News Wrap: Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrested after protest

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• Amna Nawaz:

  We start the day's other headlines with a fast-moving and uncertain situation in Venezuela. Aides to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado say she was arrested today while leaving an anti-government protest in the capital of Caracas.

  Machado had emerged from months of hiding to address supporters. It was part of a last-ditch effort to stop the swearing-in of President Nicolas Maduro for a third six year term scheduled for tomorrow. Chaotic scenes followed, with Machado escorted through a crowd wearing a helmet. Her aides say she was then detained, but government officials deny this.

  A video later emerged of her saying she is safe, though her supporters say the video was coerced. This afternoon, the White House said it condemns any attempts by Maduro's government to intimidate the opposition.

  Turning now to the Middle East, Lebanon's Parliament elected a new president today, filling a post that's been vacant for more than two years.

  (Applause)

• Amna Nawaz:

  Lawmakers erupted in Applause after Army Commander Joseph Aoun won the majority of votes after 13 prior attempts to select a leader. Aoun was widely seen as the preferred choice of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

  Experts say that Lebanon will need international assistance as it seeks to rebuild after 14 months of fighting between Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.

  Addressing Parliament today, Aoun said his win marks a new phase in Lebanon's history.

• Joseph Aoun, Lebanese President (through interpreter):

  My pledge is to exercise my role as commander in chief to invest in the army, control our borders, fight terrorism, respect the truce with Israel, and prevent Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The next government will be tasked with implementing the cease-fire agreement that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war and it faces an economic crisis that's gripped the nation for the past six years.

  In Gaza, meanwhile, health officials said today that the death toll from the Israel-Hamas war has now topped 46,000 people. Of those, more than half were women and children. But officials don't say how many were fighters and how many were civilians.

  That comes as Israel attacked several places across Gaza, including an overnight strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp. Witnesses say children were among the dead. Israel continues to blame Hamas, which hides in residential areas, for civilian deaths.

  In Germany, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced details today of another $500 million in security aid to Ukraine. Austin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used their final meeting to urge the incoming Trump administration to continue supporting Ukraine's war effort. Zelenskyy said a new chapter would begin for Ukraine's European allies when Trump takes office in less than two weeks.

  Austin, meanwhile, urged European nations to stand strong in the face of Russian aggression.

  Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense: And if we flinch, you can count on Putin to push further and punch harder. Ukraine's survival is on the line. But so is the security of Europe, the United States, and the world. If tyrants learn that aggression pays, we will only invite even more aggression, chaos, and war.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The Biden administration still has nearly $4 billion in funding to provide arms to Ukraine. Barring any further announcements, it would be up to president-elect Trump to continue sending that aid. But he has signaled a potential shift in America's support for Ukraine once in office.

  New York's highest court rejected president-elect Trump's request to block his sentencing in his hush money case. It's scheduled for tomorrow morning in Manhattan. Trump's hopes for a last-minute delay now lie in the hands of the Supreme Court. His lawyers filed an emergency bid there yesterday. Prosecutors pushed back, saying there's no reason for the court to intervene.

  It's not clear when the justices may weigh in. Trump was convicted last may on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He denies all wrongdoing.

  A winter storm is hammering parts of the Southern U.S., where even small amounts of snowfall can disrupt everyday life. More than 80 million Americans spent the day under some sort of winter weather advisory from the plains of New Mexico all the way to the Carolinas. This morning, residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area woke up to a slick mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain.

  Schools closed for someone million students across North Texas and Oklahoma. And more than 2000 flights were canceled nationwide. Forecasters say the snow will continue to pile up through the end of the week.

  In Antarctica, an international team of scientists say they have drilled through almost two miles of bedrock to reach some of the world's oldest ice. The researchers say the ice core is at least 1.2 million years old. It includes ash layers from volcanic eruptions, as well as bubbles of air breathed by our human ancestors a million years ago.

  They hope that analysis of the ice will show how the Earth's atmosphere and climate have changed over time and provide clues into how human activity affects the climate today.