Foreign
‘Overwhelming evidence’ opposition candidate won Venezuela vote, says US
The US government on Thursday recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the South American country’s presidential election, discrediting the results announced by electoral authorities who declared President Nicolás Maduro the victor.
“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of Sunday’s highly anticipated election, but the president’s main challenger, González, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado have said they obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed.
They said the release of the data on those tallies would prove Maduro lost.
The announcement from the US government came amid diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro to release vote tallies from the election and increasing calls for an independent review of the results, according to officials from Brazil and Mexico.
Government officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant communication with Maduro’s administration to convince him that he must show the vote tally sheets from Sunday’s election and allow impartial verification, a Brazilian government official told The Associated Press Thursday.
The officials have told Venezuela’s government that showing the data is the only way to dispel any doubt in the results, said the Brazilian official, who asked not be identified because they are not authorized to publicly speak about the diplomatic efforts.
A Mexican official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, confirmed that the three governments have been discussing the issue with Venezuela but did not provide details. Earlier, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he planned to speak with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, and that his government believes it’s important that the electoral tallies be made public.
Later Thursday, the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico issued a joint statement calling on Venezuela’s electoral authorities “to move forward expeditiously and publicly release” detailed voting data, but they did not confirm any backroom diplomatic efforts to persuade Maduro’s government to publish the vote tallies.
“The fundamental principle of popular sovereignty must be respected through impartial verification of the results,” they said in the statement.
On Monday, after the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of the election, thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets. The government said it arrested hundreds of protesters and Venezuela-based human rights organization Foro Penal said 11 people were killed. Dozens more were arrested the following day, including a former opposition candidate, Freddy Superlano.
Opposition leader Machado — who was barred from running for president — and González addressed a huge rally of their supporters in the capital, Caracas, on Tuesday, but they have not been seen in public since. Later that day, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, called for their arrest, calling them criminals and fascists.
In an op-ed published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, Machado said she is “hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen.” She reasserted that the opposition has physical evidence that Maduro lost the election and urged the international community to intervene.
“We have voted Mr. Maduro out,” she wrote. “Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.”
Government repression over the years has pushed opposition leaders into exile. After the op-ed was published, Machado’s team told the AP that she was “sheltering.” Machado later posted a video on social media calling on supporters to gather Saturday morning across the country.
On Wednesday, Maduro asked Venezuela’s highest court to conduct an audit of the election, but that request drew almost immediate criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.
It wasn’t clear if Maduro’s first concession to demands for more transparency was the result of the discussions with Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Venezuela’s president confirmed during a news conference on Wednesday that he had spoken with Petro about it.
Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice is closely aligned with Maduro’s government. The court’s justices are proposed by federal officials and ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathizers.
On Thursday, the court accepted Maduro’s request for an audit and ordered him, González and the eight other candidates who participated in the presidential election to appear before the justices Friday.
González and Machado say they obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets printed from electronic voting machines after the polls closed. They said the release of the data on those tallies would prove Maduro lost.
Asked why electoral authorities have not released detailed vote counts, Maduro said the National Electoral Council has come under attack, including cyber-attacks, without elaborating.
The presidents of Colombia and Brazil — both close allies of the Venezuelan government — have urged Maduro to release detailed vote counts.
The Brazilian official said the diplomatic efforts are only intended to promote dialogue among Venezuelan stakeholders to negotiate a solution to the disputed election. The official said this would include the release of voting data and allowing independent verification.
López Obrador said Mexico hopes the will of Venezuela’s people will be respected and that there’s no violence. He added that Mexico expects “that the evidence, the electoral results records, be presented.”
The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has yet to release any results broken down by voting machine, as it did in past elections. It did, however, report that Maduro received 5.1 million votes, versus more than 4.4 million for González. But Machado, the opposition leader, has said vote tallies show González received roughly 6.2 million votes compared with 2.7 million for Maduro.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into free fall after Maduro took the helm in 2013. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led to social unrest and mass emigration.
