is not certain or immediate. The exception does not apply when that risk arises from potential self-harm, the judge ruled.

The lead plaintiff, Jennifer Adkins, 33, was 12 weeks pregnant with her second child when doctors told her the fetus had a rare genetic condition that carried a high mortality rate and that her pregnancy was probably nonviable. Doctors said that if Ms. Adkins did not miscarry, she would be at high risk of developing a life-threatening condition called mirror syndrome. Ms. Adkins, who lives in Caldwell, Idaho, near Boise, ultimately traveled 400 miles to Portland, Ore., for an abortion.

She said in an interview that she believed the judge’s ruling would have allowed her to get care in her home state.

“Having to go through something like that and lose a baby that you really, really wanted, in a place full of strangers, not surrounded by family and friends and providers that you know and trust, it was incredibly challenging, and it was incredibly sad,” she said.

In a separate case filed soon after the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion in 2022, the Biden administration sued Idaho over its abortion ban, arguing that the ban’s strict limits violated a federal law that requires hospitals to provide emergency care, including abortions, to any patient.

Idaho argued that its ban complied with the federal law, called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act or EMTALA. Last year, the Supreme Court handed a temporary victory to the Biden administration, returning the case to a lower court that had put the ban on hold. But under the Trump administration, the Justice Department dropped the lawsuit, clearing the way for the ban to take effect in full.

In a similar lawsuit filed by St. Luke’s Health System, the largest hospital system in the state, a federal judge issued an order last month shielding its doctors from prosecution if they provided abortions in emergencies.

Dr. Corrigan said Friday’s ruling offers clarity to physicians statewide.

While the ruling applies only in Idaho, abortion-rights advocates said it illustrated the need for clearer and broader exemptions in other states that strictly ban abortion.

“The problem, whether you’re in Idaho or Texas or any of the other states that have a serious abortion ban, physicians are very conservative and very litigation-averse, very risk-averse,” said Laura Hermer, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law whose research focuses on reproductive rights. “The states are trying assiduously to put the onus of this burden on health care providers.”

Many abortion opponents agree with Mr. Labrador’s contention that the existing exceptions are clear, and that doctors who claim otherwise are misreading the law.

Eleven other states ban abortion in almost all circumstances. Legal efforts to broaden the exemptions in those states have seen mixed results.

The Texas Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit that sought to expand exceptions for medical emergencies in the state, finding that the law already allowed abortions for women facing life-threatening conditions, “before death or serious physical impairment are imminent.”

In Tennessee, a lawsuit similar to the one in Idaho is pending.

Ecuador’s president, who unexpectedly surged in the polls to secure a shortened term in 2023, was declared the victor of the presidential election with a decisive lead on Sunday in a race that showed voters’ faith in his vows to tackle the security crisis with an iron fist.

Daniel Noboa, 37, defeated Luisa González, 47, the handpicked successor of former President Rafael Correa.

Both candidates accused the other of electoral violations throughout the election season, and Ms. González said she would not recognize the results of the election, in a speech from the headquarters of her party, Citizen Revolution.

“I want to be very clear and emphatic: The Citizen Revolution has always recognized a defeat in the last elections when polls, tracking and statistics have shown it,” Ms. González said. “Today, we do not recognize these results.”

Mr. Noboa celebrated his victory from the coastal town of Olón.

“This day has been historic,” he said. “There is no doubt who the winner is.”

The day before the election, Mr. Noboa declared a state of emergency in seven states, most of them González strongholds, raising fears that he was trying to suppress the vote among her supporters. The declaration restricts social activities and allows police and military to enter homes without permission.

The president said the measure was in response to violence in certain parts of Ecuador. Ms. González described it as an attempt to curb political participation.

“Declaring a state of emergency in the middle of an electoral process due to alleged serious internal unrest is very questionable,” said Mauricio Alarcón Salvador, the director of Transparency International’s chapter in Ecuador, who added that the decision should be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

But he said that any claims of electoral fraud “must be substantiated,” something he saw as less likely given Mr. Noboa’s large margin of victory. “It cannot and should not be simply an assertion thrown into the air.”

Mr. Noboa has positioned himself as a law-and-order president but has so far achieved minimal results in tackling the nation’s persistent drug violence and unemployment.

In the past five years, Ecuador has experienced an explosion in violence linked to drug trafficking. A justice system plagued by overcrowding in jails, corruption and underfunding has become fertile ground for prison gangs allied with powerful international drug cartels.

This shift has turned the once-peaceful nation of 18 million into a significant player in the global drug trade, disrupting the lives of Ecuadoreans and altering the country’s status in a volatile region.

