Nation & World Glance
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan officials declared socialist leader Nicolas Maduro the easy winner of Sunday’s presidential election, while his leading challenger questioned the legitimacy of a vote marred by irregularities and called for a new ballot to prevent a brewing social crisis from exploding.
The National Election Council announced that with almost 93 percent of polling stations reporting, Maduro won nearly 68 percent of the votes, beating nearest challenger Henri Falcon by more than 40 points.
The disputed victory is likely to heighten international pressure on Maduro, as voter turnout was the lowest in a presidential race since the start of Venezuela’s leftist revolution two decades ago. Even as voting was taking place Sunday, a senior State Department official warned that the U.S. might press ahead on threats of imposing crippling oil sanctions on the nation that sits atop the world’s largest crude reserves.
The election “without any doubt lacks legitimacy and we categorically refuse to recognize this process,” Falcon told supporters before the results were announced.
Falcon was joined in his call for a new election by third-place finisher Javier Bertucci, who got around 11 percent of the vote.
PAHOA, Hawaii — A volcano that is oozing, spewing and exploding on Hawaii’s Big Island has gotten more hazardous, sending rivers of molten rock pouring into the ocean Sunday and launching lava skyward that caused the first major injury.
Kilauea volcano began erupting more than two weeks ago and has burned dozens of homes, forced thousands of people to flee and shot up ash clouds from its summit that led officials to distribute face masks.
Lava flows have picked up speed in recent days, spattering molten rock that hit a man in the leg.
He was outside his home Saturday in the remote, rural region affected by the volcano when the lava “hit him on the shin and shattered everything from there down on his leg,” Janet Snyder, Hawaii County mayor’s spokeswoman, told the Hawaii News Now TV station.
Lava that’s flying through the air from cracks in the Earth can weigh as much as a refrigerator and even small pieces can be deadly, officials said.
In North Korea nuke site closing, spectacle trumps substance
TOKYO — Foreign journalists will be allowed to journey deep into the mountains of North Korea this week to observe the closing of the country’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site in a much-touted display of goodwill before leader Kim Jong Un’s planned summit with President Donald Trump next month.
Expect good imagery. But not much else.
The public display of the closure of the facility on Mount Mantap will likely be heavy on spectacle and light on substance. And the media will be spending much of their time in an unrelated tourism zone that North Korea hopes will be the next big thing for its economy if Kim’s diplomatic overtures pay off in the months ahead.
For sure, the closure is a milestone, marking an end to the world’s last active underground testing site and offering some important insights into Kim’s mindset as he sets the stage for his meeting with Trump.
U.S., China putting trade war on hold after progress in talks
WASHINGTON — The United States and China are pulling back from the brink of a trade war after the world’s two biggest economies reported progress in talks aimed at bringing down America’s massive trade deficit with Beijing.
“We are putting the trade war on hold,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday.
After high-level talks Thursday and Friday in Washington, Beijing agreed in a joint statement with the U.S. to “substantially reduce” America’s trade deficit with China, but did not commit to cut the gap by any specific amount. The Trump administration had sought to slash the deficit by $200 billion.
Still, Mnuchin said the two countries had made “meaningful progress” and that the administration has agreed to put on hold proposed tariffs on up to $150 billion in Chinese products. China had promised to retaliate in a move that threatened a tit for tat trade war.
He said they expect to see a big increase — 35 percent to 45 percent this year alone — in U.S. farm sales to China. Mnuchin also forecast a doubling in sales of U.S. energy products to the Chinese market, increasing energy exports by $50 billion to $60 billion in the next three years to five years.
Survivors of Texas massacre confront ‘spiritual war zone’
SANTA FE, Texas — Inside a packed church sanctuary, the seniors of Santa Fe High School and the prosecutor speaking to them confronted the challenges borne of the shooting that took the lives of 10 people at the school near Houston.
The young graduates have to grieve their slain classmates and cope with their emotions as they try to heal after the mass shooting.
“You are entering into a war zone in this world, and it’s a spiritual war zone,” said Jack Roady, the Galveston County district attorney, in his speech to them. Roady has to prosecute the capital murder case against the teenager suspected of killing eight students and two substitute teachers. He said later that the case presented the most deaths in one crime that he had ever faced.
This deeply religious community came together Sunday for prayer services at local churches and a traditional end-of-school baccalaureate service that acknowledged the pain wracking Santa Fe, a town of 13,000. Mourners also gathered at a Houston-area mosque to remember the life of a slain exchange student from Pakistan.
The baccalaureate is typically a religious celebration to honor school graduates. After Friday’s shooting, it was moved from the high school auditorium to nearby Arcadia First Baptist Church. Every pew in the church was filled, and folding chairs against the wall provided seating the pews couldn’t.
Speaker and Santa Fe graduate Aaron Chenoweth gave a short testimony about trials and tribulations this graduating class faced. He called on the community’s faith in God.
“If you give God the glory, you will always find comfort and love,” he said, receiving a standing ovation.
Roady told the students that they were “suffering in ways that no one else can understand.” He called on them to draw closer to their faith and each other.