Disputed Venezuela election
Italy moves toward populist government
Italy’s president has convened the leaders of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League for consultations that could lead to the first populist government in the eurozone’s third largest economy. The prospect of a 5Star-League government is weighing on markets and on Italy’s European allies. The cost of borrowing to fund Italy’s persistently high public debt rose again on Monday and the Milan stock market was down 2 percent. France’s economics minister has already sounded an alarm that the eurozone’s financial stability could be threatened if a populist government blows Italy’s deficit commitments. The leader of the 5Stars, Luigi Di Maio, and League leader Matteo Salvini indicated agreement Sunday on a candidate for premier to present to President Sergio Mattarella, who must grant his approval before a parliamentary confidence vote.
UK committee says dirty Russian money threatens security
The British Parliament’s foreign affairs committee has slammed the government for “turning a blind eye” to the role London’s financial center plays in laundering the proceeds of Russian corruption, saying it helps the Kremlin finance its aggressive foreign policy. The committee says in a report published Monday that despite the tough rhetoric over the nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin’s allies were able to continue “business as usual” in the U.K. The committee says “the use of London as a base for the corrupt assets of Kremlin-connected individuals is now linked to a wider Russia strategy with implications for the UK’s national security.” It adds that failing to act signals that “the U.K. is not serious about confronting the full spectrum of President Putin’s offensive measures.”
Verdict to be delivered in family ax murder trial
A South African man accused of murdering three members of his family with an ax arrived in court on Monday morning to hear the verdict in his case. Henri van Breda also is charged with attempting to murder his sister in the alleged attack on Jan. 27, 2015. Marli, then 16, suffered severe injuries and is reported to be unable to remember the incident. Van Breda, who handed himself over to police in September 2016, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, including an additional charge of obstructing justice. His trial began more than two years after his parents and older brother were killed in Stellenbosch, a scenic wine-growing region. The van Breda family had emigrated to Australia but returned to South Africa several years ago.
Indonesia’s most volatile volcano erupts again
Indonesia’s most volatile volcano spewed smoke and ash early Monday in the latest of several eruptions in less than two weeks. Mount Merapi on the main island of Java erupted twice, sending a column of volcanic material up to 1,200 meters (3,930 feet) into the air and making ash fall in several villages, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the disaster mitigation agency spokesman. He said the alert level of the volcano was not raised, which is at a normal level with no eruption expected in the foreseeable future. An eruption of Merapi on May 11 sent nearby residents fleeing to safer areas. There have been no reports of casualties, and operations at Adi Sucipto airport in Yogyakarta was not disturbed by Monday’s eruptions. The 2,968-meter (9,737-foot) mountain between Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces is the most active of 500 Indonesian volcanoes. Its last major eruption in 2010 killed 347 people and caused the evacuation of 20,000 villagers. Indonesia, an archipelago of 240 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines.
where ruling party activists scanned on cellphones government-issued “Fatherland Cards.” Many voters said they hoped it would bring them a cash bonus or even a free apartment.
Under Venezuela’s electoral law, any political activity must take place at least 650 feet (200 meters) from voting centers. National Electoral Council president Tibisay Lucena acknowledged a handful of complaints, but insisted they were minor compared to past elections.
Falcon said his campaign found “red points” at 86 perecent of polling sites nationwide. He called them a “pressure mechanism, an element of political and social blackmail” directed at the poor.
Voting centers across Venezuela appeared largely empty for the election despite assurances from government officials that millions had turned out to vote by midmorning.
Turnout in the previous three presidential elections averaged around 79 percent. Chavez, after taking office in 1999, eliminated mandatory voting in Venezuela.
Opposition leaders said the lifeless voting centers were evidence that Venezuelans heeded their call to abstain from voting in an election they contended was certain to be rigged in favor of Maduro’s socialist policies.
Opinion polls say the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans distrust the electoral council. Turnout figures in last year’s elections for a constitutional assembly, which the opposition also boycotted, were inflated by at least 1 million votes, according to the company that provided technology for Venezuela’s electronic voting machines for more than a decade.
Both Maduro and the two antigovernment presidential candidates who broke with the opposition’s push to boycott the election had urged voters to go to the polls.
Maduro, setting an example for government supporters who he called on to vote early, cast his ballot in Caracas shortly after fireworks and loud speakers blasting a military hymn roused Venezuelans from sleep around 5 a.m.
He said Venezuelans would provide an example of democracy to the world and brushed back suggestions he was taking the country down an authoritarian path.
“It’s offensive when they say the Venezuelan people are falling under dictatorship,” he said after voting.
Maduro also said that if he won the election, he would seek an understanding with his opponents on a way forward for the crisis-wracked country. “I’m going to stubbornly and obsessively insist in dialogue for peace,” he said.