Kansas law invalidates transgender driver’s licenses and birth certificates
Kansas has officially invalidated driver’s licenses and birth certificates for transgender residents who changed their sex designation on government documents under a law that took effect Thursday. Roughly 1,700 individuals in Kansas will be required to obtain a new standard driver’s license at a cost of $26, according to the House Substitute for Senate Bill 244. The state’s vehicle division informed residents that no grace period will be offered for those who need to update their IDs, according to The Kansas City Star. “Please note that the Legislature did not include a grace period for updating credentials. That means that once the law is officially enacted, your current credentials will be invalid immediately, and you may be subject to additional penalties if you are operating a vehicle without a valid credential,” the Kansas Department of Revenue’s vehicle division said. JUDGE ORDERS KANSAS TO STOP CHANGING TRANS PEOPLE’S SEX LISTING ON THEIR DRIVER’S LICENSES The law also establishes clear rules for shared private spaces in government buildings, restricting their use to a single sex. This applies to facilities such as restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms and shower rooms where individuals may be partially or fully undressed. The bill further reinforced a strict definition of sex and gender as an “individual’s biological sex, either male or female, at birth.” Consequently, individuals or entities who violate the space restrictions may face significant civil penalties or potential criminal charges. KANSAS JUDGE SAYS TRANSGENDER RIGHTS NOT VIOLATED BY STATE’S REFUSAL TO CHANGE SEX ON DRIVER’S LICENSES Individuals are also given the right to take legal action if someone of the opposite biological sex violates their privacy in these spaces. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, whose veto of the bill was ultimately overridden by the Republican-led Kansas Legislature Feb. 18, had previously called it a “poorly drafted bill with significant, far-reaching consequences.” “It is nothing short of ridiculous that the Legislature is forcing the entire state, every city and town, every school district, every public university to spend taxpayer money on a manufactured problem,” she said. “Kansans elected them to focus on education, job creation, housing and grocery costs.” SUPREME COURT CONSERVATIVES SIGNAL SUPPORT FOR STATE TRANSGENDER SPORTS BANS DURING ORAL ARGUMENTS Under the bill, entering a multiple-occupancy space designated for the opposite sex constitutes a violation. After a first warning, a second offense could result in a $1,000 civil penalty and a third or subsequent violation is treated as a class B misdemeanor. Anyone who believes their privacy has been violated in such a setting may bring a civil lawsuit against the violator and seek $1,000 in liquidated damages, according to the bill. Government entities, such as state agencies or local districts, that fail to align with the new regulations are subject to steep fines. Entities face a $25,000 civil penalty for a first violation and $125,000 for each subsequent violation. The law provides specific exceptions for entering spaces designated for the opposite sex, including custodial or maintenance work, medical or emergency aid, law enforcement duties, assisting someone who needs help or children under 9 accompanied by a caregiver.
Denver mayor orders ICE agents detained if they ‘assault or shoot’ residents
Denver Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston announced an executive order Thursday directing city authorities to detain an ICE agent considered to have used excessive force against or who “assaults or shoots or kills” civilians in the Mile High City. The announcement comes weeks after Philadelphia’s top prosecutor made headlines by likening ICE agents to Adolf Hitler’s Geheime Staatspolizei and warning of similar repercussions that have yet to be put into practice, as Johnston’s now have. “To protect Denver, our first responders will always provide life-saving aid to anyone who is injured, no matter who injured them,” Johnston said on the steps of the city government’s plaza downtown. “No ICE officer gets to stand in our way of saving someone’s life. To protect Denver, if we see any ICE officer using excessive force against a Denver resident, we will step in to detain that officer and remove them from the situation,” Johnston said, adding federal agents should be held to the same standard as city police officers. PHILADELPHIA’S THREAT TO PROSECUTE ICE COULD TRIGGER LANDMARK COURT FIGHT OVER AUTHORITY, EXPERTS WARN “Regardless of what the federal government does, we will not abdicate our