Millions in Cuba were left without power on Friday as the country was plunged into yet another major blackout.
The country's entire electricity grid suffered "total disconnection" that triggered a nationwide outage, Cuba's energy ministry said.
Power was restored to some priority areas by late evening, including those near hospitals and water pumping stations in the capital Havana, grid operator UNE said.
It is at least the sixth partial or total blackout to hit Cuba this year, where ageing electricity infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages have been placed under further strain by a US blockade on oil shipments to the communist-run nation.
UNE said the outage started just before 14:00 local time on Friday (18:00 GMT) due to a transmission fault coupled with poor weather conditions in central Cuba.

#grid

Hasan Piker hears the growing chorus of Democrats condemning him for incendiary statements, and he has a message for the party: "My job is not to make the Democratic Party look good."
The far-left Twitch streamer has boosted socialist candidates even as he created headaches for the broader Democratic Party in a midterm election cycle where it hopes to make major gains. The 35-year-old Piker — whose polarizing stances range from defending communist Chinese dictator Mao Zedong to comparing Zionism to "Nazism" — is a darling of the Democratic Socialists of America, but a potential liability for mainstream Democrats as November approaches.
Piker said Democratic Party officials have not reached out to coordinate a strategy.
"I have not had a conversation with anyone from the DNC," Piker said. "That would be very funny."
James Carville Decries 'Idiot' Hasan Piker, Orders Dsa To Change Its Name

#democratic

Democrats are widely expected to win control of the House in November's election. The Senate remains a tossup. But there is a nagging suspicion that Trump will somehow pervert the will of the people to ensure that Republicans retain their majority in the House and somehow steal the election.
Here's his playbook: For starters, MAGAs will demonize the Democrats. Evoking Senator Joseph McCarthy, President Trump has already referred to Democrats as "hard core, godless Communists."
Republican House majority leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said, "The Bolshevik takeover of the Democratic Party is in full swing, and communism is on the ballot this November."
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) posted, "The question before Congress is whether we will preserve our constitutional republic OR chart a fundamentally different course that leads us down the ROAD TO COMMUNISM."
Trump will delegitimize eligible voters. He will scare them away from the polls by posting federal agents at their voting places or discouraging them by disparaging mail-in ballots.

#Trump

By Ben Blanchard and Yi-Chin Lee
KINMEN, Taiwan, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Peace can only be secured through strength and not even an inch of territory can be sacrificed, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te ‌said on Sunday, visiting a sensitive frontline island to mark a key battle with Chinese ‌forces almost seven decades ago.
Taiwan has controlled the Kinmen and Matsu islands, which lie just off the Chinese coast, since the Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed.
In heavy rain, Lai laid a wreath and bowed at a memorial park for the 68th anniversary of the 1958 clash with Chinese forces, known as the start of the second Taiwan ‌Strait crisis — the last time Taiwanese and ⁠Chinese forces battled on a large scale.
Addressing veterans later, Lai expressed gratitude to those who "stood united and fought a ******* battle to repel Communist totalitarian aggression".

#kinmen #blanchard

Richard A. Brooks/Getty Images
Shein is asking some of its existing investors to invest in an initial public offering that is supposed to give them an exit. While it's a welcome development for some, a series of failed attempts to go public means skepticism remains.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Chinese investment manager Boyu Capital and UBS ***** et Management are in talks to become cornerstone investors in the online fast-fashion retailer's Hong Kong listing. Shein has set aside at least $400 million of stock for cornerstone investors and is seeking to raise about $2 billion overall at a valuation of $26 billion to $27 billion.
Tencent and General Atlantic are among the other existing investors weighing commitments, according to the report.
Boyu is one of Shein's largest identifiable shareholders, owning Series D and D+ preferred shares at prices implying a value of roughly $815 million, according to Shein's draft IPO prospectus. The Hong Kong firm was founded in 2010 by partners including Alvin Jiang, a grandson of Jiang Zemin, leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1989 to 2002.

