CARACAS — The stakes grew higher for Venezuela’s electoral authority to show proof backing its decision to declare President Nicolás Maduro the winner of the country’s presidential election after the United States on Thursday recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the victor, discrediting the official results of the highly anticipated vote. The U.S. Department of State announcement followed calls from multiple governments, including close allies of Maduro, for Venezuela’s National Electoral Council to release detailed vote counts, as it has done during previous elections.

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When Tom Shicowich’s toe started feeling numb in 2010, he brushed it off as a temporary ache. At the time, he didn’t have health insurance, so he put off going to the doctor. The toe became infected, and he got so sick that he stayed in bed for two days with what he assumed was the flu. When he finally saw a doctor, the physician immediately sent Shicowich to the emergency room.

The muscles in your hips and torso strain to hold your lower half against the wall. You arch backward and extend one hand up to clasp the next hold—your thighs and calves burning with the effort of holding you steady and in balance. A moment later, when the tips of your fingers have secured their grip, there’s a wholesale shift in the muscles you call on to maintain your safe purchase on the climbing wall.

The unprecedented economic boom in China since the early 1980s has also sparked an explosion of interest in photography. Despite the government’s tightening restrictions on media, young photojournalists and documentary photographers continue to push the limit, investigating issues central of a society under constant transition. The fine arts, a market in general on the rise in recent years has offered a new voice for visual artists looking for new modes of experiment and expression.