Harris secures Democratic presidential nomination

US Vice-President Kamala Harris (pictured) effectively secured the Democratic party’s presidential nomination yesterday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November’s showdown against Republican Donald Trump.Harris, 59, was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates.The first black and south Asian woman ever to secure a major party’s nomination, she will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month.“I am honoured to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” Harris said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon virtual vote.In the two weeks since Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, Harris has gained full control of the party, smashing fundraising records, packing arenas and erasing the polling leads Trump had built over the president.“I couldn’t be prouder,” Biden posted on X after her nomination.The nomination milestone came with Harris preparing to hit the campaign trail next week for a swing across seven crucial election states alongside her yet-to-be-named running mate.The Democratic Party decided on a virtual nomination process – departing with tradition and mirroring the procedure used in the pandemic-hit 2020 election – because of an early deadline in Ohio for submitting the names of certified candidates.The virtual roll call marks the official beginning of the 2024 convention, with the more traditional festivities getting going when thousands of party faithful descend on Chicago on August 19.The gathering will feature a ceremonial vote for Harris in what is expected to be a raucous celebration of her rise from California prosecutor to historic candidate vying for the nation’s highest office.Trump’s White House bid was turned upside down on July 21 when 81-year-old Biden, facing growing concerns about his age and lagging polling numbers, withdrew his candidacy and backed Harris.Energetic and two decades younger than 78-year-old Trump, the vice-president has made a fast start, raising $310mn in July, according to her campaign – more than double Trump’s haul.She and her running mate are scheduled to rally Tuesday in Pennsylvania – a crucial swing state, where Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro is on the shortlist to join Harris’s ticket.Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 by around 80,000 votes and it is seen as the biggest prize of the closely fought battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.The Keystone State is part of the so-called blue wall that carried Biden to victory in 2020, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin, two states where Harris is due to woo crowds on Wednesday.Harris will also tour the more racially diverse Sun Belt and southern states of Georgia, North Carolina Arizona, North Carolina and Nevada as she seeks to shore up the black and Hispanic vote that had been peeling away from the Democrats.In a sign that the Harris campaign is thinking big, US media reported that a raft of senior advisers from Barack Obama’s own historic candidacies in 2008 and 2012 have taken up top positions with her.David Plouffe, who was manager of Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 and a senior aide during his 2012 victory, joined Harris’s campaign for president as a senior adviser, a source said.The Harris campaign is also being joined by Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic communications veteran, who previously served as Obama’s White House communications director and deputy campaign manager.She will join the campaign as senior adviser on strategy messaging.Cutter’s firm is on contract to produce the Democratic National Convention in August.Other Obama alums joining the campaign include Mitch Stewart, who worked on both Obama campaigns, and will come in as senior adviser on battleground states.David Binder, who led Obama’s public opinion research operation, will expand his role on the Harris campaign to lead the opinion research operation.All of the new hires will report to Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, another veteran of Obama’s two campaigns, who managed Biden’s 2020 campaign and built his 2024 operation from the White House.Where the now defunct Biden re-election campaign made high-minded appeals to the nation’s founding principles, Harris’s messaging has focused on the future, repositioning the race as a battle for “freedom” rather than the less tangible “democracy” that the president emphasised.She and her allies have also been more aggressive than the Biden camp – mocking Trump for reneging on his commitment to a September debate and characterising the convicted felon as an elderly crook and “weird”.“Some days I feel sorry for Republicans, because they’ve got to figure out how to run a criminal against a prosecutor,” Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock said at Harris’s Atlanta event.On the detail, however, Harris has been tight-lipped.While she has disavowed some of the leftist positions she took during her ill-fated 2020 primary campaign, she hasn’t given a wide-ranging interview since jumping into the race, meaning voters have no clear picture of her overall vision.Meanwhile Trump and his Republicans have struggled to adapt to their new adversary or hone their attacks against Harris – at first messaging that she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime before pivoting to accusing her falsely of pretending to be black for political purposes.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687846/international/harris-secures-democratic-presidential-nomination

