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On April 10, something happened in Cuba that hasn't happened in a decade: a U.S. government plane touched down outside of Guantánamo Bay. We have confirmation of this from the Cuban regime via their official Communist Party propaganda newspaper, Granma. Several media outlets, including Fox News, CNN, and the Miami Herald, are also confirming it, based on statements from unnamed senior State Department officials. The State Department delegation — supposedly made up of assistant or deputy-level officials but not Marco Rubio himself — reportedly warned the Cuban regime that it has a very short window in which to make a...

It's not a done deal but the situation in Iran appears to be heading for an off-ramp just as the situation in Cuba might be gearing up. Here's what we know at the moment. First, U.S. officials quietly visited Cuba last Friday to directly make the case for reform.The meeting last Friday itself marks a diplomatic breakthrough because it's the first time a U.S. government plane has touched down since President Obama visited a decade ago in an effort for rapprochement...A senior State Department official told Axios that multiple meetings took place but would not name the participants, except for...

In UN Watch's press release, the NGO cited the UN's Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) recent nomination of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination. UN Watch demanded an explanation on Saturday from democratic countries for why they'd allowed "serial abusers of human rights" to be elected to key positions in the United Nations. In UN Watch's press release, the NGO cited the UN's Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) recent nomination of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination, which would include an active role in shaping policy on women's rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention, as...

At 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 14, Ana Belen Montes, a senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), walked into a public telephone booth outside Washington's National Zoo and made two calls to pager numbers later traced by federal agents to Cuba's Directorate of General Intelligence (DGI). She already had compromised the identities of CIA agents, revealed U.S. military secrets and exposed the contents of classified files. But, as Montes sent repeated signals to her DGI handlers during the days immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the ...

HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban government said Thursday it would release 2,010 prisoners in a move that comes while the Trump administration puts extreme pressure on the island’s government with a suffocating oil blockade. The announcement said the pardons were a “humanitarian gesture” in connection with Holy Week and didn’t mention mounting pressures with the U.S. The government said the prisoners affected are foreigners and Cubans, including women, the elderly and young people. It didn’t say when they were being released or under what conditions, nor did it mention the crimes they were accused of committing. Authorities also provided no...

A Russia-flagged tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of oil has docked in Cuba, marking the first time in three months that an oil tanker has reached the island nation. ...The Anatoly Kolodkin entered the Bay of Matanzas under clear skies and light winds at sunrise. Much of the nearby city – and the majority of Cuba – was without power when the tanker arrived at the port area. Cuba has not received an oil tanker in three months, according to President Miguel Diaz-Canel, exacerbating an energy crisis that has led to seemingly endless blackouts across the country of 10 million people...

What happened The U.S. is allowing a sanctioned Russian “shadow fleet” tanker to deliver oil to Cuba, President Donald Trump said Sunday, effectively breaking his de facto blockade. “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with that, whether it’s Russia or not,” he told reporters on Air Force One. Who said what Trump’s administration has gone after Cuba “more aggressively than any U.S. government in recent history,” The Associated Press said. The oil blockade was “an effort to force regime change,” but it has had “devastating effects” on civilians, “leaving many...

The Trump administration had threatened to punish countries who attempted to break his effective fuel blockade, aimed at weakening the communist government

The Mexican Navy announced on Thursday that it has begun a search-and-rescue mission in the Caribbean Sea for two sailboats carrying "humanitarian aid" to Cuba. Reuters describes the vessels as "sailboats" and says they left Isla Mujeres, in the Mexican Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, last week. They did not arrive in Havana as scheduled on Tuesday or Wednesday. The journey is about 300 to 350 miles, depending on the route. Combined, the two boats had nine people on board, including eight adults and a four-year-old child. The Mexican navy said Thursday that it was searching for two boats transporting...

Declassified intelligence showed that Chinese signals-intelligence collection facilities had been operating in Cuba since at least 2019. "China and Cuba are negotiating to establish a new joint military training facility on the island, sparking alarm in Washington that it could lead to the stationing of Chinese troops and other security and intelligence operations just 100 miles off Florida's coast." — The Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2023. President Donald Trump acted before the Chinese could base missiles in Cuba.

