Cuba

Cuba works to restore power after nationwide blackout Cuba began restoring electricity after a nationwide blackout, with officials saying about two-thirds of the island had power by morning as authorities investigated the cause and reported no immediate damage from a separate offshore quake. Cuba was working to bring electricity back online following a countrywide outage, the government said, without specifying the cause. As of this morning, about two-thirds of the country had power again, according to the government. There…

CUBA CHARGES SIX WITH TERRORISM AFTER COAST GUARD SHOOTOUT NEAR HAVANA Cuban prosecutors have filed terrorism charges against six crew members of a U.S.-flagged speedboat intercepted by the island’s coast guard after a deadly shootout on Feb. 25 near the country’s northern shoreline, authorities said. The attorney general’s office said the defendants — described as U.S.-based Cuban nationals — are accused of loading the vessel with weapons and heading toward Cuba with the alleged aim of destabilizing the government in…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday raised the prospect of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, saying Secretary of State Marco Rubio is handling contacts with Havana “at a very high level,” as tensions spike and reports surface of back-channel talks with a member of the Castro family. “The Cuban government is talking with us, and they’re in a big deal of trouble,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a trip to Texas. “They have no money. They have no anything right now, but they’re talking with us,…

Ireland urges citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Cuba as fuel shortages, rolling blackouts and shrinking access to food and medical care deepen one of the island’s worst humanitarian crises in decades. In updated guidance issued in recent days, Ireland joined the United Kingdom and Canada in advising against travel to the Caribbean nation “unless absolutely necessary.” The Department of Foreign Affairs said Cuba is now under its second-highest advisory level, warning that travel is likely to present “a clear and…

Havana paid tribute to 32 Cuban soldiers killed during a U.S. military operation that removed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from power, in a solemn ceremony attended by revolutionary leader Raul Castro and President Miguel Diaz-Canel, underscoring spiraling U.S.-Cuba tensions. The government decreed two days of tribute for the dead, some of whom had been assigned to Maduro’s protection detail, according to Cuban officials. Twenty-one of the fallen were from the Interior Ministry, which oversees the intelligence services;…

Trump warns Cuba to ‘make a deal,’ threatens to cut off Venezuelan oil and cash as Havana pushes back U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Cuba to “make a deal” or face unspecified consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would stop — an escalation that follows Washington’s toppling of Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro last week. “There will be no more oil or money going to Cuba — zero!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, without detailing what kind of deal he was…

Hurricane Rafael has escalated to a Category 2 storm and is poised to strengthen even more as it moves northward towards western Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center. As of mid-morning, the hurricane boasted sustained winds of 175 km/h and was edging closer to the southern coastline of the Caribbean island. At 10 a.m. local time, Rafael was positioned approximately 205 km southeast of Havana, Cuba’s bustling capital. Strong winds and torrential rains were already beginning to impact the Isle of Youth, an area…

The Cuban government has announced its renewed efforts to restore electricity across the island after state-run media revealed that the national power grid experienced a second major failure within just 24 hours. In a morning television broadcast, Lazaro Guerra, the nation’s leading electricity official, disclosed that yet another grid failure in western Cuba prompted technicians to begin reconnecting three crucial power plants to the electrical system, temporarily hindering progress. "I can't guarantee that the system will…