Day 2: Nigerian police crack down on protests as rights group says 13 killed

Nigerian police fired shots in the air to break up protests in the capital Abuja yesterday as rights group Amnesty International accused security forces of killing at least 13 demonstrators during nationwide rallies against economic hardship. Curfews were in place across several northern states and there was a heavy security presence on the second day of the demonstrations.An AFP photographer saw police in Abuja firing rifle shots over the heads of protesters in the city centre, while security forces scattered hundreds of protesters using tear gas.“We were ruthlessly dispersed, but I think that it only made us more resolute,” said 29-year-old activist Damilare Adenola, leader of the Take It Back group organising protests in Abuja. “Hunger is the greatest motivation of this protest - that is why we are calling for the end of bad governance.”The turnout was lower than on Thursday, when thousands took to the streets in cities across the country calling for the government to reduce fuel prices and tackle Nigeria’s worst economic crisis in a generation. Africa’s most populous country is battling high inflation and a tumbling naira after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ended a fuel subsidy and liberalised the currency more than a year ago in reforms the government says will improve the economy in the long term.Dubbed #EndbadGovernanceinNigeria, the protest movement won support with an online campaign, but officials had warned against attempts to follow the same path as recent violent demonstrations in Kenya, where protesters forced the government to abandon new taxes. Nigerian protest leaders have vowed to press ahead with rallies in the coming days despite warnings from the authorities.Police said they had made hundreds of arrests across the country including 269 people they accused of “destruction, looting, and instigating chaos” in the northern city Kano on Thursday. Anietie Ewang, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said she was concerned by “reports of excessive use of force by Nigerian security forces” and urged the authorities to listen to protesters.In a statement on X yesterday, Amnesty International said security forces killed six people in Suleja near the capital, four in the northeastern city of Maiduguri and three in Kaduna in the northwest the previous day. “Our findings, so far, show that security personnel at the locations where lives were lost deliberately used tactics designed to kill while dealing with gatherings of people protesting hunger and deep poverty,” Amnesty said.Conflicting accounts have emerged over the number of deaths and police in Maiduguri told AFP four people died in explosions, without providing details. On Thursday, the national police chief rejected claims that officers had attacked peaceful protesters and said one officer had been killed and others injured, without providing details.In a statement on X, Inspector General Kayode Egbetokun said he had “placed all units on red alert” to respond to “further threats to public safety and order.” Kano was calmer on Friday following intense clashes between police and protesters the previous day, but residents said hundreds of people demonstrated in the nearby town of Minjibir.Officials have imposed a curfew in Kano as well as in the northern states Yobe, Katsina, Borno and Jigawa. In Nigeria’s economic hub Lagos, a few dozen protesters gathered in the Ojota area yesterday. Around 1,000 people marched peacefully in the mainland area on Thursday, chanting “Tinubu Ole”, using the Yoruba language word for thief. Nigerians are struggling with high costs - food inflation is at 40% and fuel has tripled in price since a year ago - but many people were also wary about insecurity around protests.Nigeria’s protests come after Kenyan President William Ruto was forced to repeal new taxes and name a new cabinet following weeks of anti-government protests in the worst crisis in his almost two years in office.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687845/international/day-2-nigerian-police-crack-down-on-protests-as-rights-group-says-13-killed

