The National Academy of Sciences in a study published Saturday concluded that the “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy” is the most plausible explanation for symptoms presented by U.S. diplomats in Cuba and China in 2016. U.S. officials had suspected a sonic attack when about two dozen diplomats in Havana reported dizziness, headaches, and cognitive issues. Canadian diplomats in Guangzhou, China, also reported similar symptoms in 2017.

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro on Monday claimed a sweeping win in an internationally rejected congressional vote. Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela and its allies won 67 percent of the National Assembly seats in the Sunday election that saw only 31 percent of 20 million registered voters turn out. Senior opposition figures boycotted the poll, but opponents who still participated secured 18 percent of the vote.

Negotiations over a free trade agreement have reached a “difficult phase,” U.K. Business Secretary Alok Sharma said Friday. Talks resumed a week ago, but the same disagreements over fishing rights, fair competition, and dispute resolution resurfaced as the lawmakers scrambled to reach a deal before the Dec. 31 deadline. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday evening to decide the fate of the agreement after acknowledging that “significant differences remain” during an earlier phone call on Saturday.

Local officials and residents of the Zabarmari community in northeastern Nigeria gathered around the bodies of 43 slain farmers and fishermen during a funeral on Sunday. Boko Haram extremists attacked them early Saturday morning while they worked in a nearby rice field in Jere, Nigeria. The community shrouded each of them in white cloths, prayed, and laid them to rest in mass graves.

Joshua Wong will spend 13½ months in prison after protesting excessive use of force outside a police station in June of last year. His fellow pro-democracy activists Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow received seven- and 10-month sentences, respectively. The West Kowloon magistrates court handed down the sentences on Wednesday after authorities detained the three activists without bail in November.

Hospitals in England will start vaccinating medical workers as early as next week. Wednesday's authorization makes Britain the first country to approve the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine for widespread use. Early study results report the vaccine is 95 percent effective at preventing mild to severe coronavirus infections.

A U.S. district judge in Fayetteville, Ark., on Tuesday dished out a six-year jail term to Paul Petersen for running an illegal adoption scheme in three states. Petersen, a Republican, worked as an elected county assessor in Arizona and also as an adoption attorney. He received a $100,000 fine and faces additional sentences next month for convictions in Utah and Arizona.