Cuba has announced the death of 32 ⁠of its citizens during the United States military operation to abduct and detain Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in Caracas. 
  
Havana said on Sunday that there would be two days of mourning on ‌January 5 and ‌6 in ⁠honor of those killed and that ‌funeral arrangements would be announced. 
 
The state-run Prensa Latina agency said the Cuban “fighters” were killed while “carrying out missions” on behalf of the country’s military, at the request of the Venezuelan government. 

Delcy Rodriguez, formerly Venezuela’s vice president, has been formally sworn in to lead the South American country following the abduction of Nicolas Maduro in a United States military operation. 
  
On Monday, Rodriguez appeared before Venezuela’s National Assembly to take her oath of office. 
 
Speaking before the legislative body, composed largely of government loyalists, Rodriguez reaffirmed her opposition to the military attack that led to the capture and removal of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. 
  

Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera has won a third term in office, securing an outright majority in the presidential election held on December 28, according to provisional results. 
   
Touadera, a 68-year-old mathematician who took power a decade ago, was seeking a third term ⁠after a constitutional referendum in 2023 scrapped the presidential term limit. 
  

At least 30 villagers have been killed and several others are missing after gunmen raided a village in northern Nigeria’s Niger state, police said Sunday, the latest in a cycle of deadly violence in the conflict-hit region. 
  
The gunmen stormed the Kasuwan-Daji village in the Borgu local government area on Saturday evening and opened fire on residents. They also razed down the local market and several houses, state police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun said in a statement. 
  

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Israel to reverse a pending ban on 37 NGOs working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. 
  
In a statement on Friday, Guterres called the work of the groups “indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work,” according to spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. He added that the “suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire”. 
 

Donald Trump has said the U.S. “captured” Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flew them out of the South American country during a pre-dawn assault on Caracas and the surrounding region. 
   
The U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, said the couple would face criminal charges and trial in the U.S. based on a 2020 New York indictment.  
 

Turkiye’s government says it has detained more than 100 ISIL (ISIS) suspects in nationwide raids, as the group shows signs of intensified regional activity after a period of relative dormancy. 
  
Turkiye’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced the Wednesday morning arrests in a social media post, saying Turkish authorities rounded up 125 suspects across 25 provinces, including Ankara. 
 

Russian drones blasted apartment buildings and the power grid in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa in an overnight attack that injured six people, including a toddler and two other children, officials said Wednesday. 
  
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in his country’s eventual victory in the nearly four-year war against its neighbor. 
  

Thailand has released 18 ‍Cambodian prisoners of war, three days after the two countries agreed to a renewed ceasefire to end weeks of deadly border clashes. 
  
Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defense said the soldiers arrived on Cambodian soil at 10 am local time on Wednesday after 155 days in ‌Thai custody. 
 
Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the repatriation, saying it was done “as a demonstration of goodwill and confidence-building”, according to a statement. 
   

A UN humanitarian team visited el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region for the first time since a paramilitary force overran the city in October, carrying out a rampage that is believed to have killed hundreds of people and sent most of the population fleeing.