Trump loses appeal of gag order in hush money criminal case

A New York state appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s challenge to a gag order in his hush money criminal case, where the former US president was convicted in May on charges stemming from hush money paid to an adult entertainment actor.The decision by the Appellate Division in Manhattan means the Republican presidential nominee cannot comment publicly about individual prosecutors and others in the case until Justice Juan Merchan sentences him on September 18, seven weeks before the November 5 election.Trump’s lawyers have argued that the gag order violated Trump’s constitutional free speech rights under the First Amendment.Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, said Trump “continues to forcefully challenge” the gag order.“The gag order is blatantly un-American as it continues to gag President Trump,” Cheung said in a statement.Merchan imposed the gag order a few weeks before the trial began on April 22, saying Trump’s history of making threatening statements could undermine the proceedings.The original order prevented Trump from commenting on prosecutors, court staff, witnesses and jurors.A separate order against naming the anonymous jurors remains in effect.Merchan lifted the restrictions on witnesses and jurors following Trump’s May 30 conviction.The Appellate Division, a mid-level appeals court, said threats that Bragg’s staff received in the wake of the verdict continue to pose a “significant and immediate” threat. – Reuters

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687803/international/trump-loses-appeal-of-gag-order-in-hush-money-criminal-case

Lahore hit by record rainfall

Pakistan’s second-largest city of Lahore was deluged with record-breaking rainfall yesterday, the national weather agency said, with hospitals flooded, power interrupted and streets in the metropolis submerged.The eastern city was lashed by almost 360mm (14”) of rain in three hours, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said.“This was record-breaking rainfall,” the agency’s deputy director Farooq Dar told AFP.The previous record dates to July 1980, when 332mm fell over three hours.“Look at all these buckets and how much water has accumulated. We’re exhausted from trying to remove the water,” Sadam, a 32-year-old shopkeeper, told AFP as he took stock of his considerable losses.The PMD had forecast a wetter-than-usual monsoon season this year for Pakistan, one of the countries experts say is most vulnerable to extreme weather being spurred by climate change.Over the past three days, 24 people have been killed by rainfall in the country’s mountainous northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said.In Lahore, a city of 13mn in the eastern Punjab province, one person was killed by electrocution as a result of yesterday’s cloudburst, according to local police.The city’s commissioner declared an emergency and said offices and schools would be shut for the day.Yasir Ali, a 26-year-old resident, said it was a “sad day for the nation”.“For a poor person it is heartbreaking that he’s been unable to go to work today,” he told AFP.Two government hospitals in Lahore reported flooding in their wards, and there were intermittent power outages continuing into the afternoon.Roads were also submerged, bringing traffic and businesses to a standstill.Ahmed Khan, 48, who earns a daily wage, appealed to the government “to pay some attention here and resolve this water issue”.Maryam Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province, posted on X that “the entire government machinery is in the field” to drain the water.The summer monsoon brings to South Asia about 70-80% of the region’s annual rainfall between June and September.It is vital for agriculture, but changing weather patterns that scientists attribute to climate change are putting both lives and livelihoods at risk.Earlier this year Pakistan – home to 240mn people – was hit by a succession of heatwaves and this April was the wettest since 1961.At least 143 people died from lightning strikes and other storm-related incidents in April.In neighbouring India, at least 160 people, most believed to be labourers and their families, have been killed by torrential rains causing landslides in the southern coastal state of Kerala.In 2022, a third of Pakistan was submerged by unprecedented monsoon rains that displaced millions of people and cost $30bn, according to a World Bank estimate.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687801/international/lahore-hit-by-record-rainfall

Trump on Harris: ‘Is she Indian or Black?’

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump questioned whether his Democratic rival Kamala Harris is “Black” during a contentious appearance at the country’s largest annual gathering of Black journalists yesterday.“Is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said of his opponent in the presidential race, drawing a smattering of jeers. “She was Indian all the way, and all of a sudden she made a turn and became a Black person.”Harris, whose mother was Indian and whose father is Black, is the first Black and the first Asian American US vice-president.Since launching her White House campaign earlier this month, Harris has faced a barrage of sexist and racist attacks online, while Republican Party leaders have urged lawmakers to refrain from personal attacks and focus on her policy positions.The interview — in front of a gathering of about 1,000 journalists — started on a tense note, when ABC News reporter Rachel Scott asked Trump to explain why Black voters should support him despite a history of racist comments.In response, Trump called the question “horrible,” “hostile” and a “disgrace” and described ABC as a “fake” network.“I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln,” he said.Trump’s first-ever appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention in Chicago received a backlash from some members, prompting a co-chair of the convention to step down in protest.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687718/international/trump-on-harris-is-she-indian-or-black

Is America ready for its first-ever First Gentleman?

