The Trump administration&#8217;s massive earthquake relief operation in Venezuela is highlighting a remarkable shift in U.S.-Venezuelan relations just six months after U.S. special forces captured former dictator Nicolás Maduro.
After two massive earthquakes measuring magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 struck north-central Venezuela last week, the United States launched a robust relief operation, <a href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/06/update-on-the-trump-administrations-robust-and-rapid-delivery-of-life-saving-u-s-assistance-to-venezuela">committing</a> more than $300 million in aid and deploying troops, humanitarian workers, and search-and-rescue teams across the country.
So far, the death toll stands at roughly 2,295 people, with that number expected to rise as more bodies are recovered from the rubble.
The response stands in contrast to the hostile relationship that existed only months earlier, when the United States seized Venezuelan oil tankers, threatened military action against Maduro&#8217;s regime, and ultimately carried out the operation that removed him from power.
Promising a swift response to the disaster, Secretary of State Marco Rubio <a href="https://share.america.gov/expert-search-and-rescue-teams-save-lives-in-venezuela/">told</a> reporters, &#8220;It&#8217;ll be big; it&#8217;ll be fast; and it&#8217;ll be effective.&#8221;
The State Department announced Monday that the administration increased its commitment to more than $300 million after U.S. personnel on the ground identified urgent humanitarian needs. The funding includes $200 million for aid organizations and another roughly $100 million dedicated to specialized American logistics, military support, search-and-rescue operations, and emergency supplies. 
Officials emphasized that the money is flowing through established humanitarian partners rather than directly through the Venezuelan government. Organizations receiving support include Samaritan&#8217;s Purse, Catholic Relief Services, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, Project Hope, the International Organization for Migration, International Medical Corps, and the Red Cross. 
The United States has deployed four elite urban search-and-rescue teams from Fairfax County, Los Angeles County, Miami-Dade County, and the City of Miami, totaling more than 300 first responders and 23 search dogs. The teams are conducting round-the-clock operations in some of the hardest-hit areas to locate survivors, provide medical care, and conduct structural assessments, according to the State Department.
The U.S. military has played a significant role in the relief effort. American airmen rapidly repaired and reopened Simón Bolívar International Airport near Caracas. A specialized Air Force team now coordinates tower and ground operations to keep humanitarian flights moving and supplies flowing to disaster zones. 
Offshore, the U.S. Navy transport dock ship, USS Fort Lauderdale, is supporting aid deliveries near La Guaira, where U.S. sailors and Marines are ferrying supplies to devastated coastal communities. American naval personnel are also working alongside Venezuelan authorities to repair and reopen the earthquake-damaged Port of La Guaira, a critical hub for incoming aid.
Assistant Secretary for Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs Caleb Orr is scheduled to travel to Venezuela from July 1 through July 3 amid the relief operations. 
Just six months ago, the two countries appeared headed toward a direct confrontation. Today, American troops and Venezuelan officials are working together to deliver aid.
What began as a maximum-pressure campaign early in Trump&#8217;s second term escalated into the seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers and culminated in a lightning-fast 88-minute U.S. special operations raid that captured Maduro in January. 
According to American officials, the mission was among the most complex military operations in recent years. Venezuelans <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ive-never-seen-anything-like-it-maduros-security-guard-lays-out-what-its-like-facing-u-s-military">who witnessed</a> the assault described a force so overwhelming that Maduro&#8217;s security apparatus never stood a chance, with some claiming American commandos slipped in undetected, overwhelmed hundreds of security guards, and employed sonic weapon technology they had never seen before.
The raid culminated in an unforgettable scene: Maduro, once one of Washington&#8217;s most defiant adversaries, being escorted in New York City by American law enforcement. The scene went viral, turning the longtime bully into a humiliating symbol of his era’s collapse.
After Maduro&#8217;s capture, Trump signaled an expansive American role in Venezuela&#8217;s recovery.
“We&#8217;re going to run it, fix it,” Trump said at the time. “It&#8217;s a broken country.”
But the Trump administration ultimately established a working relationship with President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro&#8217;s former vice president who assumed power after his removal.
Despite international backlash and accusations that the operation violated Venezuela&#8217;s sovereignty, Washington moved to stabilize the country and revive its economy. Relations between the two nations improved rapidly.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spearheaded the administration&#8217;s diplomatic outreach, seeking not only to stabilize Venezuela politically but also to rebuild relations between the two countries. At the same time, the administration encouraged American companies to invest in reviving Venezuela&#8217;s battered economy and oil industry.
In recent months, the administration has eased sanctions, restored direct commercial flights between the two countries for the first time in seven years, and backed economic reforms designed to attract foreign investment. Senior U.S. officials, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright, have traveled to Venezuela.
<a href="https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/latest-news/crude-oil/061026-trump-official-says-venezuela-oil-recovery-on-track-after-maduro-ouster#:~:text=Venezuelan%20state%20oil%20company%20PDVSA,from%20the%20Ministry%20of%20Hydrocarbons.">According to S&amp;P Global</a>, Venezuela increased oil output from about 940,000 barrels per day in January to more than 1.15 million barrels per day in May. Government officials expect production to keep growing and reach 1.37 million barrels per day by the end of 2026, bringing help to the South American country’s struggling economy.
Venezuela&#8217;s economy has shown signs of improvement in recent months. Inflation, which topped 600% in 2025, has fallen dramatically, with monthly inflation now below 10%, according to Orr.
The improved relationship has implications beyond humanitarian aid or economic partnerships. By drawing Venezuela closer to Washington, the administration has sought to diminish the influence of adversaries such as China, Russia, and Cuba, all of which expanded their foothold in the country during the Maduro years.
The shift has also been welcomed by many Venezuelan Americans, particularly in South Florida, where large diaspora communities have long advocated for Maduro&#8217;s removal and closer ties between the United States and a post-Maduro Venezuela.
Now, as Venezuela confronts one of the worst natural disasters in its recent history, the United States is playing a leading role in the international relief effort — a scene that would have been almost unimaginable just months ago.
Leona Salinas contributed to this report.