responsibility to prosecute crimes in our city.” Johnston said the order was drafted by his appointed city attorney, Michiko “Miko” Brown. He said Brown is a descendant of Japanese Americans who were collectively detained and sent to internment camps under an executive order signed by Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. Johnston gestured to the courthouse behind him, noting it was named for former Colorado Republican Gov. Ralph Carr. In 1942, Carr took a different tack than many Western state governors and opposed Roosevelt’s internment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans across the region. Johnston went on to say he would not abide by “abduction[s]” of residents, remarking that “no one will have to worry if their dad will be abducted when he heads to the store.” SOROS-BACKED PHILADELPHIA DA VOWS TO ‘HUNT’ DOWN ICE AGENTS: ‘WE WILL FIND YOU’ “[I]n Denver, we have proven time and time again that we are stronger than any obstacle we face because we are a city that turns to each other and not on each other. Through fires and floods, booms and busts, and tournaments and raids, we have stayed true to the values of the West: All are welcome. All are valued. All are protected.” In Philadelphia, District Attorney Larry Krasner recently took to the podium in Penn Square to denounce ICE as “a small bunch of wannabe Nazis” and pledged that “if we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities.” That remark led to a congressional warning. House Intelligence Committee member Greg Steube, R-Fla., requested that Attorney General Pam Bondi investigate Krasner’s remarks under a federal statute that prescribes up to 10-year felony charges for threatening federal officers. Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment.
Travis County DA faces renewed ‘soft on crime’ criticism after career criminal charged with murder
A Texas-based career criminal with a lengthy rap sheet is behind bars in Travis County after he was charged with murdering a father of five outside a 7-Eleven in Austin, reviving scrutiny of Travis County District Attorney José Garza and what critics call his controversial prosecutorial record and “soft on crime” approach. Caleb Anthony Jenkins, described by police as a career criminal, was charged with murder in connection with a shooting last year that left a 25-year-old father dead outside a 7-Eleven. According to Austin police, Jenkins allegedly shot the victim and drove off. But critics argue the killing may have been preventable. Garza’s office previously dismissed or declined to prosecute three separate gun charges against Jenkins in incidents dating back to 2022. He was also arrested in 2023 on a domestic violence charge and failed to appear in court, as Fox News reported. Most recently, he was re-arrested and released after his bond was raised. Taken together, the developments have intensified public criticism of Garza, the Democratic district attorney backed by liberal mega-donor George Soros, AUSTIN CRIME WATCHDOG CALLS ON DA GARZA TO STEP ASIDE IN CASE AGAINST 19 INDICTED OFFICERS Garza, who was elected Travis County DA without prior experience as a prosecutor, has faced criticism from police advocacy groups and victims’ families since taking office. They have accused him of deliberately slow-walking certain cases and embracing lenient sentencing policies. The criticism has sparked national attention in years past. In 2023, the family of 25-year-old Doug Cantor, who was shot and killed in the 2021 Sixth Street mass shooting in downtown Austin, criticized Garza for slow-walking the trial of the gunman. Family members told Fox News Digital in an interview at the time that they believed Garza had put the case on the “back burner.” “It’s very clear that his focus and attention is not on this case,” Nick Kantor told Fox News Digital in an interview reflecting on the two-year anniversary of his brother’s death — and the way Garza, who has been widely criticized for soft-on-crime policies, has handled the case. AUSTIN DA GARZA CREATES CONFUSION WITH ANNOUNCEMENT OF IMPENDING INDICTMENTS AGAINST MULTIPLE POLICE OFFICERS “He’s doing things that are clearly causing distress on the trial and on the overall outcome of the case and for getting justice for my brother,” Kantor said. Other victims’ families cited similar behavior from Garza’s office in interviews with Fox News Digital. While overall reported crime in Travis County has declined, opponents argue dismissal rates have been “political,” and could further endanger public safety. It “appears that Garza has now become more of an advocate for the criminal than he has for the victim,” Dennis Farris, president of the Austin Police Retired Officer’s Association, previously