The World in Brief from The Economist

María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s opposition leader, was reportedly arrested by the government of Nicolás Maduro.

Joe Biden declared an emergency in California and promised federal support as wildfires scorched large parts of Los Angeles County. Also, Inflation in China slowed for the fourth straight month in December, despite the government’s recent efforts to ease deflationary pressure.

The fire chief of Los Angeles County said that two people had been killed and more than 1,000 buildings destroyed by wildfires.

The fire chief of Los Angeles County said that two people had been killed and more than 1,000 buildings destroyed by wildfires.

Thirty thousand people were forced to flee a wildfire around Los Angeles. Also, Donald Trump repeated his suggestion that Greenland and the Panama Canal should become part of America.

Meta, a social-media giant, will abandon its fact-checking programme in favour of crowdsourced checks.

Meta, a social-media giant, will abandon its fact-checking program in favor of crowdsourced checks.

A powerful earthquake struck near Shigatse, one of Tibet’s holiest cities and its second largest. Also, a former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, said he was considering entering the race to replace Justin Trudeau