Search and rescue operations continue in earthquake-hit Venezuela

Earthquake Relief Marks Historic Shift In U.S. Relations With Venezuela

U.S. Earthquake Relief Marks Stunning Shift In Relations With Venezuela

Marco Rubio

Natural Disaster

Nicolas Maduro

Trump Administration

Venezuela

The Ben Franklin Fellowship is not unlike hundreds of other organizations in Washington, D.C.
At its core, it&#8217;s a group of like-minded individuals involved in foreign policy in some capacity, united around the goal of bringing their vision to the federal agencies that oversee America&#8217;s relationships around the world, particularly the State Department. These kinds of groups, whether in the form of social clubs, think tanks, advocacy groups, or other organizations, exist for virtually every major government institution and policy area in America.
The BFF, however, has drawn outsized scrutiny. Media outlets like the New York Times, Politico, and Reuters have published critical reports on the group, chock-full of complaints from the Foreign Service establishment.
As far as I can tell, the underlying complaint about BFF is that it is conservative. The throughline of the criticism from the media and groups like the American Foreign Service Association seems to be that BFF wants to &#8220;Trumpify&#8221; the State Department by injecting it with loyalists to the president. Upon further investigation, I found little evidence that&#8217;s the case.
&#8220;We&#8217;re not about electing President Trump or any of the MAGA Republicans; that&#8217;s not what we&#8217;re doing. We&#8217;re about organizing the federal bureaucracy around a value set,&#8221; Phil Linderman, co-founder of the BFF, told me. &#8220;Change DEI. Change the way that USAID has done business for years and years. Change the concept that the Foreign Service has a value set separate from whatever the President wants. We try to change that, then they denounce us as being partisan.&#8221;
Linderman is a retired foreign service officer who served in the State Department for three decades. He explained to me how, a few years ago, he and some like-minded veterans of the foreign service space decided they needed a formal group to organize around the principles they believe in, which run counter to the establishment assumptions of most career bureaucrats.
&#8220;There is a school of thought which is made by the left, the organizations like the American Foreign Service Association, that you have one non-partisan professional who runs the embassy as the ambassador or whatever, and that&#8217;s the guy you go to, and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;ve always done in America in the State Department,&#8221; Linderman explained. &#8220;And if these conservatives come along, they&#8217;re just taking us back to Tammany Hall and politization of the career ranks. That is a very unrealistic framework for how these institutions work.&#8221;
&#8220;What happens is because there&#8217;s a liberal-left quiet orthodoxy that dominates in the Foreign Service and the Civil Service in the State Department — and across the government, really — these people that rise to the highest ranks in the career organization are usually liberal-left, and they will say to a Republican conservative president, &#8216;I&#8217;ll do your bidding,&#8217; etc. And for the most part, conservatives have to live with that because they have no other choice.&#8221;
He also said there wasn&#8217;t some grand conspiracy between his team and the Trump administration to staff up departments with loyalists. Yes, some BFF members have ended up in the administration, but that came about by a normal process of networking and lobbying, not via some sinister MAGA plot hatched years ago.
The Fellowship lists eight principles on its website, which include &#8220;The central purpose of U.S. diplomacy is to serve the national interest. We endorse the careful husbanding of limited resources, both budget and staff, rather than engaging in perpetual, unfunded expansion&#8221; and &#8220;We believe in strong, sovereign nations. To the extent that cooperation between nations in international fora contributes to the prosperity and security of participating states, and serves national interests, we endorse multinational organizations [sic].&#8221;
The principles generally align with what one might call an &#8220;America First&#8221; worldview, but they are vague enough to allow for big-tent coalition-building. Contrary to the claims of the critics, there&#8217;s nothing there about Donald Trump or MAGA, though I find it hard to imagine many of the group&#8217;s members (Linderman told me there are a few hundred members and around 100 fellows) aren&#8217;t supporters of the president.
But it seems like the group will outlast the Trump movement as well. Even if the 2028 Republican presidential nominee isn&#8217;t JD Vance, it&#8217;s hard to imagine the GOP going back to a classic neoconservative foreign policy. I believe that&#8217;s why the slings and arrows have come out for the BFF; it&#8217;s establishing the proverbial beachhead for the Right in a place they haven&#8217;t done so before, and the establishment feels threatened.
&#8220;The biggest advantage to me is being able to get to know other similarly minded individuals within the foreign affairs community,&#8221; Marcus Thornton, a politically-connected Foreign Service Officer and BFF fellow, told me. &#8220;The foreign affairs community is already so skewed ideologically that it&#8217;s hard to find people who differ from that worldview.&#8221;
&#8220;The Ben Franklin Fellowship has given us an opportunity to get to know others who may be more willing to challenge that worldview, and to be bold about ensuring that American values have a voice when it comes to foreign affairs.&#8221;
That community building is what threatens the old guard. Conservatives have made a critical error in how they talk about the federal bureaucracy. By demonizing all bureaucrats and pushing young talent toward other career paths, the right doesn&#8217;t have the personnel on hand to properly staff up federal agencies when the winds of change sweep them into power. That&#8217;s the problem that groups like BFF are uniquely suited to solve.
Thornton is unique in his willingness to speak openly and frankly about his time in the Fellowship. There are blogs dedicated to doxxing the members of the group in addition to the legacy media attacks on them. Linderman told me that run-of-the-mill members often prefer to remain anonymous for fear of professional retribution within the State Department.
I did push back on Linderman about some of the group&#8217;s higher-profile names, who don&#8217;t have much of a track record in foreign policy and, in some cases, appear to be just Trump loyalists who ended up at State by happenstance.
Linderman acknowledged that part of the battle in building a new organization like this is balancing between making a name for yourself and sticking strictly to the mission. But he argued that the core goal of the Fellowship is still to bring together like-minded foreign policy professionals and develop new ones, not to serve as a holding ground for political operatives.
In that, I wish them the best. Right-wing institution-building has been a major casualty of the Trump era, and it&#8217;s about time we got back into the business of training good bureaucrats to serve as a counterweight to the bad ones.