told Fox News Digital. “The prosecution is acting more like defense attorneys than they are prosecutors,” Farris said in an interview roughly one year after Garza took office. “Whatever his skewed view of what criminal justice reform is, it isn’t working. It sure isn’t working for the victims.” CRIME EXPERTS RESPOND TO SOROS DEFENDING SUPPORT FOR PROGRESSIVE DAS AMID CRIME WAVE: ‘DISASTROUS’ “It used to be that they got the victims’ buy-in before offering plea bargains. Now it doesn’t appear he’s even doing that, because they’re not even communicating with them, and that’s what’s leading to the revictimization of these families.” Current and former local law enforcement officers have criticized Garza’s actions and his alleged “war on cops,” after the Soros-backed district attorney campaigned on indicting police officers and “reimagining” policing in Austin. Soros contributed $652,000 to the Texas Justice & Public Safety PAC in the months leading up to the 2020 Travis County DA election, according to campaign finance records. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP That same PAC spent almost $1 million on digital and mail advertisements to help Garza’s campaign, as Fox News reported. The Travis County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Oregon Dems block effort to alert ICE before illegal immigrant murderers are released
Oregon Senate Democrats unanimously voted to kill an effort to require that federal authorities be notified when an illegal immigrant convicted of a violent felony is about to be released from prison, leading the chamber’s top Republican to say the majority is choosing ideology over common sense. In Oregon’s legislature, the minority caucus is permitted to file an alternative “minority report” to a majority party-led bill, which would then replace the majority’s legislation before it heads to the governor as a “last-ditch” effort to amend or stop a proposal, according to a source familiar with Salem’s processes. This particular minority report would have directed state officials to notify federal authorities when an illegal immigrant convicted of a violent felony, such as murder, was about to be released. That would give ICE an opportunity to transfer the person to its custody without the kind of expansive resource deployment seen in some uncooperative blue cities. The Oregon State Senate voted down the minority report for Senate Bill 1594, 18-12, along party lines, with one lawmaker excused, as Republicans warned of the tally’s public safety consequences. ANTI-ICE LAW SET TO TAKE EFFECT IN MAINE AS GOVERNOR FACES INCREASED CRITICISM FOR ALLOWING IT AMID SENATE RUN The original and active SB 1594 would require Oregon’s Justice Department to consult with the state Office of Immigration and Refugee Advancement on updated “model policies” at immigration facilities. State Sen. Mark Meek, D-Oregon City, who is considered a moderate, defended his vote on the floor in Salem by saying that ICE should instead “sit outside” state prisons because recapturing subjects would be like “fishing in a pond; in a barrel.” “If the federal government wants to be serious about taking care of that business, then that’s the place you should be,” Meek said. Critics of that view said it would run counter to the left’s tendency to protest broad ICE operations in certain localities. DEM GOVERNOR’S ‘DANGEROUS’ ANTI-ICE LAW IGNITES BACKLASH AFTER ALLEGED BOX CUTTER ATTACK BY ILLEGAL ALIEN Oregon’s corrections department previously tracked the immigration status of those convicted of felonies but has not run a check since 2022, after a 2021 bill restricted the tracking of whether an inmate has an ICE detainer, according to a source familiar with the matter. “The vote runs contrary to the clear will of Oregonians and Americans across party lines, who overwhelmingly support the removal of illegal immigrants convicted of violent or serious crimes across multiple reputable polls,” the minority caucus said in a statement on the minority report’s failure. State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, called the bill “as common sense as common sense gets.” “Do we want violent felons who have no legal right to be present in Oregon to remain here, or should there at least be an opportunity for federal authorities to take custody?” “The effect of voting ‘no’ today is to affirm that a person who is here illegally and commits a felony in Oregon should remain here as the felon is released from prison,” added state Sen. Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte. Fox News Digital reached out to Oregon Senate President Robert Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, and Senate Majority Leader Kayse Jama, D-East Portland, for comment.
