Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro suspended access to the social media site X on Thursday, as he faced renewed pressure from a trio of friendly Latin American nations to release data proving his claimed reelection was valid. The president announced his government was blocking the social media platform formerly known as Twitter for 10 days, while accusing the site's owner Elon Musk of "inciting hate and fascism" in Venezuela. Election authorities declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 vote but have yet to release detailed results, leading left-wing allies Brazil, Colombia and Mexico on Thursday to reiterate a joint call on the National Electoral Council (CNE) to disclose polling records.
Protests sparked last week by the declaration of Maduro's victory left at least 24 people dead, according to rights groups, with thousands also arrested. The Venezuelan opposition claims to have won in a landslide and warned Thursday of a potential mass exodus if Maduro is allowed to remain in power. "If Maduro chooses to stay by force, the only thing we will see is a wave of migration like never before: three, four, five million Venezuelans in a very short span of time," opposition leader Maria Corina Machado -- who was barred from running in the election -- said in a video conference with Mexican news outlets.
According to the United Nations , more than seven million Venezuelans have fled the country of 30 million since Maduro took over in 2013, mostly to other Latin American countries and the United States. Maduro has overseen an unprecedented economic crisis, including an 80 percent drop in the once-wealthy oil-rich country's GDP, amid domestic economic mismanagement and international sanctions. Washington has spearheaded sanctions against the Maduro regime and on Thursday threatened that further measures would be taken if Maduro were to arrest Machado or Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the retired diplomat who stood as the opposition candidate in the election.
"I think that would be a step that could mobilize the international community even more, even those that might be somewhat sympathetic and don't want to rattle things too much in Venezuela," Francisco Mora, US ambassador to the Organization of American States, said at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. Machado -- who says she fears for her life -- and Gonzalez Urrutia have been in hiding for more than a week. Highlighting the opposition's perilous security situation, two other leaders were arrested Thursday, party officials and family members said.
Ex-lawmakers Williams Davila and Americo De Grazia were arrested separately, adding to the growing list of reported sudden post-election detainments. - 'International hysteria' - The public prosecutor's office has opened a criminal probe against Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia for "usurpation of functions, diffusion of false information, incitement to disobedience of the laws, incitement to insurrection" and "criminal association." Citing his fear that he would be "jeopardizing" his freedom if he did so, Gonzalez Urrutia on Wednesday defied a Supreme Court summons over the disputed results.
The court summoned all presidential candidates, including Maduro, and other opposition politicians, some of whom did attend. Maduro is due to appear before the court on Friday. Fellow left-wing governments from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico praised the verification process undertaken by the court but released a statement saying that they "start from the premise that the CNE is the organ legally mandated to transparently disclose the electoral results.
" Critics say the court, and the electoral authority, are unfailingly loyal to Maduro, who wants the body to simply "validate" his victory. The CNE ratified Maduro's victory with 52 percent of votes, but did not publish detailed results and even claimed to have been hacked. The opposition has launched a website with copies of 84 percent of ballots cast, showing an easy win for Gonzalez Urrutia with two-thirds of votes.
The government claims those are forged. The opposition and several observers accuse the CNE of inventing the hack at the government's behest to avoid publishing the real results. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday hit out at the international community and critics on social media for "an international hysteria around the (election) minutes, they could even make a Netflix series.
" Maduro on Thursday night told a rally of supporters that X, formerly Twitter, would be "withdrawn from circulation" by the state agency in charge of telecommunications. He did not give details on how the suspension would work. "No one will silence me, I will confront the espionage of the technological empire," he said, accusing American billionaire Musk of "inciting hatred and fascism.
" Jennie Lincoln, head of the Carter Center delegation that was invited to monitor the Venezuelan election, told AFP that that US-based organization had "no evidence" of a cyberattack. In addition to the protester deaths, Maduro announced the death of two police officers and the arrest of more than 2,200 people. Once a Cold War base that would have been the pride of James Bond villains, an Albanian island is set for an overhaul after Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump unveiled plans to revamp its wild beauty.