If Kamala Harris wins the US presidential election she will make history — and so will her husband Doug Emhoff.The ebullient 59-year-old lawyer will be the first-ever First Gentleman if Harris, succeeds in becoming the first woman president in the United States’ nearly two-and-a-half-century existence.Emhoff has already got used to blazing something of a trail of his own alongside his trailblazing wife, who’s also 59.He has leaned into his role as the first Second Gentleman, proving an energetic campaigner and fierce defender of Harris in her initially bumpy tenure as the first female, Black and South Asian vice-president.In yet another milestone, Emhoff is also the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice-president, taking a very visible role in President Joe Biden’s administration combating anti-Semitism.He is now enthusiastic about the prospect of following in the footsteps of famous Democratic first spouses, like Jackie Kennedy, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden — but as the first man to hold the role.Where he doesn’t have a record is in being the first prospective First Gentleman, a title claimed by former president Bill Clinton during his wife Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 run.“I’m honoured now to have my wife be at the top of the ticket,” he told a podcast recently.The sudden change in Harris’s fortunes caught Emhoff short. He said that when Joe Biden dropped out of the race he was in the gym with his phone off — leading to a flood of missed texts and calls, including from Harris.“Never leaving my phone in the car again,” he said on X.The swift swap in the Democratic ticket has raised questions about whether America is ready to overcome racism and sexism to choose a Black woman president — but Emhoff would be a paradigm shift too.Republicans are already attacking him, based partly on race.Harris’s campaign on Tuesday slammed “Trump’s despicable attack against the Second Gentleman” after Trump nodded along while an interviewer said Emhoff was a “crappy Jew.” Trump himself then said that Harris “doesn’t like Jewish people.”Yet Emhoff has long shown he can give as good as he gets.“Mr Trump, I know you have so much trouble pronouncing her name,” Emhoff said in a recent video, referring to Trump’s habit of mispronouncing Kamala. “After the election, you can just call her Madam President.”An entertainment lawyer, Emhoff met then-California Attorney General Harris on a blind date in 2013 and they married a year later.That made Harris a stepmother to Emhoff’s then-teenage son and daughter from his previous marriage, Cole and Ella. Famously, they dubbed her “Momala”.In 2020 he took a leave of absence from his law firm to campaign for Harris in her first presidential bid, and then in January 2021 officially became Second Gentleman.Emhoff admits the transition wasn’t easy, with some of the “toughest moments” caused by “leaving the career that I loved.”“It was always the president (Biden) who came up to me and said, ‘Look, I know, I know, kid. You’re a great lawyer. I know this must have been tough,’” Emhoff told campaign staff last week.Since then he’s taken a high-profile role in the Biden administration, particularly in a series of speeches calling out anti-Semitism after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.At the same time Harris has been vocal in urging Israel to ease the suffering in Gaza, meaning that as a couple they have effectively bridged a deep divide in the Democratic Party.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687719/international/is-america-ready-for-its-first-ever-first-gentleman