Epstein and the politics of distraction
After the beginning of Trump’s second term, the connections between capitalism, white supremacy and imperial domination became increasingly clear. These have been highlighted through ICE raids as modern-day slave patrols, global criminal operations such as the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and United States assistance to Israel’s genocide in Gaza as a bipartisan US and transnational corporate experiment. The growing understanding that people in the Global South, along with Black, Indigenous and other People of Colour (BIPOC) within the imperial core, face a common enemy has galvanised an anti-colonial, revolutionary movement committed to radical transformation. And then the release of the Epstein files flooded public discourse. Jeffrey Epstein was a financier convicted of sex crimes involving minors. After renewed federal charges in 2019, he died in jail (officially ruled a suicide). The case triggered public outrage about ruling class impunity, media focus on unsavoury associations between the political and corporate class and a plethora of conspiratorial narratives about cover-ups. The Epstein case became far more than a criminal proceeding; it reflects a symbolic exposure of ruling class impunity and concentrated power and a spectacle of corruption within an empire in deep crisis and decline. The Epstein case exposed ruling class criminality while simultaneously displacing structural accountability. Importantly, “spectacle” does not mean “fake”; it means the organisation of politics through symbolic drama that displaces structural political analysis. With spectacle, social contradictions (inequality, social crises and instability) are dramatised rather than structurally challenged. Advertisement The enduring media and public fixation on the Epstein files, particularly as their release proceeds with little accountability and continued narratives that discredit and isolate survivors, serves less as accountability and more as a political diversion from systemic injustices: Racism, capitalism, the growth of the police state and ongoing international impunity. More troubling still, it marks another step in the erosion of democracy and the consolidation of expansionist, war-driven fascism. Fascist spectacle In work by Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Guy Debord, Umberto Eco and others, fascist spectacle involves anti-intellectual and emotionally driven mass mobilisation around simple moral binaries (pure people v the corrupt ruling class), where action is revered while thought is reviled; the replacement of institutional process with symbolic imagery and drama; and mythic narratives of national decay and rebirth. Political theorist Roger Griffin calls this rebirth “palingenic ultranationalism”, that is, destruction as a precondition for rebirth. The function of spectacle is to subvert principled analysis and resistance to oppression with emotion – outrage, disgust, despair and helplessness. Conspiracy theories are the narrative engine of spectacle. They transform systemic crisis and social instability into simple, emotionally gripping stories of social taboo-breaking, centred on hidden and untouchable enemies, laying the groundwork through which authoritarian solutions are marketed as necessary and even redemptive. When structural violence becomes visible, but accountability remains absent, public anger often seeks explanation through personalised and conspiratorial narratives rather than systemic analysis. Amid growing distrust and corruption in mainstream media and the rise of citizen-driven and alternative social media ecosystems, conspiracy theories surrounding the Epstein case have blossomed: Claims of secret global cabals engaged in immoral sexual criminality, ritualistic fantasies involving human sacrifice, cannibalism and ancient symbolic structures and explicitly racist and anti-Semitic tropes about hidden rulers, among others. Theories like these, whether wholly true, partially true or false, are not new; fascist movements have historically mobilised around the idea that the nation is being secretly corrupted by a degenerate ruling class, with a radical cleansing necessary to return to a righteous path. These narratives do not expose a corrupt system; they obscure and mystify it. By sensationalising corruption into myth and providing explicit, though untouchable, targets for public outrage, they displace rigorous anti-colonial and material analyses of structural exploitation, greed and state violence with collective authoritarian longing for a strongman and the suppression of dissent to restore order. Advertisement The criminality of Epstein and the powerful figures who orbited him and participated in his abuses have come to symbolise a degenerate ruling class with identifiable names and faces, targets who could be exposed and jailed, thereby clearing the narrative space for a heroic white knight to ride in with promises of salvation. As Hannah Arendt warned, conspiracy thinking thrives when trust in institutions collapses. The Epstein scandal intensified the sense of a ruling class operating above the law and of a justice system which protects its own, conditions