#kong #jiang

Left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker appears to be gearing up to sue conservative commentator Scott Jennings for defamation.
Jennings, a CNN contributor, went viral last week after posting a heavily edited, intentionally misleading video of what looked like Piker expressing extreme hostility towards Black voters and calling for lynchings. With the full context, it is obvious that Piker was being sarcastic.
"Black voters have been voting against the socialists, only to be ruled in many cases by privileged white commies," Jennings claimed, using Black identity as a bludgeon against the Democratic left. "Did you ever notice, by the way, how violent these people are? … Now [Abdul] El-Sayed's best friend is out there calling for Black voters to be lynched. Beneath all the smiles and dancing videos, there's nothing but hate and violence in the heart of these Communists."
As Snopes reported, Jennings lied when he claimed that Piker wanted to bringing back lynchings, as "Piker's remarks on lynchings were sarcastic reactions to a user's chat comment and opinions expressed by someone else in a separate video."
Jennings's video was widely panned, with many calling for Piker to sue. The streamer called Jennings's video "the worst instance of defamation" he'd seen. On Sunday, Piker confirmed that his team is preparing a defamation lawsuit, saying it seemed "unavoidable," and that it might include Fox News.

#piker #voters #calling #sarcastic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump White House said in a new report on Thursday that countries are routing their exports through third countries to avoid U.S. tariffs, estimating that there are tax revenue losses of $19 billion to $26 billion annually.
The report specifically highlights that China responded to new tariffs in 2018 by sending their goods to other nations ranging from Mexico to Malaysia for packaging and limited ****** embly — a practice known as transshipping. That pattern made it look like U.S. imports from China had dropped, but enabled Beijing to continue growing its manufacturing sector in ways that could challenge U.S. factories and employment.
Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, told reporters on a conference call that China is laundering its exports through more than 40 countries, though he claimed that the issues raised in the report were really more about other nations enabling the avoidance of tariffs.
"For years, the great transshipment scam has let communist China launder its exports," Navarro said.
The report comes ahead of a planned September visit by Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, who President Donald Trump described in flattering terms during his own visit to Beijing in May.

#House

By Laura Gottesdiener, Ayose Naranjo and Stefanie Eschenbacher
HAVANA, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Gasoline at $38 a gallon sold from cramped apartments. Diesel hawked on Instagram by a celebrity model to a reggaeton soundtrack. Six decades after Fidel Castro's revolution, all of a sudden, capitalist cracks are appearing in Cuba's communist energy sector.
Under Washington's crippling oil embargo against Cuba, an exception that allows U.S. firms to export fuel to private Cuban businesses has kickstarted a chaotic black market and pried the lid off an energy sector tightly controlled by the state ever since Dwight Eisenhower ‌was in the White House.
Oil shipments from Cuba's traditional suppliers Venezuela and Mexico ended abruptly after the U.S. ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. U.S. Coast Guard cutters patrol the waters off Cuba, while sanctions and threats have dissuaded tankers from even setting sail.
The embargo has hobbled essential ‌state-run services like the healthcare system, public transport and schools. But under the Commerce Department exception, a trickle of gasoline and diesel is reaching private restaurants, retailers and taxis, the first significant landings of U.S. fuel on the Caribbean island since Castro nationalized refineries after the 1959 revolution.

#cuba #gasoline #energy

Praising communist China is too much, even for a loving mother.
Left-wing streaming star Hasan Piker received a friendly profile from Rolling Stone on Sunday which celebrated him for being a "matinee-handsome progressive icon" who is "uniquely talented at translating radical-left politics for Gen Z bros." But the article noted Piker's mom Sedaf, although she shares most of his political opinions, isn't a big fan of his China admiration.
"I'm not in love with China like he is," she said.
Her comment comes after Piker has praised China — and bashed the USA — on a number of occasions. During a fawning livestream while on a trip to the country last year, Piker insisted he would never dare criticize Mao Zedong, the founder of China's communist government.
"I got stopped by a cop who thought I was making fun of Mao Zedong, which I never would and never will," Piker said. "Mao Zedong is one of the great leaders of this world, OK? A man who changed the entire universe, the entire planet."

#zedong #entire #hasan

June's NBA Finals should remind us of excellence, discipline and the way sports can lift the human spirit. Instead, Stephen Curry's partnership with apparel company Li-Ning points in the other direction. It binds one of America's most admired athletes to a Chinese company already under serious scrutiny for forced labor. **** ody can pretend the moral cost of doing business with Communist China is a mystery anymore.
What makes this so disappointing is that Curry is not simply a gifted player: He is a global figure whose public standing rests on more than championships. It rests on judgment, character and the sense that he takes serious things seriously. When a man like that signs a reported 10-year, $400 million deal with Li-Ning, he is not just changing brands. He is lending his good name to a company shadowed by one of the great human rights scandals of our time.
Sports at their best can do something rare. They can take fame, which is often fleeting and shallow, and turn it toward service. They can show that athletic greatness and moral witness do not have to live in separate worlds. That is why decisions like this matter. The larger the platform, the larger the responsibility.
Curry's decision is so troubling because it places the honor attached to athletic excellence beside a system of coercion. The U.S. Department of Labor states that since 2016 the Chinese Communist Party has subjected Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang "to genocide, state-imposed forced labor, and crimes against humanity." It describes labor transfers, surveillance, indoctrination and coercive factory work as part of a broad machinery of control.
These are not careless accusations. They are specific charges documented by the U.S. government and corroborated by international investigators.

