American guitarist and songwriter Bob Weir, a founding member of the revolutionary, psychedelic jam band Grateful Dead, has died aged 78, his family announced Saturday.Weir was diagnosed with cancer in July and had beaten the disease, but “succumbed to underlying lung issues,” his family said in a statement on his personal website, without specifying where or when he died.”For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road,” the statement said. “Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music.””His work did more than fill rooms with music; it was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language, and a feeling of family that generations of fans carry with them.”Founded in San Francisco by Weir, Jerry Garcia, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann, the Grateful Dead became one of the leading music groups to emerge from the 1960s counterculture movement.With its trademark improvisational, genre-blending style, the band became known for never performing the same show twice, winning an avid and diverse legion of fans, and selling millions of records.The group revolutionized fan engagement, as followers — famously known as “Deadheads” — recorded and swapped bootleg tapes of the concerts in a communal, drug-addled camp environment that traveled from stadium to stadium, a trend later copied by other bands’ fandoms.The rockers disbanded in 1995, a few months after lead guitarist Garcia’s death at the age of 53, and a year after the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.Weir would however continue to perform intermittently with other living bandmembers, more recently in the group Dead & Company, which also included guitarist and singer John Mayer.”As we remember Bobby, it’s hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived,” the family said.”A man driftin’ and dreamin’, never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas,” the family said, quoting the songs “Cassidy” and “Lost Sailor,” written by Weir and the late John Perry Barlow.Following Weir’s death, 79-year-old drummer Kreutzmann became the last living co-founder of the Grateful Dead.Bassist Lesh died in October 2024 at the age of 84, while keyboardist McKernan died aged 27 in 1973.Drummer Mickey Hart, 82, joined the group in 1967.In 2024, the final year of Joe Biden’s presidency, Weir and other living Grateful Dead members were given Kennedy Center Honors, among the highest American arts awards.”The Grateful Dead has always been about community, creativity, and exploration in music and presentation,” Weir, Hart, Lesh and Kreutzmann said at the time.”Our music belongs as much to our fans, the Dead Heads, as it does to us. This honor, then, is as much theirs as ours.”

Several hundred supporters of deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro staged protests in the capital Saturday, a week after his capture by US forces, as the interim government moved to revive ties with Washington and slowly released some prisoners.Waving flags and placards with the face of the mustachioed ex-leader and his wife Cilia, around 1,000 protesters rallied in the west of Caracas and a few hundred in the eastern Petare district — far smaller than demonstrations Maduro’s camp has mustered in the past.”I’ll march as often as I have to until Nicolas and Cilia come back,” demonstrator Soledad Rodriguez, 69, said of the presidential couple who were taken by US forces to New York to face trial on drug-trafficking charges.”I trust blindly that they will come back — they have been kidnapped.”Notably absent from the rallies were top figures from the government, which has said it is reviving diplomatic contact with Washington and discussing possible cooperation on US President Donald Trump’s oil demands.Interim president Delcy Rodriguez instead attended an agricultural fair, where she vowed in televised comments she would “not rest for a minute until we have our president back.”The other two hardline powers in the government, Interior Minister and street enforcer Diosdado Cabello, and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, were also not seen at the demos.- Diplomatic maneuvers -Maduro claimed he was “doing well” in jail, his son Nicolas Maduro Guerra said in a video released Saturday by his party.Despite the shock of his capture during deadly nighttime raids on January 3, signs emerged Friday of cooperation with Washington after Trump’s claim to be “in charge” of the South American country.Rodriguez said Venezuela would deal with the United States through “the diplomatic route,” and Washington said US envoys visited Caracas on Friday to discuss reopening their embassy.The Venezuelan government did not respond when asked by AFP whether the US officials had met with Rodriguez.She has pledged to cooperate with Trump over his demands for access to Venezuela’s huge oil reserves.But she also moved to placate the powerful pro-Maduro base by insisting Venezuela is not “subordinate” to Washington.The US embassy in Colombia warned Saturday that “the security situation in Venezuela remains fluid” and advised Americans to leave the country “immediately” as commercial flights become available.- Anxiety over prisoners -Anxious relatives meanwhile camped outside jails, awaiting the promised release of political prisoners.Rodriguez’s camp on Thursday began freeing prisoners jailed under Maduro, saying a “large” number would be released in a gesture of appeasement that Washington took credit for.”Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you! I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done,” Trump posted Saturday night on his Truth Social platform.However, prisoners’ rights groups and the opposition said only 21 people had been released by Saturday evening, including several prominent opposition figures. Rights groups estimate there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners in Venezuela.Families held candlelight vigils outside El Rodeo prison east of Caracas, and El Helicoide, a notorious prison run by the intelligence services, displaying signs with the names of their imprisoned relatives.”I am tired and angry,” Nebraska Rivas, 57, told AFP, as she waited for her son to be released from El Rodeo.”But I have faith that they will hand him over to us soon,” she said, after sleeping on the pavement outside the prison for two nights.- Oil talks -Following Maduro’s capture, Trump vowed to secure US access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.The White House said Trump has signed an emergency order protecting US-held revenues derived from sales of Venezuelan oil, preventing them from being seized by courts or creditors.Chevron is currently the only US firm licensed to operate in Venezuela, through a sanctions exemption.At a White House meeting on Friday, he pressed top oil executives to invest in Venezuela’s reserves, but was met with a cautious reception.Experts say Venezuela’s oil infrastructure is creaky after years of mismanagement and sanctions.