ideal for authoritarian movements to exploit by insisting the system is irredeemably rigged and that only a strong leader can tear it down. As such, the spectacle of the Epstein scandal can absorb and manipulate public outrage, redirecting it away from necessary structural accountability in the form of decolonisation and redistribution of wealth, ultimately reinforcing the very systems it appears to challenge. In doing so, it promotes the aesthetics of politics – the spectacle – rather than grounded critiques of capitalism and imperial power. Further, it serves to distract from failures ultimately promoting oppression and war. According to Federico Caprotti, various forms of fascist spectacle produce a “collage” which both expresses and obscures the syncretic ideology of the regime. The grand spectacle: War When politics becomes theatre rather than collective progress dependent on accountability, transformation or reform, crisis becomes emotional drama, drama demands release (internal resolution) or escalation and escalation inevitably finds its expression in externalised war, in which the nation performs a grand spectacle of unity and sacrifice on the largest possible stage. War acts as a stabilising force when internal contradictions cannot be resolved through collective mobilisation. With its uniforms and marches, war channels discontent by uniting a fragmented, outraged population against an externalised enemy, transforming righteous anger at the violence, oppression and greed of a ruling class into manufactured unity, heroism and meaning through violence against “the other”. These dynamics, outlined by Benjamin decades ago, feel alarmingly familiar in the present moment, including in the spectacle surrounding the Epstein scandal. In this context, external conflict functions not only as policy but as emotional consolidation, redirecting internal
From Gaza to defence: Five key takeaways from Indian PM Modi’s Israel visit
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has wrapped up a two-day visit to Israel, which was marked by a welcoming embrace from his counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, and a conspicuous silence about Israel’s genocidal war in occupied Palestinian territory. During the visit, which began on Wednesday, the two leaders lauded their strong friendship, which they said has deepened bilateral ties, and signed agreements on a range of issues, including innovation and agriculture. “You are a great friend of Israel, … Narendra. You are more than a friend. You are a brother,” Netanyahu told Modi when both leaders addressed the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Netanyahu showed Modi around Yad Vashem, a memorial in Jerusalem to the victims of the Holocaust, and hosted a dinner after they had spoken to the Knesset, where Modi was conferred with the parliament’s highest honour. This was the second ever visit by an Indian prime minister to Israel after Modi’s first visit in 2017. That time, he also did not visit Palestine despite India’s long history of supporting the Palestinian cause. While India opposed the creation of Israel in 1948 and formalised diplomatic relations only in 1992, relations between the two countries have improved since then, flourishing particularly since Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014. Since then, their ties have blossomed, anchored in defence and the shared nationalistic leanings of their leaders. Here are five key takeaways from Modi’s trip to Israel: Netanyahu greets Modi during a special session of the Knesset on February 25, 2026 [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters] Full support for Israel, silence on Gaza genocide Wednesday was the first time an Indian leader had addressed the Knesset. Modi received a standing ovation after declaring: “India stands with Israel firmly, with full conviction, in this moment and beyond.” Advertisement Modi told the Israeli parliament that he carries “the deepest condolences of the people of India for every life lost and for every family whose world was shattered in the barbaric terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7” in 2023. “We feel your pain. We share your grief. India stands with Israel firmly, with full conviction, in this moment and beyond,” he said. “No cause can justify the murder of civilians. Nothing can justify terrorism.” The Indian prime minister referred to the Mumbai attacks in 2008, which New Delhi has blamed on neighbouring Pakistan, saying: “Like you, we have a consistent and uncompromising policy of zero tolerance for terrorism with no double standards.” Modi also threw his weight behind United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, stating that India “supports all efforts that contribute to durable peace and regional stability”. While Modi said he backed “dialogue, peace and stability in the region”, he skipped any mention of the continuing genocide in Gaza, where the Israeli army has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians since October 2023. Anwar Alam, a senior fellow at the Policy Perspective Foundation, a think tank in New Delhi, said the timing of Modi’s visit is “too poor and has grossly compromised India’s historical pro-Palestine stand”. Alam argued that while New Delhi, a leader of the anticolonial nonalignment movement, can continue to maintain ties with Tel Aviv, “India cannot allow itself to display such insensitivity to Palestinian sufferings and stand with the coloniser.” Modi signs the guestbook at Yad Vashem as Netanyahu and Dani Dayan, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum, watch on February 26, 2026 [Ilia Yefimovich/AFP] Modi emphasises ‘civilisational ties’ with Israel One reason Modi, unlike previous Indian leaders, has displayed such warmth towards the Israeli prime minister is the Indian Hindu right’s enthusiasm for the ideology of Zionism, analysts said. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has roots in a philosophy, Hindutva, which ultimately seeks to transform India into a Hindu nation and a natural homeland for Hindus anywhere in the world – similar to Israel’s view of itself as a Jewish homeland. During his speech to the Knesset, therefore, Modi doubled down on what he called the “civilisational ties” between the two nations. He started his address to the Knesset by announcing himself as “a representative of one ancient civilisation addressing another”. “We are both ancient civilisations, and it is perhaps no surprise that our civilisational traditions also reveal philosophical parallels,” he said, quoting the Israeli “principle of ‘tikkun olam’ about healing the world”. Advertisement “In India, there is great admiration for Israel’s resolve, courage and achievements,” Modi said. “Long before we related to each other as modern states, we were linked by ties that go back more than 2,000 years.” Modi mused about “returning to a land to which I have always felt drawn”. “After all, I was born on the same day that India formally recognised Israel – September 17, 1950.” While India formally recognised Israel in 1950, two years after its formation, it only established diplomatic relations with it in 1992. Modi disembarks as he arrives at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, on February 25, 2026 [Shir Torem/Reuters] Deepening defence ties These days, India is Israel’s largest weapons buyer, pumping billions of dollars into Israel’s defence industry each year. In 2024 as Israel waged its war on Gaza, Indian weapons firms sold Israel rockets and explosives, according to an Al Jazeera investigation. On Thursday, Modi held talks with Netanyahu focused on further boosting ties in the areas of defence and security along with trade, technology and agriculture. “We have decided to establish the Critical and Emerging Technologies Partnership. This will give new momentum to cooperation in areas such as AI, quantum, and critical minerals,” Modi said. The two countries are also currently negotiating a free trade agreement. Elevating strategic ties India and Israel are reportedly inching closer to an alliance, along with other global powers, to boost security cooperation. Before Modi’s visit, Netanyahu pitched a “hexagon of alliances” that he said would include India, Greece, Cyprus and other unnamed Arab, African and Asian states to collectively stand against what he called “radical” Shia and Sunni Muslim “axes” of adversaries in
Trump U-turn: Is Venezuelan oil really available to Cuba again?
After months of a crippling oil blockade on Cuba imposed by the United States, the fuel-starved country may now see some relief after the US government said it would begin authorising companies to resell Venezuelan oil, even as tensions between the two reach a head. On Wednesday, the US Department of the Treasury said it would allow the resale of Venezuelan oil for “commercial and humanitarian use” in Cuba as the small island nation faces one of its worst fuel crises in decades. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Venezuela is the largest provider of oil to Cuba. However, since US forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January and imprisoned him to face drugs and weapons charges in a New York court, the Donald Trump administration has taken control of Caracas’s oil and halted exports to Havana. Washington has long had frosty relations with Cuba, but Trump’s administration is specifically seeking regime change there by the end of 2026, US media has reported. The US’s policy shift this week, however, comes after Caribbean leaders sounded the alarm about the dire situation in Cuba, an island nation of 10.9 million people. At a regional meeting of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries on Wednesday, attended by US Secretary of State and Cuban-American Marco Rubio, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness called on Washington to ease the pressure. “Today, many Cubans are facing serious economic hardship, energy shortages, and growing humanitarian challenges,” Holness said. Cuba is not a CARICOM member but shares close ties. Advertisement “We are sensitive to their struggles. But we must also recognise that a prolonged crisis in Cuba will not remain there. It can impact migration, security and economic stability across the Caribbean, including Jamaica,” he added. A man carries pork rinds to sell as Cubans brace for fuel scarcity measures