Russian President Vladimir Putin said “the country’s economic troubles will pass in no more than two years, and accused the West of seeking to subdue and disarm Russia to gain control over its natural resources,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The normalization of diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than a half-century of enmity would leave only North Korea on America’s Cold War blacklist, and only Iran, Sudan and Syria as countries that are regarded by the United States government as pariah states that sponsor terrorism,” the New York Times reports.

“Political historians said the steps announced Wednesday to restore relations with Cuba were akin to events in the administrations of Richard M. Nixon and Jimmy Carter that led to normalized ties with China in 1979 after three decades of hostility, and events in the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton that led to the establishment of relations with Vietnam in 1995, 20 years after the war.”

“American intelligence officials have concluded that the North Korean government was ‘centrally involved’ in the recent attacks on Sony Pictures’s computers, a determination reached just as Sony on Wednesday canceled its release of the comedy, which is based on a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader,” the New York Times reports.

“Senior administration officials, who would not speak on the record about the intelligence findings, said the White House was still debating whether to publicly accuse North Korea of what amounts to a cyberterrorism campaign… Some within the Obama administration argue that the government of Mr. Kim must be directly confronted, but that raises the question of what consequences the administration would threaten — or how much of its evidence it could make public without revealing details of how the United States was able to penetrate North Korean computer networks to trace the source of the hacking.”

“The United States will open talks with Cuba aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations and opening an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years,” the New York Times reports.

“President Obama plans to make a televised statement from the White House at noon about the breakthrough, which opens the door to a major international initiative that could help shape his legacy heading into his final two years in office.”