More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.
A court in Equatorial Guinea has delivered a significant ruling, convicting Ruslan Obiang Nsue, one of the sons of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, for the unauthorized sale of an aircraft that belonged to the country’s national airline.
This decision, confirmed by a court official, marks a notable event in the nation’s ongoing struggles with corruption and governance.
The ruling, announced on a Tuesday, mandates that Obiang Nsue serve a six-year prison sentence unless he repays the state for the missing plane, as stated by Hilario Mitogo, the press director of the Supreme Court, in a WhatsApp message to the media.
The 50-year-old, who previously held the position of director for Ceiba Intercontinental, the national carrier, was found guilty of selling an ATR 72-500 aircraft to a Spanish company while illicitly pocketing the proceeds from the transaction.
Since 2023, Obiang Nsue has been under house arrest, a situation instituted by his half-brother, Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, highlighting the complex family dynamics involved in the country’s political landscape.
According to Mitogo’s announcement, the court’s decision allows Obiang Nsue to evade incarceration if he compensates the airline approximately $255,000, in addition to covering damages and a state-imposed fine.
Notably, he was acquitted of separate allegations that included embezzlement and abuse of office.
Obiang Nsue has had a varied political career, previously serving as the secretary of state for sports and youth. He is the son of the world’s longest-serving president, who has maintained a grip on power in the oil-rich central African nation for an astonishing 46 years.
More than 20 people have died on Wednesday in a torrential spell of monsoon rain in Pakistan, where downpours have swept away entire villages over the last week, killing more than 400.
Eleven people died in the touristic northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan and 10 others in Karachi, the financial capital in the south, due to urban flooding that caused house collapses and electrocution, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.
Schools remained closed in the city of more than 20 million, as the meteorological department predicted more rain till Saturday.
Amir Hyder Laghari, chief meteorologist of the Sindh province, blamed “weak infrastructure” for the flooding in big cities.
As Karachi’s crumbling pipes and sewer system struggled to cope with the downpours, rush-hour drivers were caught in rising waters late Tuesday, and multiple neighbourhoods experienced power cuts.
By Wednesday morning, the water had receded, an AFP photographer reported.
Between 40 and 50 houses had been damaged in two districts, provincial disaster official Muhammad Younis said.
“Another (rain) spell is to start by the end of the month,” NDMA chairman Inam Haider Malik.
More than 350 people have died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous northern province bordering Afghanistan, since last Thursday.
Authorities and the army are searching for dozens missing in villages that were hit by landslides and heavy rain.
– ‘Children are scared’ –
The floods interrupted communication networks and phone lines in flooded areas, while excavators worked to remove debris clogging drainage channels.
“We have established relief camps where we are providing medical assistance. We are also giving dry rations and tents to all the people,” army Colonel Irfan Afridi told AFP in Buner district, where more than 220 people were killed.
Authorities have warned that the rains will continue until mid-September.
“The children are scared. They say we cannot sleep at night due to fear,” said Anjum Anwar, a medical camp official in Buner. “The flood… has destroyed our entire settlements.”
Landslides and flash floods are common during the monsoon season, which typically begins in June and lasts until the end of September.
This year, nearly 750 people have died since the season started, according to authorities.
Pakistan is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is increasingly facing extreme weather events.
Monsoon floods submerged one-third of Pakistan in 2022, resulting in approximately 1,700 deaths.
PUNCH
Nathalie Rose Jones, a 50-year-old woman from Lafayette, Indiana, was arrested on August 16, 2025, after travelling to Washington, D.C., allegedly planning to “kidnap and assassinate” President Donald Trump, according to Punch.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia published on August 18, 2025, Jones posted graphic threats on Facebook and Instagram, including a post stating, “I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disembowelling him and cutting out his trachea with Liz Cheney and all The Affirmation present.” She also referred to an “arrest and removal ceremony” scheduled for Trump.