after the US tightened its oil supply blockade, in Havana, Cuba, February 6, 2026 [Norlys Perez/Reuters] What’s the situation in Cuba now? Cuba’s state-dominated economy was already struggling under a US embargo which has been in place since 1962, dating back to Havana’s alliance with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Since then, sanctions on Cuba have eased and tightened under various US administrations. The long-running sanctions have severely weakened Cuba, causing the country to become highly dependent on imports, and high inflation routinely leads to food and energy shortages. Mass emigration of Cuba’s skilled labour force, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, has added to the country’s difficulties. With Trump’s latest oil embargo, the US has added a severe energy crisis to the mix. Widespread power blackouts of up to 20 hours at a time are now being reported across Cuba, impacting hospitals, businesses and households alike. Surgeries have been suspended, schools have cancelled classes, and waste trucks are parked as rubbish piles up in the streets. Four United Nations special rapporteurs warned in early February that the situation is contributing to a severe public health problem in the country and said it could lead to a “severe humanitarian” crisis. Cuba has lost 90 percent of its fuel supply, and despite shutting beach resorts and restricting aviation fuel sales, the country could experience a total blackout as early as late February, according to Ignacio Seni, a risk analyst writing for the US-based intelligence firm Crisis 24. The Mexican government dispatched humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba on board two ships of the Mexican Navy, Veracruz, Mexico, February 9, 2026 [Mexico Ministry of Foreign Affairs via Anadolu Agency] Why has the US blocked oil deliveries to Cuba? Cuba produces crude oil but does not have the capacity to refine enough to meet domestic demand. Venezuela was providing as much as 50 percent of Cuba’s oil before the US government took control of its oil industry at the start of this year, about 35,000 barrels per day. Under a special barter agreement in place since 2000, Cuba provides support for education, healthcare, and security services in return for discounted Venezuelan fuel. Indeed, about 30 members of Maduro’s security detail who were killed in the operation to abduct him in January were from Cuba. Advertisement Then, days after Maduro was abducted, Trump turned his aim at Cuba itself, warning Havana to “make a deal before it is too late”. He did not, however, give details about what type of deal he wanted. On January 29, Trump issued an executive order imposing new trade tariffs on any countries selling oil to Cuba because of what he called the “policies, practices and actions” of the Cuban government, which, he said, pose an “extraordinary threat” to the US. Trump also claimed, without evidence, that Havana funds “terrorism”. Besides Venezuela, Cuba was also sourcing oil from Mexico, Russia and Algeria, but all oil imports into the country ceased. Trump’s order, therefore, effectively amounted to a blockade. The US has also reportedly seized fuel tankers in open waters transferring oil to Cuba, according to a New York Times investigation into ship movements in the Caribbean Sea published last week. The US began building up its naval presence in the area in September last year as it prepared to attack Maduro, and its troops continue to patrol the waters. In mid-February, one tanker loaded with Colombian oil was intercepted by the US Coast Guard as it came within 70 miles of Cuba, the Times reported. The vehicle, called the Ocean Mariner, was previously used to covertly transport oil between Venezuela and Iran. Before Maduro’s capture, US forces also struck multiple Venezuelan boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean that the US claimed – without evidence – were trafficking drugs. How have Cuba and others reacted to the US blockade? Cuban authorities under President Miguel Diaz-Canel have accused the US of imposing collective punishment on the country. On Wednesday, it also accused the US of links to armed men who entered the country’s waters on a Florida-tagged speedboat. Four Americans of Cuban origin were killed in the altercation, and two were injured. In the past,
Delhi Police vs Himachal Police: What exactly happened? Here’s all you need to know
The standoff began when Delhi Police personnel, around 20 in number, were intercepted by Shimla Police while transporting the three Youth Congress workers to Delhi.
Who was Bonu Komali? 21-year-old YouTuber found dead after sending ‘I love you’ to mother in Kuwait
A 21-year-old BSc student and YouTuber, Bonu Komali, was found dead in her Hyderabad apartment after sending an emotional message to her mother. Police suspect distress linked to a past relationship. A case of suspicious death has been registered and investigations are ongoing.
CM Rekha Gupta-led Delhi govt renews excise policy for hotels, clubs and restaurants by 1 year, check details
The extension means Delhi will continue operating under the 2020-21 policy, which has been extended multiple times under previous governments.