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Castro indictment fuels speculation Trump may be reviving Maduro playbook against Cuba

Castro indictment fuels speculation Trump may be reviving Maduro playbook against Cuba

The Trump administration’s decision to indict former Cuban leader Raúl Castro is fueling comparisons to the pressure campaign President Donald Trump previously used against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro as the White House ramps up economic pressure, direct appeals to Cubans and military visibility in the Caribbean. The indictment, tied to Cuba’s 1996 attack on two civilian aircraft that killed three U.S. citizens, has raised questions about whether the administration is testing a Venezuela-style pressure strategy against Havana’s communist regime. The USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group has been operating in the Caribbean under U.S. Southern Command authorities, providing a visible military backdrop to the administration’s increasingly confrontational posture toward Havana. Publicly announced assets include fighter aircraft, electronic warfare aircraft and guided-missile destroyers. The broader posture has drawn comparisons to the administration’s earlier campaign against Maduro, which similarly began with criminal charges against a longtime anti-American strongman before expanding into a wider regime-pressure effort involving sanctions, diplomatic isolation and heightened U.S. military activity in the Caribbean. OBAMA’S BASEBALL OUTING WITH CASTRO REIGNITES FURY AFTER TRUMP DOJ DROPS HAMMER ON CUBAN LEADER Federal prosecutors charged Castro and several former Cuban officials Wednesday in the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft that killed four men, including three U.S. citizens. Castro was Cuba’s defense minister at the time of the attack.  U.S. prosecutors allege Castro helped authorize the operation after the civilian planes repeatedly entered Cuban airspace while conducting missions linked to the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue organization, which searched for Cuban migrants at sea and opposed the communist government in Havana. Cuban fighter jets ultimately shot down two unarmed aircraft over international waters in 1996, according to the indictment, triggering international condemnation and one of the most severe crises in U.S.-Cuba relations since the Cold War.  “At the very least, it means symbolically that he is now set up just as Nicolás Maduro was,” Christine Balling, a Cuba expert at the Institute of World Politics and former advisor to U.S. Special Operations Command South, told Fox News Digital. During Trump’s earlier pressure campaign against Maduro, the U.S. indicted the Venezuelan leader on narco-terrorism charges, tightened sanctions on the country’s oil sector, backed opposition efforts to remove him and increased military operations in the Caribbean. The campaign culminated in a U.S.-backed operation that removed Maduro from effective power and reopened channels of American influence inside Venezuela through energy negotiations and cooperation involving senior figures, including Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. RUBIO LAYS OUT THREE-PHASE PLAN FOR VENEZUELA AFTER MADURO: ‘NOT JUST WINGING IT’ “I don’t think that we are necessarily going to conduct the same operation,” Balling said. “Raúl Castro is 94 years old. It might not be worth the trouble.” Still, Balling argued, the indictment sends “a very straightforward message that we are 100% behind the fall of the Castro regime.” The White House could not immediately be reached for comment.  RUBIO SAYS CUBA NEEDS ‘NEW PEOPLE IN CHARGE’ AS BLACKOUTS, UNREST GRIP ISLAND Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinforced that message this week with a direct appeal to the Cuban people, accusing the communist government of blaming the island’s collapse on the U.S. “blockade” while enriching military-linked elites who dominate the Cuban economy. Rubio also highlighted the success of Cubans living abroad, arguing the Cuban people — not the regime — were capable of prosperity. Balling described Rubio’s remarks as a deliberate attempt to undermine Havana’s domestic propaganda and convince Cubans that the regime, rather than the United States, bears primary responsibility for the island’s economic collapse. “Rubio wants them to understand that the regime is acting against their own interests,” she said. Trump further fueled speculation this week when asked whether tensions with Cuba would escalate following the Castro indictment. “There won’t be escalation,” Trump said. “We won’t have to.” Some analysts interpreted Trump’s comments — combined with Rubio’s direct appeals to ordinary Cubans — as a sign the administration may believe internal pressure against the regime could eventually accomplish what direct military escalation would not. “It’s sowing the seeds of a counter-revolutionary feeling,” Balling said. But Balling warned that any serious destabilization of Cuba could trigger consequences far beyond the island itself, particularly a potential mass migration crisis just 90 miles from Florida. “If we go so far as to engage militarily, we are probably looking at thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of refugees,” she said. Cuba has already been suffering through rolling blackouts, fuel shortages and a worsening economic crisis as the administration increases pressure on the island’s energy lifelines. Despite the increasingly confrontational rhetoric, Washington has also kept open limited channels of communication with Havana. CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled publicly to Cuba on May 14 for talks with senior Cuban security officials, delivering what U.S. officials described as a warning that Cuba could no longer serve as a “safe haven for adversaries” while also offering the prospect of deeper economic and security engagement if Havana makes “fundamental changes.”  The visit came as the Trump administration pressed a $100 million humanitarian aid proposal aimed at addressing Cuba’s worsening blackout and fuel crisis. Cuban officials signaled they were open to accepting assistance distributed through independent humanitarian and religious organizations rather than directly through the government. Analysts say Cuba’s armed forces are far weaker than during the Cold War, when the island fielded one of Latin America’s largest militaries with Soviet backing. Today, experts describe the Cuban military as severely degraded by decades of economic collapse, fuel shortages and aging equipment. “Cuba had a First World military in a Third World country,” Frank Mora, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere under President Barack Obama, told The Wall Street Journal this week. “It’s a shell of a shell of what it used to be.” Still, analysts caution that Cuba’s weakness does not necessarily make the island easy to pressure or destabilize. Unlike Venezuela, where the U.S. has at times maintained limited economic engagement despite sanctions on Maduro’s government, Cuba’s military-linked conglomerate GAESA controls

