Reuters

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has won a third term with 51% of the vote, the country’s electoral authority said just after midnight on Monday, despite multiple exit polls which pointed to an opposition win.

The authority said opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won 44% of the vote, though the opposition had earlier said it had “reasons to celebrate” and asked supporters to continue monitoring vote counts.

Quad foreign ministers meet with eye on China

DW

The Quad group, comprising the US, Japan, Australia and India, has gained increasing prominence in recent years amid efforts to counter China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday met his counterparts from Japan, Australia and India in Tokyo for talks to shore up maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.

The grouping that brings together the US, Japan, Australia and India, known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, dates back to the early 2000s.

But the informal club, simply known as Quad, has gained increasing prominence in recent years amid efforts to counter China’s growing presence and clout in the Indo-Pacific.

 ‘Panic, havoc’ amid Bureij, Nuseirat evacuation

Al Jazeera

Palestinians are fleeing the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip after the Israeli army issued new evacuation orders. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said 86 percent of the Gaza Strip is currently under such orders.

Israel’s security cabinet has authorised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to determine a response to the rocket attack that killed 12 people, most of them children, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel blames Lebanon’s Hezbollah for the attack.

Local authorities in China’s Hunan respond to floods with rescue, relief efforts

Xinhua

Rescuers relocate  residents at Jingtang Village of Zixing City, central China’s Hunan Province, July 28, 2024. The residual winds from Typhoon Gaemi continue to bring heavy rains to many places in Hunan Province, and local authorities are actively carrying out rescue and relief work. (Photo by Li Ke/Xinhua)