The U.S. Secret Service launched an investigation after identifying Jones as the author of these posts.
During an interview on August 15, she reportedly admitted to making the threats and told agents she would attempt to kill the president “if given the opportunity,” citing a desire to avenge lives lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. She later recanted, claiming she no longer intended to harm Trump.
Jones has been charged with threatening the life of the president and transmitting interstate communications containing threats to kidnap or injure another person.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, both are federal offences that carry potential penalties of up to five years in prison each. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro stressed, “Threatening the life of the President is one of the most serious crimes and one that will be met with swift and unwavering prosecution.”
Reports indicate that Jones has struggled with mental illness, which she acknowledged in her social media posts. As of now, there is no public record of her legal representation.
Russia is thought to have passed the one million casualty mark earlier this year, according to Ukrainian and Western estimates.
Trump went on to reveal that Russian forces had lost approximately 112,500 troops since the beginning of 2025. That would mean that Moscow has been losing an average of around 16,000 troops per month since January.
It is unclear whether by that number Trump refers to the number of Russian troops killed in action, rather than total casualties. If Trump’s 20,000 number refers solely to Russian troops killed in action, that number would align more closely with Ukrainian estimates, which have put Russian total monthly casualties at around 40,000 per month since January—for a total of approximately 267,000 casualties thus far in 2025.
Militaries generally consider casualties to be troops killed in action (KIA), wounded in action (WIA), missing in action (MIA), and prisoners of war (POW). Statistically, wounded troops make up the greatest portion of the total casualties. The “WIA” classification is broad by design; it includes both troops that will eventually be able to return to the fight, and those severely wounded that will not.
The President stressed that Ukraine “has also suffered greatly”—putting the number of Ukrainian troops killed in action at 8,000 since January 1, not including troops missing in action. If these figures are accurate, it highlights a huge disparity in losses in favor of the defending Ukrainians.
“Ukraine has also lost civilians, but in smaller numbers, as Russian rockets crash into Kyiv, and other Ukrainian locales,” Trump added.
Trump’s remarks reflect a grim reality for the Russian forces.
According to figures released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, the Russian military, paramilitary units, and pro-Russian separatist forces lost approximately 1,010 troops killed and wounded over the last day. Materiel casualties over the past 24 hours were equally heavy; according to the same data, the Russian forces lost approximately 85 tactical vehicles and fuel trucks, 77 unmanned aerial systems, 28 artillery pieces and multiple launch rocket systems, 8 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, 1 main battle tank, and 1 cruise missile.
Moreover, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) recently conducted a special operation with drones against a Russian air base in occupied Crimea. SBU claimed that the attack struck five aircraft, destroying one Sukhoi Su-30M fighter jet, damaging another, and hitting three Sukhoi Su-24 fighter-bombers.
In total, Kyiv estimates that the Russian forces have lost approximately 1,057,140 troops since the war began on February 24, 2022. In spite of these gargantuan losses, events have shown that the Kremlin is willing and able to withstand them—and pour more men into the fray in order to achieve its goals.
Brazil’s Supreme Court put former President Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest on Monday ahead of his trial for an alleged coup plot, underscoring the court’s resolve despite escalating tariffs and sanctions from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the target of U.S. Treasury sanctions last week, issued the arrest order against Bolsonaro. His decision cited a failure to comply with restraining orders he had imposed on Bolsonaro for allegedly courting Trump’s interference in the case.
Bolsonaro is on trial before the Supreme Court on charges he conspired with allies to violently overturn his 2022 electoral loss to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Trump has referred to the case as a “witch hunt” and called it grounds for a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods taking effect on Wednesday.
The U.S. State Department condemned the house arrest order, saying Moraes was using Brazilian institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy, adding the U.S. would “hold accountable all those aiding and abetting sanctioned conduct.”
It did not provide details, though Trump has said the U.S. could still impose even higher tariffs on Brazilian imports.
