Maduro deflects election questions, targets opposition leader

• During a speech at the Supreme Court on Friday, Incumbent Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro did not address demands for the release of documentation confirming the results of the July 28 presidential election, in which he supposedly had a slight edge over the opposition candidate according to official communication. However, he announced that "the judiciary will deal with opposition leader Maria Corina Machado." Maduro referred to the Venezuelan opposition's presidential candidate, Gonzalez Urrutia, who the opposition claims won the election, as a "puppet being controlled by Mrs. Machado, who is fleeing from justice, as his family knows — son-in-law, son, and daughter-in-law." Speaking to journalists, he ruled out the possibility of negotiating with the opposition regarding the power transfer in Venezuela. "The only one who can 'negotiate' with Mrs. Machado is the prosecutor, so she should turn herself over to the justice system to answer for the crimes she has committed," said Maduro. However, he did not specify the crimes.

• David Dempsey was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison for attacking police officers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, using his hands, feet, a flagpole, crutches, pepper spray, and broken furniture. This is one of the harshest sentences handed down in more than four years of prosecuting riot participants. He was so aggressive that at one point, he attacked another rioter who tried to subdue him. "Dempsey was one of the most violent participants in the riots, during one of the most violent periods, at the site of the most violent confrontations at the Capitol," prosecutors wrote in court documents.

• Feverish searches are underway for one of the passengers of a cruise ship who went overboard in the middle of the night into the Adriatic Sea near Croatia. Local authorities reported that early on Friday morning, a "young Brit" from the Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas went missing. The VesselFinder website, which tracks ships, showed that the 125,000-tonne ship circled, searching for the passenger. Several ships are involved in the search, but he has yet to be found.

• Brazilian firefighters are battling the worst Amazon fires in 20 years - according to government satellite data. The horizon along the Trans-Amazonian Highway near the town of Apui was covered with smoke. Firefighters from as far as 563 kilometres away gathered to extinguish this year's exceptionally early and intense fires. Firefighters worked throughout the night, extinguishing the flames. Extremely dry conditions over the past year have facilitated the spread of fires in rainforests, which rarely burn under normal conditions.

• Canada has imposed new sanctions on Belarus on the fourth anniversary of the rigged presidential elections - Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly announced in a statement on Friday. The sanctions target individuals and entities violating human rights. "Today, we are sending a clear message to the government of Belarus - Canada will not tolerate the open violation of human rights by the Lukashenko regime," said Minister Joly, quoted in the Canadian Foreign Affairs statement. The statement recalled that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe described the 2020 presidential elections in Belarus as "neither transparent, free, nor fair" and recommended their annulment due to irregularities at all stages of the electoral process. The new sanctions list includes ten individuals, including judges who violated human rights by sentencing democracy defenders and citizens protesting the 2020 elections, as well as individuals from Belarus's military production sector.

Source: Washington Post, Daily Mail, Reuters, PAP