Benjamin Franklin

The Conservative Group Trying To Remake The Deep State One Bureaucrat At A Time

Donald Trump

Foreign Service

State Department

A Trump-backed candidate appears set to take the reins in Colombia after the country was governed for four years by a far-Left president. 
Right-wing lawyer Abelardo De la Espriella defeated leftist Senator Iván Cepeda, according to initial results. The Trump administration congratulated De la Espriella Sunday night after he took 49.7% of the vote to his opponent’s 48.7%. 
“National dignity has triumphed, hope has triumphed. Today is a wonderful night in which democracy shone and Colombia demonstrated its greatness. This is the night in which we mark a new order: the Homeland Miracle,” De la Espriella said on X. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Ha triunfado la dignidad nacional, ha triunfado la esperanza.
Hoy es una noche maravillosa en que brilló la democracia y Colombia demostró su grandeza.
Esta es la noche en la que marcamos un nuevo orden: la Patria Milagro.
Firme por la Patria. 🫡 
(A.D.L.E) 🇨🇴🐅 <a href="https://t.co/aaaWi0ZM8p">pic.twitter.com/aaaWi0ZM8p</a>
— Abelardo De La Espriella (@ABDELAESPRIELLA) <a href="https://x.com/ABDELAESPRIELLA/status/2068897625940562129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
While De la Espriella declared victory, leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro <a href="https://x.com/petrogustavo/status/2068831260982571151">claimed</a> no one could yet be declared victor until the election was certified by judges. He alleged that voting machines had been compromised by Israel. 
Petro said that “software was compromised and others wrote data for polling stations and voting posts” and that the “only entity in the world capable of doing that is the state of Israel.”
President Donald Trump, who endorsed De la Espriella earlier this month, <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116791057884875243">said</a> in a Truth Social post that “he won, BIG.” 
Secretary of State Marco Rubio <a href="https://x.com/SecRubio/status/2068851809440116849">said</a> that he looked forward to working with De la Espriella. 
“The Trump Administration looks forward to working closely with your incoming administration to advance regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the United States, and strengthen our economic ties,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a social media post. “Colombia&#8217;s best days are ahead.”
Commenting on Rubio’s post, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said that the Trump administration’s anti-drug trafficking efforts in partnership with Latin American leaders <a href="https://x.com/StephenM/status/2068872925118169460">would</a> “change the entire future of the Western Hemisphere.”
In his endorsement, Trump said that De la Espriella would crack down on crime, illegal immigration, and drug trafficking. De la Espriella ran on a law-and-order platform involving taking a firm approach to rebel groups that have plagued the country for years. 
“The results of this election are very important to the future of Colombia and its relationship with the United States,” Trump said in his endorsement. “Because of his tremendous accomplishments in life, and his political support for me personally, it is my honor to give Abelardo my complete and total endorsement.”
A wave of Right-wing leaders has been elected in Latin America in recent months including in Honduras, Costa Rica, Chile, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