The daughter of former US president Donald Trump and her partner want luxury villas to go up on the island of Sazan that for decades served as a garrison with bunkers, fallout shelters and a warren of tunnels designed to withstand a nuclear attack. The base epitomised the paranoia rampant during the four-decade rule of Albania's Stalinist strongman Enver Hoxha after World War II. "The island was dotted with 2,840 bunkers with heavy machine guns and other automatic weapons," Ylli Mecaj -- a former soldier stationed at Sazan -- told AFP.
"There were also kilometers of tunnels and underground installations, fallout shelters to house ammunition and food reserves," the 78-year-old retired naval officer added. During the socialist era, more than 2,000 people lived on the island base -- outfitted with a cinema, school, and hospital -- that was designed to last for months if cut off from the rest of the country. The base fell into ruin following the collapse of the communist government in 1991.
- Dilapidated base - The downfall of the communist regime set off years of chaos in Albania, with an economic collapse in 1997 sparking a brief civil war that saw military depots and armories emptied, including on Sazan. For now, the island is peppered with wild mulberry and fig trees set against the sea's turquoise waters, while the former military installations are dilapidated shells. Big changes could be on the way for the island, which was only reopened to the public in 2015.
News first broke in March that Ivanka Trump and her husband were pursuing ambitious development plans on Sazan and a separate project in the Serbian capital Belgrade. The Trump family has a long history of embarking on luxury projects around the world. Some critics have accused the power couple of leveraging their time in the White House to secure overseas business deals.
But the Albanian government has sought to bolster the economy through tourism, prompting a building boom along large swaths of the coast. The Kushner-backed development is still in the planning stages and needs further government approval before ground can be broken on dozens of villas set amid the rocks of Sazan. But excitement is already palpable in some quarters.
"We can't wait for this to start because it triggers chain reactions for the city's economy," said the mayor of Vlora, Ermal Dredha, whose city looks across the water to Sazan. Vlora, in southwestern Albania, has been one of the largest beneficiaries of Albania's tourism surge, with apartment blocks and resorts now crowding its shores that attract millions of visitors a year. The scene stands in stark contrast to Sazan island, where the Trumps are the latest in a long line of foreigners who have sought a foothold.
- Trump zone - Situated at the entrance of Vlora bay at a strategic point where the Adriatic and Ionian seas meet, the tiny island has been coveted over the centuries by the Venetians, Greeks, Italians and Germans, among others. Still classified as a military zone, the island has seen just a trickle of Albania's tourist onslaught every summer. Daily boats bring visitors to walk along Sazan's winding paths and admire the island's only inhabitant -- a small grey donkey.
Few official details have emerged about the future luxury development. In an interview published in July, Ivanka Trump said the island's isolation brought its own unique challenges. "The logistics of even getting the building materials to an island are no joke, but we will execute on it," she said.
"The best architects and the best brands" were involved in the project. After years of neglect, Sazan's impending makeover will likely leave little of its former James Bond romance -- for better or worse. "Sazan is no longer Sazan.
There are no more weapons, no cannons, no anti-aircraft machine guns, no ships, the bunkers are in ruins," said Mecaj. "It is open to whoever wants to occupy it." Part of former U.
S. President Donald Trump's GOP presidential campaign strategy has involved repeatedly asking, "Where's Kamala?" On Thursday, one of the nation's largest labor unions resoundingly responded: "At UAW Local 900 in Wayne, Michigan with 150 autoworkers." That's what United Auto Workers communications director Jonah Furman said on social media as Vice President Kamala Harris and her Democratic running mate, Minnesota Gov.
Tim Walz , joined UAW members at the Local 900 hall in Wayne following the union's endorsement for president "To me, this election is real simple. It's about one question, a question we've made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?" UAW president Shawn Fain said at the swing state rally. "On one side, we've got a billionaire who serves himself and his billionaire buddies.
He lies, cheats, and steals his way to the top. He is the lapdog of the billionaire class," said Fain, who has called Trump a "scab." "On the other side, we've got a badass woman who has stood on the picket line with working-class people," he continued.