Five police officers, 13 year-old boy killed in Israeli attack on Gaza

Five police officers, 13 year-old boy killed in Israeli attack on Gaza

Attack on a police post in northern Gaza comes as dozens of people were wounded in Israeli attacks in the past 48 hours. By Al Jazeera Staff and Reuters Published On 23 May 202623 May 2026 An Israeli ⁠air ⁠strike has killed at least five police ⁠officers and a 13-year-old boy, Gaza police say, as Israel continues its attacks across the Gaza Strip despite the “ceasefire” in place. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City on Saturday, said that the police officers were killed on the spot, and according to sources at al-Shifa Hospital, at least one civilian on a nearby street was also killed. At least 10 others were wounded. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list In a statement, the Gaza police directorate said two missiles had hit a police post in the at-Twam area in northern Gaza. “This is not an isolated incident, it’s part of the pattern that the Israeli military, not only since the ceasefire started, but also before that, we see in a pattern of deliberate targeting of police, local security personnel and law enforcement structures across Gaza,” Mahmoud said. The missile strike on a police post comes as the 10,000-strong police force in Gaza has emerged as ⁠a sticking point in talks ⁠to advance United States President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza. The war that Israel launched following the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas was halted by a ceasefire on October 10, 2025, but the Israeli military has carried out almost daily attacks on Gaza since then and maintains a strict security regime. Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave has now killed at least 72,775 Palestinians, with 883 people killed since the ceasefire came into effect. The bodies of eight Palestinians, along with 29 wounded people, arrived at hospitals across Gaza in the past 48 hours, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. A ‘power vacuum’ The attacks on Gaza’s police force further threaten the distribution of aid while the Palestinian enclave continues to struggle with a humanitarian crisis. Advertisement Israel has placed severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza even as the ceasefire was supposed to ramp up the amount of supplies entering the Palestinian enclave. “This is part of an effort to further plunge the Gaza Strip into further chaos, as well as dismantle whatever is left of the civilian order,” Mahmoud said, adding that it was worsening a power vacuum. The strikes make it even more difficult to secure aid convoys to the areas most in need and “increase the possibility of hijacking and looting”, he said. Meanwhile, in recent days, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has reported that Palestinian children in Gaza are suffering from an increase in skin infections due to the surge in pests, including rats, lice, fleas and mites. UNRWA said that health teams are able to treat about 40 percent of the thousands of cases, adding that “usually this would be easily managed with simple remedies, but they are not available”. “In Gaza, basic medicines are in short supply and many children are left without the treatment they need,” the UNRWA said. Adblock test (Why?)

More than 500 children killed in measles outbreak in Bangladesh

More than 500 children killed in measles outbreak in Bangladesh

Most cases recorded in the country have been among children aged between six months and five years. By AFP and Anadolu Published On 23 May 202623 May 2026 A measles outbreak in Bangladesh has killed more than 500 children in the deadliest surge there in decades. The death toll continued to rise on Saturday, with 13 children passing away in the past 24 hours alone, increasing the total to 512, according to a health department tally that began on March 15. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Hospitals in the capital Dhaka, which have been overwhelmed with cases, have set up dedicated wards but lack sufficient numbers of intensive care beds. Measles, which has no specific treatment once caught, is a highly contagious viral disease that spreads through coughs and sneezes. The disease primarily affects children and can cause severe complications, including pneumonia, brain inflammation and death, particularly among malnourished or unvaccinated children. It remains one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable child deaths worldwide. The South Asian nation of 175 million people has rolled out a mass vaccination drive to combat the outbreak. United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) country chief Rana Flowers said this week that the campaign has reached 18 million children. But the health department said the full impact of the vaccinations would take months to be felt. UNICEF said on Wednesday that gaps in immunisation worsened during and after the chaos of the 2024 student-led uprising that toppled the government, leaving large numbers of children unprotected. The health department’s death toll comes after the government said the outbreak was now contained, noting a decline in cases in several previously hard-hit areas. Advertisement Most cases recorded during the current outbreak have been among children aged between six months and five years. Doctors say many of the children arriving at hospitals were already critically ill. “Though measles is highly contagious, a healthy baby with no complications can survive with minimal medication,” Ainul Islam Khan, a paediatrician at Dhaka’s Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, told the AFP news agency. “Here, most children came to the hospital with respiratory distress and infections in the eyes, throat and lungs.” UNICEF stressed the need to boost vaccination programmes and increase funding for health facilities, surveillance and data systems in the future. A policy brief published on Thursday by the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership warned that vaccination gaps could worsen antimicrobial resistance in Bangladesh. Adblock test (Why?)

Israeli forces arrest two children in occupied West Bank village

Israeli forces arrest two children in occupied West Bank village

NewsFeed Video shows Israeli soldiers forcing two siblings to sit on the ground with their hands behind their heads beside a military jeep, before blindfolding one of them and arresting both children during a raid on al-Mughayyir village in the occupied West Bank. The village has become a flashpoint for Israeli raids, deadly settler attacks and displacement. Published On 23 May 202623 May 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)