#ning #communist #excellence #human

By Greg Torode
HONG KONG, July 10 (Reuters) - China's submarine-fired ballistic missile test into the southern Pacific on Monday gave its military leadership an opportunity to examine some of the most complex and sensitive operations of its evolving nuclear deterrent, ***** ysts and diplomats say.
Commanding, controlling and communicating with nuclear-armed submarines attempting to operate undetected pose immense challenges, they say - something ‌felt acutely by a Chinese Communist Party leadership where the military's political loyalty is paramount.
"This aspect is certainly something that would have been very much evaluated, besides looking at the actual technical ‌capabilities of the missile and submarine," said Collin Koh, a security scholar at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
"There are still challenges ahead but it would seem they are getting close to an operational strike capability here...they are probably trying to demonstrate that even if they can't get into a position to hit the continental U.S., they could still target Guam and Hawaii."

By Helen Reid and Kane Wu
LONDON/HONG KONG, July 10 (Reuters) - Fast-fashion retailer Shein won approval for its long-awaited Hong Kong IPO on Friday, a notice posted on the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) website showed, clearing the way for a listing after failed attempts in New York and London.
Shein, a fast-growing e-commerce giant, would be the highest-profile retailer to list in ‌years, as many consumer brands have delayed initial public offerings due to weak investor sentiment and subdued spending by lower- to middle-income shoppers.
Founded by Chinese-born entrepreneur Sky Xu in 2012, Shein has ‌waited a year for the green light from Beijing for its IPO, which had to be cleared by the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
Beijing views Shein as politically sensitive and has been cautious about endorsing a listing after controversies including a ******* doll scandal in France and reports of poor labour practices at its supplier factories in China, the source said.

As many of its candidates notch electoral wins nationwide, the pre-eminent socialist political group in the U.S., the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), plans to roll out an updated platform that includes eliminating the Senate and replacing the president and the Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by Congress.
According to a source familiar with the DSA's planning, the organization plans to roll out an update next week to its long-term vision for a U.S. policy platform. The update includes eliminating the U.S. Senate and replacing the president and the Supreme Court with an executive branch and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.
Additionally, the updated platform would include amnesty for all immigrants and defunding the Department of War.
This would be in addition to the DSA's current policy platform, which calls for an "immediate end to all deportations," free migration between countries without restrictive immigration controls, and "extending full voting rights to people with criminal convictions and noncitizens."
Expert Who Fled Cuba Warns Of 'Vicious Cycle' That Will Lead To 'Communists In Double Digits' In Congress

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is under fire from an Italian American heritage group after Little Italy was left off a city immigrant-neighborhood map tied to a World Cup tourism campaign — an omission critics called an insult to one of the communities that helped build New York.
"Zohran Mamdani wants to ERASE Italian Americans. First, he denied our permit for Unity Day 2026. Now, he is excluding Little Italy as a recognized location all together on the map," wrote the Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL) on X along with a press release.
"Italian Americans BUILT NEW YORK CITY. Not third world Ugandans, We stand AGAINST COMMUNISTS," the group added.
David Marcus: Commie Dems Would Destroy Everything World Cup Fans Love About America
The map, **** led "New York City Immigrant Enclaves," was created by New York City Tourism + Conventions as part of its NYC Neighborhood Passport campaign tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs has promoted the neighborhood map at pop-up booths across the city.

Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino accused top Democrats of putting "power" ahead of principle, insisting many have only turned on embattled Senate candidate Graham Platner after concluding he could no longer win.
"There were no principles involved here at all," Bongino told "The Ingraham Angle" on Tuesday.
"The left are the anti-anti-communist. They're just against us and whatever we stand for to advance their communist agenda, and this guy was a tool that's no longer sharp for them."
Kingmaker Mamdani Calls On Platner To 'Drop Out Of The Race' After Rape Allegation
Several Democrats and progressives, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have either rescinded their support for Platner or called on him to end his campaign following a rape accusation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday sought to take credit for recent price cuts by Walmart, but a statement by the retailer made no mention of the administration's involvement in its decision.
The president has faced public backlash over inflation rising during his watch, as prices climbed initially in the aftermath of his tariffs and later with the start of the Iran war in late February. Trump described a recent bipartisan measure to trim housing costs as "a yawn" and tried to blame the Democrats for inflation staying elevated.
Going into the November midterm elections for control of Congress, Trump has sought to deride Democrats as communists who would have the government interfere with private companies. But in his social media post about Walmart, he said the business had trimmed prices at the specific request of his administration.
"I have just been informed that one of the biggest, best, and smartest Retailers in America, Walmart, will be lowering prices, by a lot, at my Administration's request to celebrate our great Country's 250th birthday," Trump said. "Walmart will, in particular, be dropping the price for a pound of ground beef by almost 15%, among many other products."
Walmart has benefited in part from higher inflation under Trump, as consumers have turned to its stores and website in search of lower prices, according to its quarterly earnings released in May.

By Andy Sullivan and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, July 4 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump marked the 250th anniversary of the United States on Saturday with a campaign-style speech that repeated his calls for new voting restrictions, warned that "communists" could gain ground in the country and cycled through what he touted as his achievements.
After ‌a storm-related delay of nearly two hours, Trump appeared on the National Mall in Washington to deliver a speech that mixed broad appeals to patriotism with pointed ‌attacks on perceived ideological threats at home and abroad.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A massive demonstration was held for the 35th night in a row in Albania's capital on Saturday, with protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, the temporary replacement of his government, constitutional reform and an end to corruption.
Media images showed tens of thousands of people marching along Tirana's main boulevard toward Skanderbeg Square. There has been no independent verification of the number of protesters.
The nightly demonstrations began over a luxury coastal resort development project in a protected natural area linked to U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, but have since evolved into broader anti-government and anti-corruption protests. The protesters were chanting "New Albania" and "Edi Rama, resign."
The march was heavy on symbolism. A tall bust of Rama was erected and later toppled with the help of a rope, a gesture reminiscent of the February 1991 toppling of the statue of longtime communist dictator Enver Hoxha, an event commemorated on Feb. 20 each year. Since Saturday's protest coincided with Rama's 62nd birthday, some protesters carried "birthday cakes" made of cement, an allusion to the building projects. There was also an ironic "happy birthday" song for Rama.
Some protesters carried pink flamingo balloons, a reference to the birds supposedly threatened by the resort construction project. The demonstrations have long been dubbed "the pink flamingo revolution."

The fuel shortage ravaging Russia has forced motorists around the country to wait in endless lines to fill up, evoking memories of communist-era privation.
Ukraine's months-long campaign of drone strikes on oil infrastructure deep inside Russian territory has forced refineries to shut down. Energy ***** ysts have estimated that 25% or more of Russia's refining capacity has been taken offline by the attacks.
The head of Russia's biggest oil company even called the damage to refineries "unprecedented," according to a letter to President Vladimir Putin that was leaked to Russian newspaper Kommersant.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday described the upcoming midterm elections as a choice "between communism and common sense" following a string of recent progressive wins in Democratic primaries.
"I know the president and many Americans are extremely concerned [about] how far left the Democrat party is moving," Leavitt said in an interview with "Fox & Friends."
"This is not your granddaddy's Democrat party," she continued. "These are communists. The president is trying to call them that. They want to abolish private prisons, they want to abolish the police, they want to abolish private property. These are radical, Marxist ideas that have never worked in the history of the world."
"I think it's a choice coming up between communism and common sense. That's how the president views it," she said.
The press secretary's comments come after three leftist candidates supported by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) won congressional primaries in New York last Tuesday, with two candidates beating establishment-backed incumbents.

A self-exiled billionaire Chinese business tycoon once believed to be among China's wealthiest men was sentenced Monday to 30 years in a US prison for a massive financial fraud that a federal judge said cost over 1,000 people worldwide hundreds of millions of dollars.
Guo Wengui, who fled China a decade ago and reinvented himself as a US -based Communist Party critic, was sentenced in a Manhattan courtroom packed with his supporters by Judge ******* isa Torres. She said he "preyed on those seeking to bring Democracy to China," taking their money so he could live lavishly.
Before he was sentenced, Guo protested his treatment in jail, saying he was taken to the hospital early Monday. He disputed a prosecutor's portrayal of him as a malinger faking illness, saying he repeatedly vomited as he was returned to jail before being brought to court.
"When I came here, I said: 'I have a tummy ache, I need to go to the bathroom, I don't feel well,'" Guo said through an interpreter of his courthouse arrival. Later, Guo wiped his mouth repeatedly with a tissue.
He only briefly addressed the criminal case, defending his intentions by saying in reference to the Chinese Communist Party: "The reason I came to the US was to destroy the CCP."

