Last month, the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the country’s largest opposition coalition resumed negotiationsto address Venezuela’s decades-long crisis. Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chávez as president in 2013, has rebuffed opposition attempts to remove him from office as Venezuela slid into economic and humanitarian catastrophe. In a first step toward a political solution, at an October 17 meeting in Barbados, the delegations signed a set of agreements establishing plans for a competitive presidential election in 2024. Although the United States is not formally a party to these negotiations, Washington has indicated that it would ease the
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<p>New Caledonia’s international airport is closed and Australians are advised to exercise a high degree of caution, as protests turn deadly.</p>