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Venezuela’s Machado freed after being ‘taken away by force’: opposition

Venezuela’s opposition said Thursday its leader Maria Corina Machado was freed after earlier being “taken away by force” by security agents when leaving a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.The initial announcement by Machado’s team that the 57-year-old had been “violently intercepted” while leaving a rally in Caracas on the eve of Maduro’s inauguration …

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Los Angeles fires rage on as residents sift through ‘death and destruction’

Two massive wildfires that engulfed whole neighborhoods and displaced thousands in Los Angeles were totally uncontained on Thursday, authorities said, as shell-shocked residents began to pick through the charred wreckage of their homes. Swaths of the United States’ second-largest city lay eerily deserted due to the fires’ destruction and sweeping evacuation orders, with smoke blanketing the …

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‘We’re not afraid’: Venezuelans defy repression to challenge Maduro’s rule

Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday emerged from hiding to lead last-ditch protests against the swearing-in of Nicolas Maduro for president after elections he is accused of stealing.Machado, 57, who last appeared in public in August, defied the risk of arrest to arrive at a protest in Caracas on the back of a …

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Major LA fires ‘0%’ contained as residents survey havoc

Shell-shocked Los Angeles residents on Thursday surveyed the devastation from fast-moving fires that have claimed at least five lives, as officials warned the largest blazes remained totally uncontained.Swathes of the city lay eerily deserted due to the fires’ destruction and sweeping evacuation orders, with acrid smoke blanketing the sky.A vast firefighting operation continued for a …

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‘Venezuela will be free’: anti-Maduro protests roil Caracas

Opponents of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro took to the streets in their thousands Thursday in a last-ditch protest against his swearing-in for a third six-year term as president.After a July election that many believe was stolen, opposition supporters gathered in the capital Caracas, and towns and cities nationwide, to denounce what some called a  “dictatorship.””Get out …

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Ukraine’s leader calls for support as Trump’s return opens ‘new chapter’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said Donald Trump’s return to the White House would open “a new chapter” and reiterated a call for Western allies to send troops to help “force Russia to peace”.Zelensky spoke at a meeting of about 50 allies at the US air base Ramstein in Germany, the last such gathering …

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