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      Con Edmundo González asilado en España, las esperanzas de democracia se reducen en Venezuela

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      La decisión del candidato opositor de solicitar asilo en España y el antagonismo del líder autocrático, Nicolás Maduro, hacia las potencias regionales reducen las posibilidades de una transición política.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]La noticia de que Edmundo González, candidato de la oposición venezolana, había huido del país en un avión de la Fuerza Aérea Española este fin de semana tomó al país, y al mundo, por sorpresa.El año pasado estuvo marcado por meses de represión que desembocaron en unas disputadas elecciones presidenciales. A la votación siguió una brutal represión por parte del gobierno autoritario de Nicolás Maduro.Aun así, muchos venezolanos mantenían la esperanza de que, mediante una salida negociada, el gobierno de inspiración socialista pudiera hacerse a un lado y dejar que González, un exdiplomático de voz suave, asumiera el poder.Su partida el sábado redujo aun más esa remota posibilidad. Y se produjo mientras las fuerzas de seguridad venezolanas rodeaban la residencia diplomática argentina en Caracas, donde seis altos dirigentes de la oposición se han refugiado desde marzo.Según algunos analistas, Maduro se ha afianzado en el poder, aunque muchos venezolanos y gobiernos de todo el mundo no han reconocido su afirmación de que fue reelegido para la presidencia en los comicios del 28 de julio.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Edmundo González Flees Venezuela for Spain, and Hopes for Democracy Dim

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      The opposition candidate’s decision to seek asylum in Spain and the autocratic leader’s antagonism toward regional powers lessen the chances of a political transition.The news that Edmundo González, Venezuela’s opposition candidate, had fled the country on a Spanish Air Force plane this weekend took the country, and the world, by surprise.The past year has been marked by months of repression leading up to a disputed presidential election. The vote was followed by a brutal crackdown by the authoritarian government of President Nicolás Maduro.Still, many Venezuelans held out hope that through a negotiated exit the socialist-inspired administration might step aside and let Mr. González, a soft-spoken former diplomat, assume power.His departure on Saturday narrowed that slim possibility even further. And it came as Venezuelan security forces surrounded the Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas where six top opposition leaders have been taking shelter since March.Mr. Maduro has solidified his hold on power, some analysts say, even if many Venezuelans and governments around the world have not recognized his claim that he was re-elected to the presidency in the July 28 election.Efforts by countries in the region, including Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, to broker a resolution to the conflict have gone nowhere, and the opposition, which has called on the global community to rally behind it, has seemingly few options.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      3 Israelis Killed at West Bank-Jordan Border Crossing

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      The Allenby crossing, near the West Bank city of Jericho, has been the scene of violence in the past.A gunman killed three Israelis at a sensitive border crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to the Israeli military.The attack comes amid a surge of violence in the occupied territory since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel prompted the war in Gaza, and at a delicate moment for the relationship between Israel and neighboring Jordan.The gunman arrived at the Israeli-controlled part of the Allenby Bridge crossing from Jordan in a truck on Sunday and opened fire on Israeli security forces, the military said in a statement. The military did not identify the gunman, who was killed at the scene. The three victims were forklift operators who worked at the crossing, according to the Israel Airports Authority.The crossing, near the West Bank city of Jericho, is the main pathway for most Palestinians in the occupied territory to travel abroad, and it has served as an entry point for some aid being delivered to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel described the gunman as “an abhorrent terrorist” and extended his condolences to the families of the victims.It was not immediately clear how the gunman managed to take a weapon into the Israeli-controlled part of the crossing. The Israel Airports Authority said in a statement that the Allenby Bridge was closed, as were two land crossings between Israel and Jordan.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      North Korea Sends More Trash Balloons South