TOPSHOT-COLOMBIA-ELECTION-RUNOFF-VOTE

Another Trump-Backed Candidate Declares Victory Over The Left In Latin America

Colombia

Global Politics

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA — Bishop Michael Burbidge is aware that a good percentage of the 432,700 Catholics in his flock are politically important.
“One of the first shocks I experienced when I became the Bishop of Arlington was being in this office and looking out and seeing the Capitol and the Washington Monument from my window,” Burbidge told The Daily Wire in a recent interview. “There are some heavy hitters here who are influencing our country&#8217;s politics.”
For about two years, those heavy hitters included Vice President JD Vance, who, as a first-term senator from Ohio, settled his family in Northern Virginia. Vance’s Catholicism has been a central part of his identity since his <a href="https://www.theamericanconservative.com/j-d-vance-becomes-catholic/">2019 baptism</a> — back when he was still just “the author of ‘Hillbilly Elegy’” and a promising young man.
Vance, who tells the story of his faith journey in a forthcoming book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/communion-j-d-vance?variant=45116963192866">“Communion,”</a> may have broken the land speed record for transition from catechumen to prominent Catholic. By the time Donald Trump asked him to join the presidential ticket, he was one of the most well-known American Catholics, second only to the man he and Trump were running to succeed.
Once in office, Vance became the locus for Catholic critiques of the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pope-leo-addresses-narrative-suggesting-he-and-trump-are-at-war">foreign policy</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hours-before-zelensky-meeting-vance-praises-trump-for-pursuing-a-path-of-peace">immigration crackdown</a> — which earned the White House rebukes from Pope Francis and now Pope Leo XIV, whose elevation to the Throne of St. Peter moved Vance a few notches down the list of prominent American Catholics.
Burbidge knows all of this. He’s met Vance, he says, but hasn&#8217;t had a formal meeting with him since he became vice president. And Burbidge realizes the vice president has a particular challenge before him, not just as a Catholic leader, but one with a countryman in Rome. But the bishop — who <a href="https://www.arlingtondiocese.org/2025/01/31/a-pastoral-statement-on-the-catholic-imperative-of-upholding-human-dignity-and-the-common-good-in-american-immigration-law/">encouraged</a> Trump and Vance in January 2025 to “develop a national immigration policy that reflects the Catholic commitment to human dignity and the common good” — stressed that Vance has all the tools he needs to navigate choppy theological-political waters.
“We have a mandate to be not only citizens, but to be faithful citizens,” Burbidge says. “You can&#8217;t separate what you know to be true and what you profess to believe into your life as a politician. And will you have to pay a price for that sometimes? Of course you will. Will you maybe be rejected by others? Of course you will. But there&#8217;s no other path.”
“This is what&#8217;s so great about being Catholic,” the bishop adds. “There&#8217;s a consistency of the gospel of life and the truth.”
“Now, does this become more challenging for a politician? I&#8217;m sure it does. But you can&#8217;t be one person here and another person here.”
A Philadelphia native ordained in 1984, Burbidge began his episcopal journey as the auxiliary bishop of his hometown in 2002. Named bishop of Raleigh in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI, he held that post for a decade before Pope Francis named him the fourth bishop of Arlington. It’s a role to which Burbidge — a polished speaker unafraid to preach the “gospel of life” to all manner of politicians — seems uniquely suited.
“It really doesn&#8217;t matter who&#8217;s in office,” Burbidge says when asked how he’s navigated the transition from President Joe Biden, a Catholic who flouted the Church’s teaching on abortion, to Trump and Vance, whose paeans to the faith have not kept them out of the fray.
“It&#8217;s always going to be a challenge, because [the Catholic Church is] so beautiful, the way we teach the gospel of life. It confuses people that we can be on this side or that side, but the truth of the gospel, what we&#8217;re teaching doesn&#8217;t change because of who&#8217;s in office.”
The bishop certainly practices what he’s preaching here. Burbidge issued his statement on immigration less than two weeks after Inauguration Day, reminding the Trump team of the Church’s stance before it had finished unpacking.
Burbidge had plenty of practice dealing with politicians by this point. From 2022 to 2024, he chaired the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pro-Life Activities Committee. In that role, he <a href="https://catholicvote.org/bishop-of-arlington-calls-president-biden-to-repent/">chastised Biden</a> for “causing great scandal when he announces both his faith and his pro-abortion position publicly,” calling on the president to “repent.”
Still, Burbidge goes out of his way to stress that his role is no different than that of other bishops. He does not tell his priests to preach to the powerful in the pews and thinks there “should be no effort at all” for priests to do that.
For all that’s happening in the American church, Burbidge is most excited about the things that get bishops excited: seven ordinations this year and 12 in 2025; 39 active seminarians; mass attendance rebounding to pre-COVID numbers; 27 George Mason students brought into the church this Easter alone, the work of just one campus priest.
“We have so many young adults who are fully engaged in the life of the church,” Burbidge says. “We are very, very blessed with vocations … and we have so many beautiful holy families, holy marriages, from which vocations so often come.”
With a flourishing diocese and rising levels of religiosity among young Americans, Burbidge is optimistic about the future of the country and the church. And he sees even more reason for hope in Pope Leo, whom he praises for “the serenity and the simplicity and the joy” he has projected in his first year as pontiff.
“I think it was a blessing, a gift, that he knows the United States,” Burbidge says. “He&#8217;s lived here, he&#8217;s from here. He speaks the language. He gets us, and I think he understands us, in our politics and our culture and things like that.”
One might say it’s providential, the ascension of an American pope at the dawn of a very Catholic age in American politics. Abortion and immigration, the twin issues of our time, make it clear that Catholic social teaching does not cleave easily along party lines. And yet, the days of Catholics sidestepping politics seem to be over.
The Republican nominee for president in 2028 will almost certainly be Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio, both Catholics. And at least two Democratic frontrunners — California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — are proximately Catholic as well. Our nation’s next presidential election may not just be a referendum on competing political systems, but competing conceptions of Catholicism.
Regardless of whether that happens, American Catholics will certainly be glad to have one of their own leading the church in the coming years. But perhaps they’ll also look to a prelate just two years younger than Pope Leo, another son of a great American city whose ordination came almost two years to the day of the Holy Father’s.
“As a bishop, I have to have full responsibility for every soul entrusted to me,” Burbidge says. “And therefore, I have to speak truth and love, and love involves speaking the truth.”
“So, I think that if you&#8217;re a Catholic and you&#8217;re running for office, your bishop&#8217;s going to be talking to you.”

Arlington Bishop dedicates Mass to victims of Las Vegas shooting

JD Vance’s Bishop Wants Catholic Politicians To Do What’s Right

Catholic Church

JD Vance

Pope Leo

Washington D.C.

The Trump administration delivered a sweeping blow to the Cuban regime on Thursday, sanctioning its president, members of the Castro family dynasty, Cuba&#8217;s military ministry, and a gold mining operation that funnels wealth to regime elites.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has framed the Trump administration’s efforts as an existential campaign against a government he considers a direct threat to American security.
Secretary Rubio <a href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/06/sanctions-on-cuban-actors-responsible-for-subversive-anti-american-activities-fact-sheet/">announced the designations</a> under a May 1 <a href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/06/sanctions-on-cuban-military-instrumentalities-other-actors-responsible-for-subversive-anti-american-activities/">executive order,</a> targeting five Cuban entities and five individuals. At the top of the list: Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and his wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza, along with their stepson — as well as Alejandro Castro Espín, the son of Raúl Castro and former head of Cuban intelligence, and Castro Espín&#8217;s son. The Castro name is now, once again, directly in Washington&#8217;s crosshairs.
&#8220;The Cuban people are the hostages of a brutal and repressive government,&#8221; Rubio declared. &#8220;Which disregards their safety and prosperity to advance the Castro regime&#8217;s true purpose: serving as an outpost for our adversaries and exporting radical left-wing violence and terror across our hemisphere.&#8221;
The sanctions also hit Cuba&#8217;s Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), which controls vast swaths of the Cuban economy through military-owned enterprises. Any entity owned 50% or more by MINFAR — or by the previously designated military holding company GAESA — is considered blocked as well, strangling the military cartel&#8217;s economic empire. Rubio has <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5868122-rubio-us-sanctions-cuba-leadership/">previously called</a> GAESA &#8220;the heart of Cuba&#8217;s kleptocratic communist system.&#8221;
The State Department also sanctioned the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), a Fidel Castro-founded organization that U.S. officials say supports Cuban intelligence operations; the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, Cuba&#8217;s neighborhood surveillance network; and Minera la Victoria, a Cuban-Australian gold mining joint venture whose profits flow directly to the regime.
Foreign banks and companies that continue doing business with any of the designated parties now face their own sanctions exposure — a warning shot aimed squarely at international firms still profiting from the regime.
&#8220;We will continue to take action,&#8221; Rubio had warned on X in early May, &#8220;until the regime takes all necessary political and economic reforms.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today’s sanctions demonstrate that the Trump Administration will not stand by while Cuba’s communist regime threatens our national security in our hemisphere. We will continue to take action until the regime takes all necessary political and economic reforms.
&mdash; Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) <a href="https://x.com/SecRubio/status/2052456966753026262?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
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US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Targets Cuba’s Power Structure In Sweeping Blow To Communist Elites

