Russia condemned the U.S. military action in Venezuela on Saturday, saying there was no tenable justification for the attack and that "ideological hostility" had prevailed over diplomacy.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday acknowledged the economic demands of Iranian protesters, while warning against what he described as rioting.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that U.S. forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro after launching a "large scale strike" on the South American country.

"The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country," Trump said on Truth Social, around two hours after explosions rocked Venezuela's capital Caracas.

The Ukrainian army said Friday it only hit "military targets", a day after Russia accused Kyiv of firing drones at a hotel and cafe in Ukraine's occupied south, killing 27 people.

Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine's southern Kherson region said those killed were revellers celebrating the New Year and that two of the dead were children, describing the incident as a "terrorist act".

A top Iranian security official on Friday warned U.S. President Donald Trump against intervening in protests gripping the country, saying it would "destabilize the entire region".

"Trump should know that any American interference in this internal matter would amount to destabilizing the entire region and harming American interests," Ali Larijani, who heads Iran's highest security body said.

President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States is "locked and loaded" to respond if Iran kills protesters, after cost-of-living demonstrations in the country turned deadly.

Protesters and security forces clashed in several Iranian cities Thursday with six reported killed in the first deaths since the unrest escalated.

Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani took his midnight oath of office on a centuries-old Quran, marking the first time a mayor of New York City uses Islam's holy text to be sworn in and underscoring a series of historic firsts for the city.

The 34-year-old Democrat became mayor in a long-closed subway station beneath City Hall, the first Muslim, first South Asian and first African-born person to hold that position.

Widening demonstrations sparked by Iran's ailing economy spread Thursday into the Islamic Republic's rural provinces, with at least seven people being killed in the first fatalities reported among security forces and protesters, authorities said.

The deaths may mark the start of a heavier-handed response by Iran's theocracy over the demonstrations, which have slowed in the capital, Tehran, but expanded elsewhere. The fatalities, two on Wednesday and five on Thursday, occurred in four cities, largely home to Iran's Lur ethnic group.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said Russia was carrying the near four-year war "into the New Year" with more than 200 drones fired at Ukraine, mainly targeting energy infrastructure.

Several dozen people are presumed dead and around 100 injured after a fire ripped through a crowded bar in the luxury Swiss ski resort town of Crans-Montana, police said early Thursday.