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The Monday order from Moraes also banned Bolsonaro from using a cell phone or receiving visits, except for his lawyers and people authorized by the court.
A press representative for Bolsonaro confirmed he was placed under house arrest on Monday evening at his Brasilia residence by police who seized his cell phone.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers said in a statement they would appeal the decision, arguing the former president had not violated any court order.
In an interview with Reuters last month, Bolsonaro called Moraes a “dictator” and said the restraining orders against him were acts of “cowardice.”
Some Bolsonaro allies have worried that Trump’s tactics may be backfiring in Brazil, compounding trouble for Bolsonaro and rallying public support behind Lula’s leftist government.
However, Sunday demonstrations by Bolsonaro supporters — the largest in months — show that Trump’s tirades and sanctions against Moraes have also fired up the far-right former army captain’s political base.
Bolsonaro appeared virtually at a protest in Rio de Janeiro via phone call to his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in what some saw as the latest test of his restraining orders.
Moraes said that the former president had repeatedly made attempts to bypass the court’s orders.
“Justice is blind, but not foolish,” the justice wrote in his decision.
On Monday, Senator Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil that Monday’s order from Moraes was “a clear display of vengeance” for the U.S. sanctions against the judge, adding: “I hope the Supreme Court can put the brakes on this person (Moraes) causing so much upheaval.”
The judge’s orders, including the restraining orders under penalty of arrest, have been upheld by the wider court.
Those orders and the larger case before the Supreme Court came after two years of investigations into Bolsonaro’s role in an election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that rocked Brasilia in January 2023. That unrest drew comparisons to the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol after Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.
In contrast with the tangle of criminal cases which mostly stalled against Trump, Brazilian courts moved swiftly against Bolsonaro, threatening to end his political career and fracture his right-wing movement. An electoral court has already banned Bolsonaro from running for public office until 2030.
Another of Bolsonaro’s sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian congressman, moved to the U.S. around the same time the former president’s criminal trial kicked off to drum up support for his father in Washington. The younger Bolsonaro said the move had influenced Trump’s decision to impose new tariffs on Brazil.
In a statement after the arrest on Monday, Congressman Bolsonaro called Moraes “an out-of-control psychopath who never hesitates to double down.”
Trump last month shared a letter he had sent to Bolsonaro. “I have seen the terrible treatment you are receiving at the hands of an unjust system turned against you,” he wrote. “This trial should end immediately!”
Washington based its sanctions against Moraes last week on accusations that the judge had authorized arbitrary pre-trial detentions and suppressed freedom of expression.
The arrest could give Trump a pretext to pile on additional measures against Brazil, said Graziella Testa, a political science professor at the Federal University of Parana, adding that Bolsonaro seemed to be consciously provoking escalation.
“I think things could escalate because this will be seen as a reaction to the Magnitsky sanction” against Moraes, said Leonardo Barreto, a partner at the Think Policy political risk consultancy in Brasilia, referring to the asset freeze imposed on Moraes last week.
Reuters
On Monday, protesters convened outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City to express their opposition to Israel’s policies regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
This demonstration, organized by the Jewish-American anti-occupation group IfNotNow, attracted hundreds of participants to Columbus Circle under the slogan “Trump: Jews Say No More.”
The protestors advocated for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza and called for increased access to essential humanitarian aid for affected populations.
Protesters also held signs reading “Stop ethnic cleansing,” “Never again is now,” “Stop starving Gaza,” and “Not in our name,” Britain’s The Guardian reported.
“Let’s not mince words, the Israeli government’s blockade of Gaza is a policy of ethnic cleansing by way of forced mass starvation,” said Morriah Kaplan, IfNotNow’s interim executive director, in a speech.
She added that the US government needs to “use its considerable leverage to end these horrors.”
The New York Police Department intervened in the protest, arresting more than 40 people.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 61,000 Palestinians, almost half of them women and children. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
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