Cuba

WASHINGTON— U.S. embassies around the world will not be flying Pride flags this June, thanks to a State Department directive implemented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio shortly after he took office.
Rubio&#8217;s order prohibited State Department personnel from &#8220;conducting or participating in any public diplomacy outreach or representational activity&#8221; celebrating, commemorating, or recognizing theme day holidays or observances that are not official U.S. holidays or the subject of a U.S. Presidential proclamation, according to an internal State Department memo.
A separate State Department &#8220;One Flag Policy&#8221; also states that only the flag of the United States, a Prisoner of War/Missing in Action flag, or the Hostages and Wrongful Detainees flag may be flown or displayed at U.S. facilities worldwide. That memo, <a href="https://freebeacon.com/trump-administration/trump-state-department-tells-embassies-and-outposts-only-fly-the-stars-and-stripes/">first reported by The Washington Free Beacon</a>, specifically notes: &#8220;Examples: Posts should not fly or display the Pride or Progress flag at the U.S. Embassy.&#8221;
&#8220;Per the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024, only the United States of America flag is authorized to be flown or otherwise publicly displayed at U.S. facilities, both domestic and abroad, and featured in U.S. government content,&#8221; the guidance states.
&#8220;No symbol or affiliation marking other than those authorized by U.S. statute, the President, or the Secretary may be displayed, projected, or exhibited at any U.S. facility, both domestic and abroad.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1106273" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-june-looks-different-at-u-s-embassies-under-marco-rubio/a-black-lives-matter-banner-a-united-states-national-flag" rel="attachment wp-att-1106273"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1106273" class="wp-image-1106273 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-1219978849-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-1219978849-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-1219978849-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-1219978849-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-1219978849.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>A Black Lives Matter banner, a United States national flag and a rainbow flag are hung on the facade of the US embassy building in Seoul. (Photo by Simon Shin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)</div>
&#8220;The flag of the United States of America unites all Americans under the universal principles of justice, liberty, and democracy,&#8221; the Trump State Department guidance adds. &#8220;These values, which are the bedrock of our great country, are shared by all American citizens, past and present.&#8221;
A similar directive was issued during President Donald Trump&#8217;s first administration, when Mike Pompeo led the State Department (though some embassies defied the order and still flew the flags). Under President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken encouraged embassies to follow Biden&#8217;s lead in supporting &#8220;the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons and communities.&#8221;
The Biden State Department <a href="https://abcnews.com/Politics/biden-admin-grants-blanket-authorization-fly-pride-flag/story?id=77270757">gave embassies</a> &#8220;blanket written authorization&#8230;to display the Pride flag on the external-facing flagpole, for the duration of the 2021 Pride season.&#8221; Blinken had promised to do this during his confirmation hearings, during which he also promised to name a special LGBTQ envoy. His State Department also provided asylum categories for people who identify as LGBTQ and said they were fleeing persecution.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-june-looks-different-at-u-s-embassies-under-marco-rubio/screenshot-2026-06-01-at-5-10-51-pm" rel="attachment wp-att-1106261"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1106261 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-01-at-5.10.51-PM-720x576.png" alt="" width="720" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-01-at-5.10.51-PM-720x576.png 720w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-01-at-5.10.51-PM-300x240.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-01-at-5.10.51-PM-768x615.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-01-at-5.10.51-PM-1536x1229.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-01-at-5.10.51-PM.png 1752w" sizes=" (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" /></a>
The U.S. Embassy in Uruguay, for example, raised a Pride Flag in 2023. The embassy&#8217;s Ambassador Heide Fulton said at the time that “raising the Pride flag is a celebration of the hard-won accomplishments of LGBTQI+ activists and their allies, and a reaffirmation of our commitment to the work that still needs to be done to promote the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of LGBTQI+ persons across the globe and within our own communities and workplaces.”
The State Department&#8217;s former Pride Month webpage is <a href="https://www.state.gov/pride-month/">no longer active</a>, and the department does not appear to be running any Pride Month promotions.
The State Department&#8217;s stance toward the theme, which celebrates adults and children who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex, is matched by the White House. Last year, the White House did not celebrate Pride Month at all, and the Department of Education <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-education-department-celebrates-title-ix-month-ditches-pride-month">instead declared</a> June “Title IX Month,” highlighting the Trump administration’s actions taken to protect female sports and spaces.
Asked by The Daily Wire on Monday if the White House will be observing Pride Month this June, a White House official responded: &#8220;We celebrate all Americans every day.&#8221;