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      Hundreds of propaganda balloons ferrying trash have landed in South Korea in recent days, where officials say they typically do not pose a threat.Hong Yoongi was walking near South Korea’s Parliament building in Seoul when he spotted the interloper from North Korea.The trespasser on Thursday was a balloon that had floated dozens of miles across the inter-Korean border and the Han River in the South to land near the National Assembly complex. But the authorities were on the case, and on the scene. Some military personnel wore white protective gear, masks and gloves to deal with the trash that had scattered on impact.Over the past five days, North Korea has sent hundreds more drifting toward the South with payloads of trash like waste paper and used plastic bottles. This salvo follows a barrage of thousands of similar North Korean balloons earlier this summer. Pyongyang has said it was provoked by North Korean defectors in the South, who launched their own balloons carrying leaflets criticizing the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and USB sticks with K-pop music and K-dramas.The South’s military has said that North’s balloons do not carry “harmful substances.” But they have become a nuisance, landing in farms, public parks in the capital and in residential areas. In July, some came down inside the grounds of the presidential office in Seoul.Mr. Hong had seen another one of the balloons a few months earlier, near his home in Bundang, south of Seoul. But, he said, “the balloons haven’t affected my daily life at all.”Living next to a nuclear-armed adversary is the reality for millions of South Koreans, who often shrug off provocations from the North.“The most annoying part about the balloons is the countless warning texts I get from the government,” said Ahn Jae-hee, a resident of Seoul.In recent days, officials in the South have sent more than a dozen safety alerts, warning residents to inform the authorities about the balloons and not to touch them. The alerts, sent to mobile phones across the country, give the general location of the balloons.The South’s military has said it waits for the balloons to land before inspecting them, rather than blast them ​— and scatter their​ suspicious payloads ​— from the sky. Seoul has responded by blaring anti-North Korean propaganda and K-pop across loudspeakers stationed near the Demilitarized Zone between the two countries.“The balloons are low-intensity provocations from the North, and South Koreans have no real reason to react to them,” said Wooyeal Paik, the deputy director at the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies. So far, he said, there was no indication of espionage, unlike the balloons from China seen over the United States last year, nor did they seem to carry weapons.Propaganda balloons also flew on the Korean Peninsula during the Cold War. Both sides used them to scatter leaflets condemning each other’s governments. Those tactics had largely faded until their revival this year.“The balloons have become the new normal,” Mr. Hong said. More

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      China Woos Africa, Casting Itself as Global South’s Defender

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      More than 50 African leaders have gathered in Beijing for a summit aimed at projecting the influence of China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in the developing world.African flags have been flown over Tiananmen Square. Leaders of African nations have been greeted by dancers, honor guards and children waving flags. They have been escorted in extensive motorcades past banners celebrating “A Shared Future for China and Africa” and giant, elaborate flower arrangements.China has pulled out all the stops for a gathering of leaders and top officials from more than 50 African nations this week in Beijing, welcoming them with pomp and pageantry. “After nearly 70 years of hard work, China-Africa relations are at the best period in history,” China’s leader, Xi Jinping, told the gathering on Thursday. Mr. Xi has cast his country as a defender of the developing world, one that can push the West to listen to the voices of poorer countries. He hosted a banquet for the leaders at the start of the event on Wednesday, after three straight days of back-to-back bilateral talks with nearly two dozen leaders of nations ranging from impoverished Chad to the continental economic powerhouse of Nigeria. The three-day forum is meant to demonstrate Beijing’s global clout despite rising tensions with the West. Mr. Xi’s courtship of African countries is part of a great geopolitical competition with the United States that has intensified in recent years over Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s aggressive posture toward Taiwan.China is “trying to take advantage of the space left by the U.S. and Europe, which are increasingly disengaged with Africa,” said Eric Olander, the editor in chief of the China-Global South Project website. “China sees an opportunity to really step up its engagement, and not necessarily just with money.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Protestas en Venezuela: nuevo informe vincula a las fuerzas de seguridad con 6 muertes