US vows funds to boost Manila defences amid China disputes

The US yesterday pledged funding of $500mn for the Philippines’ military and coast guard in a big show of support for Manila as it faces Chinese actions in disputed waters in the South China Sea.Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met their Philippine counterparts in Manila to reaffirm Washington’s unwavering commitment to its oldest treaty ally in Asia.“This level of funding is unprecedented, and it sends a clear message of support for the Philippines, from the Biden-Harris administration, the US Congress and the American people,” Austin said in joint press conference following security talks.Ahead of their meetings, Blinken and Austin met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr who has moved the Philippines closer to Washington since he replaced Rodrigo Duterte, who was openly hostile to the Americans and pursued warmer ties with China during his six-year term.“I’m always very happy that these communication lines are very open so that all the things that we are doing together...are continuously examined and re-examined so we are agile in terms of our responses,” Marcos said.The Philippines has competing claims with China in the waters to its west also known as the South China Sea. China claims 90% of the sea as its sovereign territory.Violence broke out after a Filipino sailor lost a finger in a June 17 mission to resupply troops stationed at a contested shoal after what Manila described as “intentional-high speed ramming” by the Chinese coast guard.Manila reached a provisional arrangement with China for resupply missions this month to ease tensions and manage differences, but the two sides appear at odds over the details of the deal, which has not been made public.Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo said in the same news conference his country agreed to an “exchange of information” under its arrangement with China.Blinken said the US shares the Philippines’ concerns about “escalatory” actions China has taken in the South China Sea.Blinken also reaffirmed Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to the defend the Philippines against an armed attack on its vessels, aircraft and soldiers in the waterway.A 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague found that China’s claims had no basis under international law. The case was brought by the Philippines and China rejects the court ruling.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687637/international/us-vows-funds-to-boost-manila-defences-amid-china-disputes

French climber summits Pakistan’s K2 in record time

French climber Benjamin Vedrines summited Pakistan’s K2 in record time on Sunday, his team told AFP, reaching the top of the world’s second-highest mountain in just under 11 hours.The 32-year-old specialist in high-speed ascents — made without the aid of oxygen — left K2 base camp just after midnight on Saturday and reached the summit 10 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds later.The ascent slashes by more than half the previous record for climbing K2 without the aid of bottled oxygen, completed in 23 hours by fellow Frenchman Benoit Chamoux in 1986.Vedrines attempted the summit in 2022 but was forced to turn back after suffering from hypoxia, a lack of oxygen in the blood caused by thin air at high altitudes.“I took my revenge on this mountain,” Vedrines said in a voice message shared with AFP. “But above all I wanted to reconcile with it by doing things with maturity.”“It was very symbolic for me because I was returning in my footsteps to where I experienced those very unique moments,” he said.“I really enjoyed seeing the same sections again, but with lucidity this time.” Standing at 8,611 metres on the Pakistan-China border, K2 is 238 metres shorter than Everest but is considered more technically challenging — earning it the nickname “Savage Mountain”.Elite climbers regard the mountain, which was first scaled in 1954, as a quintessential achievement, and often attempt to set records on its jagged slopes. Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Nepali guide Tenjin Sherpa conquered K2 a year ago, capping a record for the fastest summit of all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre mountains.The pair completed the feat in three months and one day. Tenjin was killed in an avalanche less than three months later as he guided another climber on Mount Shishapangma in Tibet.In January 2021, a 10-man team from Nepal became the first to summit K2 in winter as temperatures plunged to minus 65 degrees Celsius. The mountain regularly claims the lives of elite climbers. Rescue prospects seemed remote yesterday for two feted Japanese climbers who fell from K2’s western face at the weekend. Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima had been using the same “alpine style” of climbing as Vedrines, which relies on a minimum of fixed ropes, when they plunged from above 7,000 metres.A helicopter spotted the motionless pair but was forced to abort a rescue attempt and their sponsor, clothing brand Ishii Sports, said yesterday they were on “steep terrain that is difficult to reach”. Rescue attempts are still being discussed and no organisation has yet declared the men dead. Successful evacuations from K2 after mishaps are rare. A successful climb up K2’s western face has been achieved only once, in 2007.Vedrines is considered one of France’s pre-eminent climbers and set a speed record climbing Pakistan’s Broad Peak in 2022 before descending by paraglider.He reached the top of the 8,051-metre mountain, not far from K2, in seven hours and 28 minutes.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687577/international/french-climber-summits-pakistans-k2-in-record-time

