World
Cuba says it killed 4 exiles, wounded 6 others who attacked from Florida speedboat
Cuban forces killed four exiles and wounded six others who sailed into Cuban waters aboard a Florida-registered speedboat on Wednesday and opened fire on a Cuban patrol, the Cuban government said at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.
Cuba’s Interior Ministry said the group was comprised of anti-government Cubans, some of whom were previously wanted for plotting attacks. They came from the United States dressed in camouflage and armed with assault rifles, handguns, homemade explosives, ballistic vests and telescopic sights, Cuba said, Reuters reported.
An additional Cuban suspect was detained inside Cuban territory in connection with the plot, the statement said.
“According to preliminary statements from the detainees, they intended to carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes,” the Interior Ministry said in an official statement.
The wounded were evacuated and receiving medical attention, while the Cuban patrol commander was also wounded, the ministry said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters it was not a U.S. operation and that no U.S. government personnel were involved. Cuban authorities made the U.S. aware of the incident, but the U.S. embassy in Havana would attempt to independently verify what happened, Rubio said.
“We are going to have our own information on this, we are going to figure out exactly what happened, and there are a number of things that could have happened here,” Rubio said.
“Suffice to say it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that,” he said.
The incident took place as the United States has blocked virtually all oil shipments to the island, increasing pressure on the Communist-run government.
American forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on January 3, removing a key Cuban ally from power, and Rubio reiterated his rhetoric against the Cuban government on Wednesday, calling the status quo unsustainable and saying Cuba needed to change “dramatically.”
BAY OF PIGS
Cuban exiles who are largely concentrated in Miami have long dreamed of overthrowing the Cuban government or seeing it fall and have in the past plotted against the government that was established by the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who died in 2016 at age 90.
Cuban exiles with support and financing from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency carried out the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, an event that strengthened Castro while pushing him closer to his backers in the Soviet Union. Other Cuban paramilitaries have attempted or carried out acts of sabotage in decades past.
Such plots have become far less common in recent years, but opponents of Cuba’s Communist government may have been emboldened by recent events that have promoted an image of weakness for the country’s rulers. The U.S. oil blockade has exacerbated severe energy shortages.
Cuba said it identified the six detainees from the boat, two of whom were previously wanted in Cuba on suspicion of planning terrorist acts against Cuba: Amijail Sanchez Gonzalez and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gomez.
The other four were identified as Conrado Galindo Sariol, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Castello, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara and Roberto Azcorra Consuegra.
In addition, Cuba said it detained another Cuban man in Cuban territory, Duniel Hernandez Santos, who had come from the United States to the island in order to receive the infiltrators.
One of the dead was identified as Michel Ortega Casanova, while the other three dead had yet to be identified, Cuba said.
The speedboat came within one nautical mile of a channel on Falcones Cay, on the north coast of Cuba about 200 km (120 miles) east of Havana, when it was approached by five members of a Cuban border patrol unit, Cuba said.
The speedboat then opened fire, wounding the commander of the Cuban vessel, the statement said.
Florida politicians called for separate investigations, saying they did not trust the Cuban account.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he was ordering prosecutors to open an investigation in conjunction with other state and federal law enforcement partners.
U.S. Representative Carlos Gimenez, a Republican whose district includes the southern tip of Florida, called for a federal investigation, saying he had asked the U.S. State Department and military to look into the matter.
“United States authorities must determine whether any of the victims were U.S. citizens or legal residents and establish exactly what occurred,” Gimenez said.
World
Trump says Israeli PM Netanyahu will visit US next week
President Donald Trump said on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the U.S. next week.
Trump’s comments came in his speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Friday, while he was falsely casting U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer as Palestinian, Reuters reported.
“I am going to send him (Schumer) a beautiful Palestinian outfit tomorrow, so he can greet Bibi Netanyahu when he comes to town next week,” Trump said.
“He turned Palestinian,” Trump said of Schumer, who is Jewish, while also joking that sharia law was Schumer’s “new founding.”
U.S. Muslim and Jewish advocacy groups have previously criticized Trump for calling Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, a Palestinian, with the rights groups saying Trump uses the term disrepectfully as a slur and as an insult.
Netanyahu’s office said earlier that he will travel to Washington on Monday and will meet with Trump on Tuesday. Netanyahu will also attend deceased U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral, his office said.
The Trump-Netanyahu meeting will come as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran completes five months.
World
Trump vows to punish Iran for Houthi attacks in Red Sea; oil surges over $100
After the Houthis said they had struck the two tankers on Thursday, Trump said he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by the fighters.
U.S. President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies on Thursday after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint.
Fears that disruption could widen further to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude rose more than 6%, breaking through $100 a barrel for the first time since May, Reuters reported.
Two weeks since the effective collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, the U.S. military launched air strikes on Iran overnight into Thursday, prompting Iran to fire at neighbouring Arab countries that host U.S. bases. The U.S. military fired another round of missiles at Iran late Thursday and early Friday in the 13th consecutive night of attacks.
Iranian state media said on both nights that missiles struck Qeshm Island on the Strait of Hormuz, the virtually closed waterway that has become the focal point in a war well into its fifth month that has already killed thousands and raised fears of a global economic downturn.
TRUMP: IRAN HASN’T ‘RECEIVED ENOUGH PAIN YET’
After the Houthis said they had struck the two tankers on Thursday, Trump said he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by the fighters.
