WSJ.com What's News - Worldwide News Briefs for Jul 13

OPPOSITION RISES TO VENEZUELAN LEADER'S PLAN TO CEMENT POWER

Venezuela's opposition plans to hold a vote Sunday that its leaders hope will reject President Nicolás Maduro's strategy to rewrite the constitution and possibly dissolve the national legislature, giving him what critics say would be near-dictatorial powers.

BRAZIL'S CONVICTED EX-LEADER DECLARES INNOCENCE, AS LEFT DEFENDS HIM

Brazil's left-wing parties rallied around former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after the metalworker turned working class hero was sentenced to almost a decade in prison for corruption, throwing plans for a grand political comeback into disarray.

ECB'S DRAGHI TO SPEAK AT JACKSON HOLE, GIVING CHANCE TO SIGNAL SHIFT

Mario Draghi's address at the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole conference is expected to give a further sign of the ECB's growing confidence in the eurozone economy and its reduced dependence on monetary stimulus.

EMMANUEL MACRON TAKES REGAL APPROACH TO FRENCH PRESIDENCY

The air of regal authority surrounding the young presidency of Emmanuel Macron was on full display Thursday as he played host to U.S. President Donald Trump.

NOBEL LAUREATE LIU XIAOBO, WHO FOUGHT FOR DEMOCRACY IN CHINA, DIES IN POLICE CUSTODY

Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who embodied the hopes of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement long after the protests were crushed, died while still under police guard after a battle with liver cancer at 61 years old.

IRAN'S STATURE GROWS AS RIVALS QUARREL

It's been more than five months since President Donald Trump declared that he was putting Iran "on notice." For the Iranian regime, that is turning out to be a rather comfortable place, as a series of international events have combined to bolster Tehran's influence, at least for now.

BRITISH BILL SETS UP MORE BREXIT STRIFE

The U.K. government published its first draft legislation on Brexit since a June election cost Prime Minister Theresa May her parliamentary majority, marking the first step in what looks set to be a bitterly fought domestic battle

CHINA DEFENDS TRADE WITH SANCTIONS-HIT NORTH KOREA

Beijing said a 10.5% rise in its trade with Pyongyang in the first half of the year was part of a normal economic relationship with its neighbor.

(For continuously updated news from the Wall Street Journal, see WSJ.com at http://wsj.com.)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 13, 2017 17:14 ET (21:14 GMT)