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-BIDEN-LGBTQ-PRIDE

Why June Looks Different At U.S. Embassies Under Marco Rubio

Pride Month

Doctors in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) say that the Ebola virus is spreading at an “alarming” rate with over 1,000 suspected cases.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control <a href="https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/ebola-outbreak-democratic-republic-congo-and-uganda">says</a> the virus, which has a fatality rate of roughly 50%, has “increasing numbers of confirmed and suspected cases and deaths being reported.” As of Friday morning, there are 125 total confirmed cases and 906 suspected cases with 17 confirmed deaths and 223 suspected deaths.
&#8220;The outbreak is completely out of control,&#8221; said Dr. Richard Kojan, the president of the Alliance for International Medical Action, during an <a href="https://abcnews.com/International/control-doctors-frontline-ebola-outbreak-speak/story?id=133364928">interview</a> from the DRC&#8217;s Ituri Province.
Dr. Richard Lokudi, director of the main hospital in Mongbwalu, explained in another interview that the virus was spreading “at an exponential speed.”
The difficulty of containing this virus is due not only to it being the Bundibugyo virus, a strain of Ebola with no approved vaccine, but also because of disputes over local customs. Dr. Kojan said there is a “deep mistrust” among some local communities, hampering containment efforts. Residents have also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/05/28/congo-ebola-aid-bunia-who-tedros/607c60d4-5a96-11f1-8a9d-afb1148204e1_story.html">become angry</a> with health workers over the medical protocols for handling victims’ bodies, resulting in a “clash with local burial rites.” Three attacks have been launched against health centers in Ituri by residents.
Lokudi in an interview said that seven patients suspected of having Ebola escaped, creating ”chains and chains of contamination.&#8221;
On Wednesday, the <a href="https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2059772419250770096">Trump administration</a> said that Americans who were exposed to Ebola will be treated in a Kenya facility instead of flying home. Secretary of State Marco Rubio <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6396842926112">said</a>, “We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States.”
Rubio explained that there are multiple agencies involved, tracking people to prevent Ebola cases from entering the country.
“We feel like we’ve got good efforts in place to do that and America should feel assured that the president and his administration is doing everything we can to protect them all on that front,” Rubio said at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Ebola

Worries Spread As Ebola Outbreak Hits Grim Milestone

Africa

Democratic Republic of Congo

Health

WASHINGTON — The State Department is gathering European partners in an aggressive push to combat spikes in far-left terrorism around the world, The Daily Wire can first report.
American representatives will attend a law enforcement workshop in Europe this week focused on far-left terrorism, State Department officials told The Daily Wire, engaging other countries that are also grappling with the issue. The technical workshop will bring together officials from multiple European countries that have also seen increases in politically motivated violence tied to anarchist and far-left groups.
&#8220;We&#8217;re going to talk about what this threat stream looks like,&#8221; explained a State Department official, &#8220;what kind of targets that it&#8217;s engaging in, what kind of recent acts they&#8217;ve engaged in, what the tools are that we have to address this.&#8221;
A higher-level conference on the issue will be held in Washington, D.C. later this summer and will include officials from Europe, East Asia, and the Western Hemisphere.
The move comes as officials acknowledge a sharp increase in far-left terrorist incidents in the United States and Europe since 2016, particularly in France, Germany, Greece, and Italy.
In France, far-left anarchists <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/attack-train-system-highlights-broad-array-security-threats-paris-olym-rcna163921" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sabotaged a high-speed rail</a> in 2024 before the opening of the Olympic Games, and in 2026, beat a 23-year-old man, Quentin Deranque, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/21/world/quentin-deranque-death-france-intl">to death for his political beliefs</a>. Italy <a href="https://eucrim.eu/news/europol-te-sat-2025/">faced 18 terrorist attacks</a> from far-left militants in 2024, and in 2026, two such left-wing anarchists <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/news/italian-anarchists-blow-themselves-up-while-making-bomb/">blew themselves up</a> on the outskirts of Rome while making a bomb.
In Germany, the number of far-left actors <a href="https://www.bundestag.de/presse/hib/kurzmeldungen-920554">grew</a> from 10,300 in 2021 to 36,500 in 2022 — and a January 2026 Berlin <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/07/europe/berlin-power-outage-intl">power grid attack</a> by left-wing activists caused a five-day outage for more than 100,000 residents.
In Greece, more than 80% of violent events by radical organizations involved far-left and anarchist groups, <a href="https://acleddata.com/brief/radical-group-violence-rise-eu-acled-insight">according to the ACLED</a> (Armed Conflict Location &amp; Event Data), and more than 20 far-left individuals <a href="https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1230319/16-arrested-over-far-right-assault-on-police-in-athens/">were arrested in 2024 for attacks</a>, including targeting police.
<div id="attachment_1103391" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-state-department-organizing-global-push-against-far-left-terror/anti-government-protest-in-turin" rel="attachment wp-att-1103391"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1103391" class="wp-image-1103391 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2258719645-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2258719645-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2258719645-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2258719645-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2258719645.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Clashes with police and protesters, including numerous anarchists and far-left activists from across Italy and abroad, in Turin, Italy, on January 31, 2026. (Photo by Andrea Carrubba/Anadolu via Getty Images)</div>
Notably, since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, officials have noticed an &#8220;increased convergence&#8221; between these far-left groups and those participating in antisemitic violence, a State Department official shared. While they are very concerned about groups like Salafi jihadist terrorist groups, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS, they are also aware of the &#8220;new and emerging threats&#8221; presented by far-left groups and actors — and how all these groups cross over.
&#8220;A lot of these pro-Hamas, very violent groups that are operating in all of our respective countries, that these different groups are starting to converge with what you could call your far-left terrorist groups or anarchist groups, right, that engage in these kinds of terrorist violent acts.&#8221;
The State Department&#8217;s Counterterrorism operating system needs updates to address the reality of these threats, officials said, noting that the Department risks creating blind spots by ignoring these emerging trends.
&#8220;America First means protecting our country, people, and way of life—we are leveraging counterterrorism tools and global partnerships to deter this threat before it metastasizes,&#8221; the State Department official said.
On the home front, the State has already taken steps to dismantle both transnational far-left and anarchist terrorism by using visa restrictions to target individuals and designations against the Antifa aligned groups, Antifa Ost (Germany), Informal Anarchist Federation (Italy), Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece), and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense (Greece).
All of this is specifically targeting violent activity that meets the definition of terrorism, including assassinations, kidnappings, violent threats against U.S. facilities and law enforcement, attacks on critical infrastructure, military personnel, and civilians.
&#8220;Because our focus is international, we&#8217;ve been meeting with a lot of our partners to build a body of knowledge, so that we can better understand what this problem set looks like in their backyards, where there are transnational links, and then we&#8217;re also able to explore some best practices and other types of concerns,&#8221; explained the State Department official.
This specific workshop will be tailored towards far-left terrorism as a phenomenon, whether they engage in violent, terrorist, and criminal acts, particularly given that this area has become a blind spot for some law enforcement. As they take note of the rise in attacks, particularly those targeting critical infrastructure, U.S. partners are noticing that they lack the tools to address them properly.