The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen, said this week they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil per day by pipeline to the Red Sea to get around Iran’s blockade of Gulf oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
“If they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves,” Trump wrote on social media.
He told news outlet Axios he was considering relaunching major combat operations in Iran and was close to a decision. “They haven’t received enough pain yet,” Axios quoted Trump as saying.
On Thursday evening, Trump said on social media that “any and all damages done” to cargo ships would be paid for with “Iranian Money,” referring to frozen Iranian assets held by the U.S., but he did not say how this would work.
Sources in Iran and Yemen told Reuters that Iran had flown Revolutionary Guard commanders, military advisers and missile- and drone-related equipment into Yemen days before the Houthis announced their blockade. The Houthis dismissed the report.
The Houthis said their forces had carried out missile and drone strikes on Saudi oil tankers, the Encelia and the Layla.
A maritime security source said the Encelia had transmitted a distress call reporting it had been struck by a missile near the Saudi port of Jizan in the Red Sea just north of Yemen late on Wednesday. Saudi state news agency SPA said the strike had caused a fire at the bow.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the attack on the Layla, or other battlefield accounts, but Trump mentioned two attacks on Saudi tankers.
The insurance cost of shipping goods through the southern Red Sea doubled for some companies on Thursday, after the reported attacks, sources said.
Houthi attacks could close the strait known as the Bab el-Mandeb or “Gate of Tears” which controls access from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, the second most important route for energy shipments after the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.
In the days since they announced their blockade in the Red Sea, several tankers have changed course to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb, heading north instead through the Suez Canal, potentially using a much longer and more expensive route to reach Asian customers by sailing around Africa.
IRAN REPORTS STRIKES ON JORDAN, KUWAIT
Iran said it attacked U.S. missile systems, weapons and fuel storage sites in Jordan, as well as U.S. military posts in Kuwait.
Jordan’s army said it engaged four Iranian missiles and six drones in the past day, intercepting all but one missile, which fell in an uninhabited area.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it struck a U.S. electronic warfare unit at Al-Adiri base in Kuwait, causing unspecified casualties, in response to an overnight strike on Iran’s Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq.
Neither the U.S. nor Kuwait has reported casualties at the base.
Iranian military spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said Iran would keep retaliating as long as the U.S. continued to attack its infrastructure and coastal areas, Iranian state TV reported.
Since the U.S. and Israel began the war in February, Iran has demonstrated that it can hit U.S. targets in the region, despite Trump having said early on that the U.S. had wiped out Iranian military capabilities.
Four people familiar with U.S. intelligence said Iranian strikes on CIA targets in the Gulf earlier in the war had prompted U.S. intelligence to investigate whether Russia was assisting Iran with targeting information or drone technology.
CONGRESS
High oil prices are stoking inflation globally, and have put Trump’s Republican allies under pressure ahead of congressional elections in November.
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives backed legislation on Thursday directing Trump to halt U.S. military action against Iran, the latest rebuke of the Republican president from Congress, which the U.S. Constitution grants the exclusive power to “declare War.”
Lawmakers have passed similar resolutions repeatedly in recent months, but they have not led to cessation of the war. The Senate voted hours later to block a separate, similar measure.
World
Trump links Saudi nuclear deal to Israel normalization through Abraham Accords
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a newly agreed civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia will only move forward if the kingdom normalizes relations with Israel by joining the Abraham Accords.
In a post on social media, Trump said the agreement does not permit uranium enrichment and stressed that approval of the deal is contingent on Saudi Arabia signing the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements that established diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab states.
“The agreement will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote, adding that the United States supports only civilian nuclear facilities that do not involve uranium enrichment.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly stated that it will not normalize relations with Israel without a clear pathway toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Palestinian statehood, arguing it would pose unacceptable security risks to Israel.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment on Trump’s remarks.
Netanyahu’s office welcomed the prospect of Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, describing it as a “historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East,” but did not address the nuclear agreement.
The civilian nuclear agreement, announced on Wednesday, is expected to run for 30 years and involve U.S. companies in developing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear energy sector. According to U.S. officials familiar with the agreement, it could eventually allow for the construction of a uranium
enrichment facility following a joint U.S.-Saudi feasibility study, although Trump has insisted the final arrangement will not include uranium enrichment.
The agreement will be submitted to the U.S. Congress for review.
The Saudi Energy Ministry said the deal would help diversify the kingdom’s energy sources, promote advanced technologies and expand investment opportunities between the two countries.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the agreement during a visit to Manila, saying it would ensure Saudi Arabia partners with American companies rather than competitors such as China, Russia, France or South Korea in developing its civilian nuclear program.
“We’re not the only show in town, but we’re the best show in town,” Rubio told reporters.
The agreement has already drawn scrutiny from members of Congress and nuclear non-proliferation experts, who have raised concerns over reports that it does not include the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol, which provides for expanded inspections and verification measures.
Some lawmakers have also questioned whether Congress should have greater oversight of any nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, reviving debate over legislation first proposed in 2018 that would require congressional approval before such agreements take effect.
The Trump administration has made expanding the Abraham Accords a key foreign policy objective during the president’s second term, viewing Saudi Arabia’s participation as a major step toward broader regional normalization despite ongoing tensions stemming from the conflicts in Gaza and Iran.
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