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio Dominguez on Friday sought to convince Canada to prop up the fading Communist regime in Havana, arguing that Canadian companies could lose billions from nullified contracts if the regime falls. De Cossio praised Cuba’s “important trade relations” with Canada and the hefty investments Canadian companies have made in Cuba. “Despite the fact that we do not have a coincidence in all the political and international positions, we have always known how to solve our problems, our differences, and work with them based on dialogue and based on mutual respect,” he said. The...

Socialists from the US and Europe put on a concert in Cuba — just as the country was plunged into third blackout this month Saturday. A convoy of socialists — including streamer Hasan Piker, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, members of Code Pink and lefty Irish hip-hop group Kneecap — is in Cuba with the goal of supporting Cuba’s oppressive communist regime. But Piker and others have been dogged by criticism for staying in a 5-star hotel in Havana, and Kneecap played a concert in the capital city as the rest of the nation of 11 million people faced...

The U.S. Treasury Department has said Cuba won’t be allowed to take delivery of Russian crude, even as the fuel-starved island appears poised to receive two tankers carrying oil and gas. In a general license published Thursday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Cuba to a list of countries that would be blocked from transactions involving the sale, delivery or offloading of crude or petroleum products that originate from Russia.

US President Donald Trump vowed Monday to “take” Cuba as the communist island plunged into darkness under a total power blackout linked to a crippling oil embargo imposed by Washington. After nearly seven decades defying the United States, Havana’s communist authorities are under massive pressure from a Trump administration determined to make history. “You know, all my life I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it?” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I do believe I’ll be…having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said. “Whether I free it, take it —...

Cuba plunged into an unprecedented blackout after its entire electrical grid suddenly suffered a total collapse on Monday, briefly leaving roughly 10 million residents in total darkness. “At 1:54 p.m. local time, there was a disconnection of the national electrical grid resulting in a complete power outage across Cuba which includes the Havana metropolitan area,” the U.S. Embassy in Cuba said. The nationwide outage comes just two days after a large crowd of protesters, fed up with the island’s energy crisis, were caught on camera attacking a local Communist Party headquarters in Cuba, ransacking the building and attempting to set...

The NY Times is reporting this afternoon that President Trump is demanding Cuba's current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, be removed from power in any deal with the country. This may be the first time people inside the administration have said so directly, but it has been obvious for weeks that this is what they had in mind.The other part of this, which also isn't really news, is that Trump is willing to leave some version of the regime in place so long as that regime is America friendly moving forward.As U.S. and Cuban officials negotiate over the future of the Communist-ruled...

Summary. Blackouts exacerbated by US oil blockade Violent protests very rare in Cuba Cuba says it has opened talks with US. HAVANA, March 14 (Reuters) - Anti-government protesters attacked a Communist Party office in central Cuba early on Saturday, a state-run newspaper reported, in ​a rare outburst of public dissent triggered by blackouts exacerbated by a U.S. oil blockade. A rally against power cuts and food shortages began peacefully in the ‌city of Moron late on Friday then turned violent in the early hours of Saturday morning, Invasor newspaper said.

Protesters in Cuba have ransacked a Communist Party building following a rally over steep food prices and persistent power cuts, in a rare show of public dissent. Five people were arrested after a small group vandalised the offices in the central city of Moron overnight into Saturday, Cuba's Interior Ministry (Minint) said. Discontent among Cubans has been mounting as the island is buffeted by rolling blackouts and shortages of food, fuel and medicine, exacerbated by a prolonged US oil blockade. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that, while the protesters' complaints and demands were "legitimate", "violence and vandalism that threatens citizen...

The last time I wrote about Havana Syndrome was back in January of 2025. US Intelligence Agencies had officially determined in 2023 that Havana Syndrome was not the result of an attack by a state actor. Advertisement Five of those agencies determined it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was responsible for the symptoms, either as the result of purposeful actions — such as a directed energy weapon — or as the byproduct of some other activity, including electronic surveillance that unintentionally could have made people sick, the officials said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe...

Pedro Quiala Carmenate says he’s not religious but he’s praying for President Donald Trump to liberate Cuba. “There’s no food, there’s no electricity and there’s no medical care,” he told The Post from his neighborhood, Old Havana, where he was speaking on his cell phone Monday during one of the frequent blackouts on the island. In addition to power outages, an increase in crime, no trash collection and climbing inflation, the 34-year-old pro-democracy activist can barely find enough food to feed his children. Due to lack of food, he’s keeping his kids, aged six and fifteen years old, from class,...