Gemini_Generated_Image_5i7urp5i7urp5i7u

EXCLUSIVE: State Department Organizing Global Push Against Far-Left Terror

Antifa

Terrorism

WASHINGTON— The State Department is overhauling how it evaluates potential Foreign Service Officers, ending a process that administration officials say was &#8220;outdated&#8221; and widely known in the foreign diplomat community to be flawed.
State Department officials who spoke exclusively to The Daily Wire about the changes say they are being made to identify the &#8220;truly exceptional officers,&#8221; and fast-track them into the highly selective group of American diplomats.
The move is a significant shift aimed at modernizing the State Department under Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The new evaluation is a data-driven matrix system that will allow the State Department to properly assess Foreign Service Officers, designed to cut around favoritism and subjective narratives and properly assess personnel.
&#8220;Having been involved in supervising and evaluating personnel for many years in different contexts, I believe this change will restore accountability and ensure that evaluations reflect actual performance rather than inflated ratings designed to evade difficult conversations,&#8221; Deputy Secretary Chris Landau told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;For too long, our system rewarded consensus and score inflation instead of distinguishing between officers who consistently deliver results and those who do not, which undermined morale and weakened confidence in the promotion process,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This reform is consistent with the Trump administration’s emphasis on accountability in government, and many career Foreign Service Officers inside the building have quietly been calling for a more honest and rigorous evaluation system for years.&#8221;
The new approach will make it easier for State to assess performance accurately and recognize substantive contributions, one active foreign service officer shared with The Daily Wire on Friday, describing it as a &#8220;significant improvement over the previous system.&#8221;
&#8220;The revised framework provides clearer standards and more meaningful feedback, which will help ensure officers are evaluated fairly and matched with assignments that best align with our skills and experience in service to the Department’s mission,&#8221; the officer explained. &#8220;The new system clarifies to both supervisors and rated employees how well we are performing and, when appropriate, where we can improve.&#8221;
The department&#8217;s old process for evaluating its personnel has long been criticized by insiders as an agonizing, drawn-out bureaucratic exercise.
&#8220;We competed to see who could write the most effusive self-praise, all while smugly pretending to be modest,&#8221; another foreign service officer shared with The Daily Wire. &#8220;Because of the length of the essays, many supervisors had their employees ghost-write their own evaluations. Predictably, every employee was &#8216;one of the best officers I’ve met in my twenty-year career,&#8217; rendering the exercise largely meaningless.&#8221;
The process had become so bad that the department was swirling with rumors about secret codes that supervisors would insert into the evaluations to tip off the review boards about which officers were actually good performers. One foreign service officer insisted those rumors weren&#8217;t true, but pointed to their existence as proof that nobody trusted the current process.
&#8220;The rumors weren’t true but their existence alone was a scathing acknowledgment from employees that the reviews were meaningless,&#8221; the officer noted. &#8220;On top of all that, the process was so lengthy that the entire department essentially shut down for a month, postponing business while employees obsessed over their [Employee Evaluation Reports] and supervisors wrote lengthy statements for dozens of employees.&#8221;
&#8220;The current effort to simplify this process and connect it directly to achieving results for the American people is 100% welcome.&#8221;
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the new evaluation process was both developed and led by career Foreign Service Officers who understand the situation and are fixing problems that many other administrations should have dealt with prior.
&#8220;The updated system is data-driven, leverages best practices from across the government, and was designed thoughtfully to better assess the workforce and align employees with roles that best match their skills and experience,&#8221; he added. &#8220;It reflects a broader focus by the Trump administration and Secretary Rubio to pursue institutional reforms aimed at improving accountability and performance across the federal workforce.&#8221;

President Trump Meets With Visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

EXCLUSIVE: Trump State Dept Set To Overhaul Foreign Service

“This problem will be solved, as the president’s made clear, one way or the other.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered that blunt warning while hinting the Trump administration could be on the verge of a major breakthrough with Iran after weeks of escalating tensions tied to Operation Epic Fury and the growing standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to India, Rubio repeatedly teased that behind-the-scenes negotiations are actively underway and suggested a major development could come within days.
“There may be news later today,” Rubio said. “There may not be. I hope there will be. I’m not sure yet.”
Rubio’s comments also come as Trump appears to be quietly reshuffling his schedule because what’s happening between the United States and Iran is becoming increasingly serious behind the scenes.
Trump announced Friday that he would skip Memorial Day weekend plans and miss Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration in the Bahamas in order to remain in Washington during what he described as an “important period of time” for the country.
Trump previously told reporters he had “a thing called Iran” preventing him from fully committing to attending the wedding.
The Trump administration has continued ramping up pressure on Iran following Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign targeting Iranian military infrastructure and nuclear-linked facilities earlier this year.
Since then, tensions across the Middle East have continued boiling over as the White House pushes Tehran to back down from several key demands.
Among the administration’s biggest conditions: Iran must fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz without restrictions and hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Rubio suggested that progress may finally be happening.
“There’s been some progress done, some progress made,” Rubio said. “Even as I speak to you now, there’s some work being done.” 
He added that the administration could potentially have something to announce “later today, tomorrow, or in a couple days.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Rubio drops major hint about Iran as Trump clears his schedule" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ReBFhI675RU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The Strait of Hormuz is now turning into one of the biggest pressure points in the entire Iran showdown.
Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply moves through the narrow waterway, meaning any disruption could immediately send shockwaves through the global economy and energy markets.
Rubio also reiterated one of President Donald Trump’s biggest red lines: Iran can never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“They need to turn over highly enriched uranium. We need to address that issue. We need to address the issue of enrichment,” Rubio said.
At the same time, Rubio emphasized that Trump still prefers to resolve the conflict diplomatically instead of militarily, though he made clear the administration believes the issue will ultimately be resolved regardless.
“These are the president’s points consistently,” Rubio said. “His preference is always to solve problems such as these through a negotiated diplomatic solution.”
Meanwhile, Iran appears to be publicly signaling some openness to negotiations for the first time in weeks.
Iranian officials confirmed that Tehran is working to finalize a “memorandum of understanding” with the United States through talks reportedly being mediated by Pakistan.
Still, Iranian officials are simultaneously insisting the United States has “nothing to do” with how the Strait of Hormuz is managed, showing just how shaky any possible agreement still is.
Rubio previously warned during a NATO foreign ministers meeting earlier this month that if Iran refuses to cooperate, the United States and its allies may ultimately be forced to intervene.
“Then someone’s going to have to go in and do something about it,” Rubio said at the time.