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      Un informe de Human Rights Watch es el primer esfuerzo de una importante organización internacional por verificar algunas de las dos decenas de muertes registradas en las protestas desde las controvertidas elecciones presidenciales de Venezuela.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Las fuerzas de seguridad venezolanas y grupos armados afines al Gobierno cometieron actos de violencia generalizados contra manifestantes y mataron a algunos de ellos tras las disputadas elecciones presidenciales del país, según un informe publicado el miércoles por Human Rights Watch.Organizaciones y medios de comunicación venezolanos denunciaron 24 asesinatos durante las manifestaciones, pero el reporte es el primer esfuerzo de una organización internacional por verificar algunos de ellos.El presidente de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, ha enfrentado una amplia condena nacional e internacional por su afirmación de que ganó las elecciones presidenciales del 28 de julio, y la consiguiente represión violenta de las manifestaciones de protesta contra esa afirmación.El gobierno aún no ha publicado ningún recuento de votos que demuestre la victoria de Maduro. Los recuentos de los observadores electorales publicados por la oposición muestran que perdió de manera contundente.El informe de Human Rights Watch, una organización de investigación y defensa sin fines de lucro con sede en Nueva York, detalla los casos de seis personas que murieron durante las protestas a manos de las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado o de lo que parecían ser grupos de milicias armadas llamados colectivos.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Netanyahu Stands Firm on Cease-Fire Terms Amid Growing Outrage in Israel

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      In his first news conference since the bodies of six killed hostages were recovered, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to budge on his conditions for any truce in Gaza.Brushing aside pleas from allies and the demands of Israeli protesters for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday vowed to maintain Israeli control along the border between Egypt and Gaza, a contentious plan that appeared to dim, if not dash, prospects for a truce.In his first news conference since the bodies of six slain hostages were recovered over the weekend, Mr. Netanyahu told reporters on Monday night that, to ensure its security, Israel needed to assert control over the Gazan side of the border with Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, calling it the lifeline of Hamas.Hamas has said Israeli control of the corridor is a nonstarter in negotiations for a truce, demanding instead a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.“If we leave, there will be enormous diplomatic pressure upon us from the whole world not to return,” Mr. Netanyahu said of the corridor, as a large crowd protested near his private residence in Jerusalem on Monday night.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Monday that to ensure its security, Israel needed to assert control over the Philadelphi Corridor, calling it the lifeline of Hamas. Ohad Zwigenberg/EPA, via ShutterstockMr. Netanyahu made the comments a day after the Israeli military announced that the six hostages had been found dead in a tunnel underneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The discovery devastated Israelis and spurred both the mass protests on Sunday and a widespread work stoppage by the country’s largest labor union.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Brazil Threatens to Ban Elon Musk’s X

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      The country’s Supreme Court gave the service 24 hours to name a legal representative in Brazil or face suspension.Brazil’s Supreme Court on Wednesday gave Elon Musk 24 hours to name a legal representative for X in Brazil or face a ban of his social network across the nation of 200 million.Mr. Musk closed X’s office in Brazil last week in protest of orders from a Brazilian Supreme Court justice to suspend certain accounts. If X refuses to comply, it could lose access to one of its largest markets outside the United States — a blow as the company struggles to regain revenue after Mr. Musk battled with advertisers and told them not to spend on the platform.The court posted its order on X on Wednesday night, suggesting that Mr. Musk had until about 8 p.m. local time Thursday to respond.The moment is one of the biggest tests yet for Mr. Musk’s efforts to mold X to his personal ideology, and how he responds will shed light on how far he is willing to take his stated commitment to protecting his social network from what he calls censorship.X and Mr. Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the possible ban.Mr. Musk has been enmeshed in a monthslong feud with Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice whom he has accused of censoring conservative voices online. Justice Moraes has ordered the suspension of more than 100 X accounts in what he says is a battle against misinformation, hate speech and attacks on democracy.Most of the accounts that Justice Moraes has targeted belong to right-wing supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president. Some of them questioned Mr. Bolsonaro’s 2022 election loss and sympathized with protesters who raided Brazil’s halls of power, hoping to invoke a military takeover.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More