" Kamala Harris is a champion of the working class." In 2019, Kamala Harris—then a U.S.
senator from California running for president—walked a picket line with striking UAW workers in Reno, Nevada. President Joe Biden made history last year as the first U.S.
president to join striking workers on a picket line when he rallied with UAW members outside of a General Motors plant in Belleville, Michigan as they fought for a fair contract. The Biden-Harris administration has often been called the most pro-labor presidency in modern history. "You know, every time Donald Trump gets the chance, he trashes our union," Fain said.
"He comes to Michigan and talks about how he's gonna bring back the auto industry...
While he was the president of the United States, auto plants were fleeing the country." Speaking at Thursday's rally, Harris said, "I am so deeply honored, as a lifelong supporter of union labor, for Tim and I to have the endorsement of the UAW." "When you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for," she added.
"We stand for the people. We stand for the dignity of work. We stand for justice.
We stand for equality. And we will fight for all of it." Harris has won the endorsement of labor organizations including the AFL-CIO , National Education Association, National Nurses United, and—despite a dubious Trump promise to stop taxing tips—the service industry unions SEIU and UNITE HERE.
"We know which side we're on," Fain said Wednesday in a statement endorsing Harris. "We're voting for Kamala Harris in 2024. Because she's walked the walk.
Because she supports working-class people when we fight for more. And because we don't need another billionaire in the White House ." "Donald Trump is no friend of the working class," Fain added.
"Donald Trump is a scab. I'm a UAW member, and I'm voting for Kamala Harris for president." Lilith Dorsey is an American citizen living in New Orleans, but it is in Benin that she could end her days to "feel closer to her homeland".
In the coming months, the author, dancer and filmmaker aims to take advantage of a new law in the West African state granting Beninese nationality to the descendants of enslaved Africans. Adopted by parliament on July 30, the legislation is Benin's latest attempt to attract people drawn to their cultural and historical roots on the African continent -- a legacy of a slave trade which left a deep mark on Benin. Millions of enslaved Africans departed from the shores of West Africa, not least from Benin's beaches, to be shipped across the oceans.
The law's text, set to be approved by Benin's President Patrice Talon, will allow "any person who, according to their genealogy, has an African, sub-Saharan ancestor deported as part of the slave trade" to obtain a Beninese passport. "What the government of Benin has done is extraordinary and will bring us closer to our brothers here," Dorsey told AFP. Officials say the law is a response to the difficulties of "the search for identity faced by Afro-descendants".
Nathan Debos is another American citizen intent on taking Beninese citizenship. He plans to make a pilgrimage in January 2025 to attend a festival of Voodoo, known locally as Vodun. While at the festival in the small southern beach town of Ouidah dotted with memorials to the slave trade, he plans to begin the application for his passport.
Widely practiced in Benin, the Voodoo religion celebrates the worship of gods, natural spirits as well as the respect of revered ancestors. As president of the New Orleans National Vodou Day, Debos feels more comfortable in West Africa than in the United States. "We have too many problems with racism and it is difficult for us to feel at home," the man in his thirties said, adding that he was "delighted that Benin extends its hands out warmly to us and embraces us".
"It is wonderful". - Land of welcome - The government is already promoting the country's Voodoo culture as a way to bring in more foreign tourists, notably the descendants of slaves. Their return from America and elsewhere as full-time citizens of Benin is eagerly awaited by some like Seraphin Adjagboni, a leading Vodun dignitary in the south of the country.
"Our ancestors predicted it," the 54-year-old said, adding that "without this return, our history will never be complete". "If we struggle to achieve the development of our countries, it is because we have a part of ourselves elsewhere," Adjagboni said. Others, though, are more concerned about the law.
Beninese student Noel Sintondji, 24, said he was worried about the impact on the job market of "numerous people of African descent who will become Beninese overnight". But for Nadege Anelka, a 57-year-old from Martinique who has already settled in Benin, the law represents an "opportunity" to show solidarity and compassion with other people whose ancestors suffered during the slave trade. "I feel good in Benin and freer to flourish," said Anelka, who has set up a travel agency in the country.
"In each Beninese, I see my grandparents again. I find that we are similar and that is what struck me the first time when I came," she said..