CHINA-US-DIPLOMACY

Rubio Drops Major Hint About Iran As Trump Clears His Schedule

Iran

President Trump

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a fiery message to the Cuban people Wednesday, accusing the island’s communist leadership of enriching itself while ordinary citizens endure blackouts, food shortages, and repression. 
Rubio delivered the remarks in Spanish on Cuban Independence Day as reports emerged that the Department of Justice is expected to unveil criminal charges against former Cuban leader Raúl Castro over allegations that he ordered a 1996 attack on an aircraft belonging to the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue, which left three American citizens dead. 
“The real reason you don&#8217;t have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people,” Rubio said in the video.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🇺🇸🇨🇺 <a href="https://t.co/nwEePVJ1lX">pic.twitter.com/nwEePVJ1lX</a>
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecRubio/status/2057069290637889876?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Rubio alleged that GAESA — a secretive business conglomerate founded by Castro and operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces — now controls roughly 70% of Cuba’s economy and possesses billions in assets while ordinary Cubans struggle through prolonged daily power outages.
The secretary also outlined what he described as President Donald Trump’s vision for “a new Cuba,” promising U.S. aid and expanded economic opportunities if power shifts away from the communist system. 
Rubio said the administration is offering $100 million in food and medicine to the Cuban people, but insisted the aid must bypass the Cuban government and instead be distributed by trusted religious or charitable organizations such as the Catholic Church.
“President Trump is offering a new relationship between the U.S. and Cuba. But it must be directly with you, the Cuban people, not with GAESA,” Rubio said. “A new Cuba where you, the ordinary Cuban, and not just GAESA, can own a gas station or a clothing store, or a restaurant.”
Rubio also argued that Cubans are seeking more than humanitarian assistance, saying they want the same economic opportunities and freedoms enjoyed by relatives living abroad. 
“Today, from media to entertainment, from the private sector to politics, and from music to sports, Cubans have reached the top of virtually ALL industries, in all countries, except one: Cuba,” he said.
According to reports from <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2026/05/20/raul-castro-indictment-trump-cuba/90167960007/">USA Today</a>, Castro is expected to face murder-related charges connected to allegations that he directed Cuban MiG fighter pilots to shoot down the unarmed civilian planes near Cuban airspace.
An audio recording reportedly captured months after the incident allegedly features a voice identified as Castro discussing the operation.
“I told them [the MiG pilots] to try to knock them down over [Cuban] territory,” the voice allegedly said. “Well, knock them down into the sea when they reappear.”
The 1996 incident remains one of the most controversial confrontations between the United States and Cuba since the Cold War. 
Although Castro formally stepped down from power in 2021, he is still widely viewed as influential within Cuba.
Some observers have speculated that an indictment could significantly escalate tensions between Washington and Havana and potentially open discussions about stronger American action against the Cuban regime. Comparisons have been drawn to the Trump administration’s arrest of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, who was also indicted.
Rubio closed his address by arguing that the only obstacle preventing Cuba from becoming more prosperous and democratic is the current leadership itself.
“In the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people and our countries,” Rubio said. “And, currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”

Secretary Of State Marco Rubio Meets With Visiting Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty At The State Department

Rubio Outlines Vision For ‘New Cuba’ As Possible Raúl Castro Indictment Looms

Raul Castro

President Donald Trump gave his seal of approval Thursday to Marco Rubio’s now-viral “Maduro tracksuit” look, joking to reporters that the secretary of state pulled off the outfit better than most.
“I thought he looked very good in the sweatsuit. I don’t know if I’d do it, but I thought he looked very good,” Trump said aboard Air Force One when asked about Rubio’s gray Nike tracksuit, which has exploded online as one of the administration’s latest meme moments. 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Trump dishes on Rubio’s ‘Maduro’ Nike fit" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7KUcSbalKpQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Rubio <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/marco-rubio-is-actually-wearing-nicolas-maduros-nike-sweatsuit-on-air-force-one">turned heads</a> on Tuesday when White House communications officials posted a photo of him aboard Air Force One en route to China wearing the same gray Nike Tech sweatsuit made famous by the January capture of Nicolás Maduro. The image immediately went viral because Maduro was photographed in an almost identical outfit when U.S. forces arrested and extradited him to New York City earlier this year to face federal criminal charges. 
The White House leaned into the joke, posting a side-by-side video comparing Rubio and Maduro in the same outfit, dubbing it a “full circle moment.” Online, users jokingly coined the term “Maduromaxxing,” while others called the move classic Rubio trolling, especially given his longtime hawkish stance toward socialist strongmen in Latin America.
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Full circle moment <a href="https://t.co/6hkxyGNo8J">pic.twitter.com/6hkxyGNo8J</a>
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/2054338104316547154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The tracksuit itself has taken on an oddly specific internet fame since Maduro’s capture, becoming a kind of inside joke among younger online conservatives and meme pages. Rubio, who was traveling with Trump for the president’s high-profile Beijing visit, appeared unfazed by the attention, though the outfit briefly overshadowed the diplomatic mission itself.
The White House has increasingly embraced internet-native political humor. Even at 30,000 feet on the way to a summit with Beijing, there was still time to troll a deposed dictator.

Marco Rubio/Donald Trump

Trump Dishes On Rubio’s ‘Maduro’ Nike Fit

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