Children among eight stabbed in UK attack

A knife attack in northern England yesterday wounded at least eight people, reportedly including children, emergency services said.Police said armed officers detained a man and seized a knife after being called to a property in Southport, near Liverpool in northwest England.“There are a number of reported casualties,” police said in a statement.The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said it had “treated eight patients with stab injuries who have been taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Aintree University Hospital and Southport and Formby hospital.”Alder Hey Children’s Hospital said: “We can confirm that the trust has declared a major incident.”Local business owner Colin Parry, one of the people who called police, told the domestic Press Association news agency that he believed several “young girls” had been stabbed.Bare Varathan, who owns a local shop, told PA he saw “seven to 10 kids” who were “injured, bleeding”, adding that he saw they had been stabbed.Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident “horrendous and deeply shocking,” adding on X, formerly called Twitter, that “my thoughts are with all those affected”.Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was “deeply concerned” about the “very serious incident” in Southport.The area where the incident took place is located in a quiet, leafy neighbourhood of residential streets.Some residents who were allowed to come out from the police cordon sealing it off looked visibly shocked, according to a journalist at the scene.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687573/international/children-among-eight-stabbed-in-uk-attack

Quad foreign ministers decry dangerous S China Sea actions

Foreign ministers from Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday said they were seriously concerned about intimidating and dangerous manoeuvres in the South China Sea and pledged to bolster maritime security in the region.The joint statement came after talks between the so-called ‘Quad’ countries in Tokyo, attended by Australia’s Penny Wong, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Japan’s Yoko Kamikawa and Antony Blinken from the US.In security talks between the US and Japan on Sunday, the two allies labelled China the “greatest strategic challenge” facing the region.“We are seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion,” the ministers said in the statement, which did not directly mention China.They also expressed serious concern about the militarisation of disputed features and coercive and intimidating manoeuvres in the South China Sea, including dangerous use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels.Asked about the statement at a regular news briefing yesterday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the Quad was “artificially creating tension, inciting confrontation and containing the development of other countries”.Chinese vessels have repeatedly clashed with Philippine ships seeking to resupply its troops on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in recent months, although the two countries in July reached a provisional agreement that aims to ease tensions.The Quad group said they were working on a series of initiatives to maintain “the free and open maritime order” including helping partners improve domain awareness via satellite data, training and capacity building. They also announced a plan to set up a new maritime legal dialogue.“We are charting a course for a more secure and open Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean region by bolstering maritime security,” Blinken said in remarks to reporters after the meeting.“In practical terms what does this mean? It means strengthening the capacity of partners across the region to know what’s happening in their own waters,” he added.He said the US would continue to work with its partners to ensure freedom of navigation and the unimpeded flow of lawful maritime commerce.The US announced plans on Sunday for a major revamp of its military command in Japan. It was among several measures announced by the allies to address what they said was an “evolving security environment”, noting various threats from China including its muscular maritime activities.“Uncertainty surrounding the international order as well as the international situation has been increasing with Russia continuing its aggression in Ukraine, attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force in the East China Sea and South China Sea, and the launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea,” Japan’s Kamikawa said after the talks.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687572/international/quad-foreign-ministers-decry-dangerous-s-china-sea-actions

Maduro re-elected as Venezuela's President with 51.20 percent of votes

Venezuela's National Electoral Council announced on Monday, that current President Nicolas Maduro won the country's presidential elections.Maduro was re-elected after winning 51.20 percent of the vote, besting the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) candidate Edmundo Gonzlez Urrutia, who gained more than 44 percent, according to a statement by the National Electoral Council (CNE).President Maduro's campaign said, 'Thank you. It was a victory for everyone. It was a victory that will help us build the future, and of course, we will have to wait for the results.'This marks the third term for the current Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro. Polling stations opened yesterday, Sunday, in Venezuela to allow Venezuelan citizens to cast their votes in a tense presidential election.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687550/international/uslatin-america/maduro-re-elected-as-venezuelas-president-with-5120-percentof-votes