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Assata Shakur, a Black liberation activist who was given political asylum in Cuba after her 1979 escape from a U.S. prison where she had been serving a life sentence for killing a police officer, has died, her daughter and the Cuban government said.

Shakur, who went by Joanne Deborah Chesimard before changing her name, died Thursday in the capital city of Havana due to “health conditions and advanced age,” Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Shakur’s daughter, Kakuya Shakur, confirmed her mother’s death in a Facebook post.

Officials in New Jersey, where Shakur had been arrested, convicted and imprisoned, said she was 78.

A member of Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, Shakur’s case had long been emblematic of the fraught relations between the U.S. and Cuba. American authorities, including President Donald Trump during his first term, demanded her return from the communist nation for decades.

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As uncertainty simmers in Venezuela, interim President Delcy Rodríguez has taken the place of her ally President Nicolás Maduro, captured by the United States in a nighttime military operation.

Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.

She’s part of a band of senior officials in Maduro’s administration that now appears to control Venezuela, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation.

On Saturday, Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president, and the leader was backed by Venezuela’s military. In a televised address, Rodríguez gave no indication that she would cooperate with Trump, referring to his government as “extremists.”

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A day after the U.S. military toppled Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump appeared to have his eyes trained on the next target for American intervention: Greenland.

Since taking office in 2025, Trump has repeatedly floated buying the ice-covered Arctic island from Denmark and has refused to rule out taking the resource-rich land through military force. Trump has argued that annexing Greenland is a national security necessity, noting its mass of critical minerals and strategic location.

He renewed those calls Sunday, Jan. 4 as his administration took a victory lap for their ouster of Venezuela's socialist dictator and as he promised to "run" the South American country until a democratic transition could occur.

"We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense," Trump told The Atlantic in an interview published Jan. 4, describing the island as reportedly "surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships."

The same day, Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, posted a photo of Greenland covered with the American flag. Above it, Miller wrote "SOON."

Denmark's ambassador to the United States, Jesper Moeller Soerensen, responded, saying: "We expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark."Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has repeatedly rebuked Trump’s interest in colonizing Greenland. The "U.S. shall not take over Greenland," he said in stark terms in December.

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The Kremlin is preparing to massacre civilians then use fake news messaging in state-run and co-opted international media to pin blame for the mass casualty event on Ukraine, Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine (SZRU) said on Friday in a rare public statement.

The Russian operation is likely to take the form of an “armed provocation” against an Orthodox Christian church (or another location where civilians gather peacefully) and may take place overnight on Jan. 6-7, according to the statement – the date of Christmas in the Julian calendar and a major religious holiday for the Christian faithful in Russia.

The strike would most likely take place within the Russian Federation or in a Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia with a Christian Orthodox community. A “site of high symbolic significance” might be targeted instead of a church, the statement said.

The Kremlin’s objective in perpetrating such an attack would be to undermine White House support for Ukraine in ongoing US-led peace talks – and, with luck, torpedo them.

Aside from citing “credible sources,” the SZRU statement offered no proof to confirm  these allegations – noting, however, that terrorism and false flag operations are common practice for Russian intelligence agencies, and calling on independent media to be critical of Kremlin-produced content.

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The Department of Homeland Security is pausing the immigration applications from an additional 20 countries after an expansion of travel restrictions took effect Jan. 1.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, in a memo released Thursday, said it would pause the review of all pending applications for visas, green cards, citizenship or asylum from immigrants from the additional countries. The memo also outlines plans to re-review applications of immigrants from these countries as far back as 2021.

The list, which is composed mostly of countries in Africa, includes Angola, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Last month, the Trump administration expanded the list of countries with travel restrictions to the U.S. from 19 to 39, plus the Palestinian Authority. The move comes as the administration is bringing sharper scrutiny of those who have followed legal steps to seek permanent status in the U.S.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Saturday condemned the Trump administration over the U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of its president, calling it an “act of war.”

“I was briefed this morning on the U.S. military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as well as their planned imprisonment in federal custody here in New York City,” Mamdani wrote Saturday afternoon on X.

“Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law. This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those abroad, it directly impacts New Yorkers,” he continued.

The newly inaugurated mayor noted during a Saturday press conference in Brooklyn that “tens of thousands” of Venezuelans call New York City their home, promising that his administration will “issue relevant guidance” as it continues to monitor growing tensions between Venezuela and the U.S.

The Trump administration has accused Maduro of facilitating the flow of narcotics into the U.S. He’s denied any links to the drug trade, but now stands indicted by Trump’s Department of Justice on narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges.

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