The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is one of the most influential labor unions in the U.S. With more than 1.3 million members, the union occupies a near-mythological place in this country's rich, if often fraught, labor history. So when Teamsters President Sean O'Brien took the stage at this week's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, he invoked this history when he acknowledged the unprecedented nature of his speech. 

It was the first speech ever delivered by a Teamsters boss to a political party often criticized as hostile to labor unions. "Today, the Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party," O'Brien said. 

'The backbone to open the doors'
Although O'Brien's speech was not an "explicit endorsement" of Donald Trump or the GOP, it nevertheless showed "strong and surprising support from the otherwise left-leaning organization," Fox News said. O'Brien is "arguably an outlier among labor leaders," but his speech served as an "indicator of how much the traditional constituencies of the two major parties have flipped."

By speaking at the RNC and hailing Trump for having the "backbone to open the doors" to a union official, O'Brien "sends a signal to union members that voting for Trump is OK," The Boston Herald said. O'Brien "paid no heed to Trump's anti-labor record" and instead focused on "flattering Trump with the hope that Trump, if elected, would be nicer to the Teamsters and to all of labor," said Slate. As such, his appearance was a "huge gamble" that "more likely" has "done Trump a huge favor by seemingly giving his union's seal of approval to the GOP."

'Unconscionable'
Despite his calls for pro-union bipartisanship, O'Brien's RNC appearance has angered many within the Teamsters and across the Democratic left. It's "unconscionable for any Labor leader to lend an air of legitimacy to a candidate and a political party" like Trump and the GOP for both their history of anti-labor politics and broader policies targeting marginalized communities, said John Palmer, the Teamsters vice president at large, in an op-ed at the Las Vegas Sun.

While O'Brien may have scored in-person plaudits early in his speech — "particularly as he talked about the criticism he would receive from Democrats for speaking at the convention," The New York Times said — his later remarks earned "crickets. These were Republicans, after all," said The New Republic. 

When the U.S. agreed to normalize relations with the oil-rich yet desperately poor South American nation of Venezuela, it was with the proviso that Nicolás Maduro would hold "free and fair elections." Most of the world does not recognize the legitimacy of the presidency of Maduro, who inherited power from the late revolutionary Hugo Chávez in 2013 and whose reelection in 2018 was widely condemned as fraudulent. But an agreement reached last October may give Venezuelans the chance to vote the unpopular incumbent out of the Miraflores Palace on July 28. 

How is the election campaign going? 
The authorities disqualified hugely popular opposition leader María Corina Machado, who won more than 90% of the vote in the primaries, on "trumped-up grounds," said The Economist. Machado has since "ceded all her political capital" to proxy Edmundo González Urrutia, a 74-year-old diplomat who "until now had moved behind the scenes of power" and who leads in the polls by 20% to 30%, said El País. 

For the first time since 2013, the Maduro government "looks scared," said Foreign Policy. "It fears democracy," said Christopher Sabatini, a senior research fellow for Latin America at the U.K. policy institute Chatham House. About two-thirds of Venezuelans say they would support any opposition candidate against Maduro. "Stealing this contest won't be as easy as it was for Maduro in 2017, 2018 or 2020." 

Will the vote be 'free and fair'? 
The regime's internal polling shows that in a fair vote Maduro would be "totally doomed," a source said to The Economist. But he "appears determined to cling to power through intimidation." 

Maduro controls most state institutions, including the courts, electoral authorities, army and much of the media, "not to mention violent paramilitary gangs," said The New York Times. And there's "widespread doubt" that he would accept an opposition victory. 

What are the stakes? 
If Maduro claims victory, Venezuela will "remain paralyzed," said El País. A second presidency for a hostile Donald Trump would "complicate things even further." Also at stake is the future of Venezuela's oil reserves — the largest in the world — and the strength of its alliances with China, Iran and Russia.