Raul Castro resigns as head of Cuba’s Communist Party
HAVANA — Raul Castro said Friday he is stepping down as head of Cuba’s Communist Party, ending an era of formal leadership that began with his brother Fidel and the country’s 1959 revolution.
The 89-year-old Castro made the announcement in a speech at the opening of the eighth congress of the ruling party, the only one allowed on the island.
He said he was retiring with the sense of having “fulfilled his mission and confident in the future of the fatherland.”
Castro didn’t say who he would endorse as his successor as first secretary of the Communist Party. But he previously indicated he favors yielding control to 60-yearold Miguel Díaz-Canel, who succeeded him as president in 2018.
Liberty sues Jerry Falwell Jr.
RICHMOND, Va. — Liberty University has filed a civil lawsuit against its former leader Jerry Falwell Jr. seeking tens of millions in damages after the two parted ways acrimoniously last year.
The complaint, filed Thursday in Lynchburg Circuit Court, alleges Falwell crafted a “wellresourced exit strategy” from his role as president and chancellor in the form of a lucrative 2019 employment agreement while withholding damaging information from the evangelical school about a personal scandal that would explode into public view the following year.
In a statement, Falwell said the lawsuit was full of “lies and half truths” and called it an attempt to defame him and discredit his record.
Trump-era orders on energy revoked
WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Friday revoked a series of Trump administration orders that promoted fossil fuel development on public lands and waters, and issued a separate directive that prioritizes climate change in agency decisions. The moves are part of a governmentwide effort by the Biden administration to address climate change ahead of a virtual global summit on climate change that President Joe Biden is hosting next week.