At the same time, just 36 percent of Ecuadoreans are adequately employed, according to government data, making the economy a top concern.

Mr. Noboa received 56 percent of the vote, compared with Ms. González’s 44 percent, with more than 97 percent of votes counted on Sunday evening, according to official figures.

In a race that was expected to be tight, Mr. Noboa took a decisive lead early in the night. By 8 p.m., hundreds of his supporters were gathered outside of the national electoral council in Quito blowing horns, waving flags and holding the emblematic cardboard cutouts of his likeness.

At the nearby headquarters of Ms. González’s party, hundreds of supporters were shouting “recount.”

Mr. Noboa projected an image of himself on social media as the law-and-order candidate, but that posture wasn’t reflected in reality, according to Caroline Ávila, an Ecuadorean political analyst.

“On a day-to-day basis, you won’t find people on the streets doing surveillance,” she said. “But you will have a TikTok video reminding you of the last raid.”

Mr. Noboa also sought to cast himself as Ecuador’s best representative on the world stage, emphasizing his ability to build relationships with global leaders, including President Trump.

Mr. Noboa, a Harvard-educated heir to a multibillion-dollar banana empire, took office in 2023 after his predecessor called for early elections amid impeachment proceedings.

He first entered politics just four years ago, when he ran for a seat in the national legislature. In the 2023 presidential contest, he managed to rise from the bottom of the polls to second place in the first round of voting after a strong debate performance. He then beat Ms. González in the runoff.

Ms. González, who served in various positions in the leftist Correa government, is largely seen as the representative of the former president, a divisive figure in Ecuador who led from 2007 to 2017. Many revere Mr. Correa for the booming economy, low crime rates and investment in health and education that Ecuador experienced under his government. But others condemn him for his corruption conviction in 2020 and his authoritarian tendencies.

Junior Yazbek, 39, a car dealership owner, said he had voted for Mr. Noboa because he thought that foreign investment and trade would be higher under his leadership, which he thought were key to boosting Ecuador’s economy.

“We really need good allies, big people like the United States,” he said.

Luis Cando and his wife, Mónica Sánchez, both 39, said they were planning to vote for Mr. Noboa in part because of the economy, which is worsened by the high crime levels.

“To have a small business, you can’t open too late or too early, because the thieves are on the lookout,” said Ms. Sánchez, carrying their infant on her chest.

She was drawn to Mr. Noboa’s promises to combat crime and create job opportunities.

“I hope he delivers on that, too,” she said. “That it’s not just a proposal.”

José María León Cabrera contributed reporting from Quito.

A South Carolina man pleaded guilty on Thursday to importing sperm whale teeth and bones from four countries and selling them in the United States, federal prosecutors said.

The man, Lauren H. DeLoach, 69, of St. Helena Island, S.C., pleaded guilty to Lacey Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act charges for importing and selling sperm whale parts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.

Mr. DeLoach admitted to importing the sperm whale teeth and bones to South Carolina, including at least 30 shipments from Australia, Latvia, Norway and Ukraine, from July 2022 through September 2024, according to court documents and statements made in court.

Mr. DeLoach sold at least 85 pieces on eBay worth more than $18,000 and labeled the items as “plastic” to avoid detection by U.S. customs officials, prosecutors said.

The authorities said they had seized about $20,000 worth of sperm whale parts during a search of his residence.

It was not immediately clear on Sunday how Mr. DeLoach had obtained the items and who then bought them from him. The teeth and the bones are prized for decorations or use in artwork, such as engravings and carvings, prosecutors said.

Sperm whales, the largest species of toothed whale, are found in all deep oceans, from the Equator to the edge of the pack ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Females can grow up to 40 feet in length and males up to 52 feet, the agency said.

Sperm whales have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1970 and under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The Lacey Act makes it unlawful to sell any wildlife that has been illegally imported, prosecutors said.

“Illegal wildlife trafficking is a multibillion-dollar global business that endangers protected animals and fuels organized crime,” said Brook B. Andrews, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina. “We will continue to enforce the Lacey Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act so vulnerable species like the sperm whale are not killed and sold for parts.”

Nathan S. Williams, a lawyer for Mr. DeLoach, said in a statement on Sunday that Mr. DeLoach “regrets his decisions and has accepted responsibility for them.”

Mr. DeLoach faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the felony Lacey Act charge, and a maximum sentence of one year in prison for the misdemeanor Marine Mammal Protection Act violation.

The case was the latest involving protected wildlife.

In February, a California couple reached a plea agreement in Butte County, Calif., for violating fish and game laws after wildlife officers on a plane heard them boasting how they had once illegally hunted a mountain lion, and how they were smuggling the skull of an endangered turtle in their carry-on bag, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.