BANGKOK (AP) — Vietnam is increasingly using broadly written laws to arrest activists, dissidents and others that authorities consider a threat to the Communist Party's rule, according to a new ***** ysis released Monday by a human rights group.
The 88 Project, which focuses on rights issues in Vietnam, documented 56 such arrests in 2025, the third consecutive year of increases and double the number in 2022. The report includes only arrests where the defendant could be identified by name and the case tracked, and the actual numbers are believed to be much higher, said Ben Swanton, co-director of the group.
The report says the country under leader To Lam "routinely weaponizes criminal law" to quash dissent. To Lam, the country's former top security official who has served as general secretary of the Communist Party since 2024, was also elected president earlier this year.
The arrests are largely driven by fears of an uprising against the leadership in a so-called "color revolution," like the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, or the 1986 Yellow Revolution in the Philippines, according to the report.
It is a fear shared by the Communist Party in neighboring China, which has been accused of using similar tactics to stifle critics. Though competing maritime claims have led to confrontations between the two countries and a tense diplomatic relationship at times, China and Vietnam were able to agree earlier this year to together "prioritize political security and enhance efforts to prevent and resist color revolutions," the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

CNN's chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins pushed back on President Donald Trump's rhetoric about the rise of democratic socialism in the U.S., which Trump has incorrectly conflated with communism, following several victories from progressive House candidates in New York primaries.
During "The Source with Kaitlan Collins" on Friday, the CNN anchor aired remarks Trump made earlier that day at the annual Faith & Freedom Coalition Conference, where he described democratic socialists as "hardcore Godless communists" and "the most serious threat to our country since its existence."
Collins challenged the president's "border apocalyptic" comments that America could become a communist nation.
"While Democrats themselves have been wrestling with what Tuesday night means for the direction of their party, socialism, much less democratic socialism, is not communism," she said.
She is referring to the string of Democratic primary victories in New York on Tuesday from democratic socialists backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D).

On Friday afternoon a small plane appeared to evade some of the world's strictest aviation controls and slam into the tallest skyscraper in Beijing, the 109-story CITIC Tower that dominates the city's skyline, killing the pilot and injuring 13 other people.
The crash sent shards of glass and aircraft debris plummeting hundreds of feet down to the streets below as office workers left for the weekend, causing panic in the heart of China's most protected city.
A short while later, it was like nothing had happened.
All references to the incident – and the shocking footage of it – had been scrubbed from Chinese social media. The government initially did not publicly acknowledge any incident had taken place. State media – including the country's national broadcaster CCTV, headquartered across the road from the crash site – made no mention of the incident.
That's thanks to the work of China's army of censors and the Communist authorities' obsessive control over information – particularly concerning events they believe may bring negative attention or consequences

BEIJING, June 18 (Reuters) - China officially appointed its fifth-ranked leader Cai Qi as head of the Communist Party's central ‌ideology school, cementing his position as one of President ‌Xi Jinping's closest and most trusted confidants.
Cai became part of the party's seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, China's pinnacle of political power overseen by Xi, in 2022. Cai is also director of the party's General Office, making him Xi's de facto chief of staff.
China's two most recent leaders, ‌Xi and Hu Jintao, ⁠had both served as head of the elite Central Party School before ascending to the top leadership ⁠position.
By taking the helm of the top party school, Cai, 70, unites the party's organisational, doctrinal and administrative apparatus under a single Standing Committee member — a rare concentration of power.
Cai replaced Chen Xi, 72, as ‌the new president of the National Academy of Governance, the human resources ministry announced on Thursday.

BEIJING, June 5 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping's right hand man, Cai Qi, has been appointed as head of the elite ‌Central Party School, a move ******* ysts say cements his position ‌as perhaps Xi's closest ally now entrusted with almost the entire communist party portfolio.
The 70-year old Xi loyalist attended a graduation ceremony at the school as its head publicly for the first time on Friday, according to footage shown on state broadcaster CCTV.
"With this appointment, he combines the Party's organizational, doctrinal, and ‌administrative functions under one ⁠Standing Committee member," said Jean Christopher Mittelstaedt, professor of modern Chinese studies at the University of Zurich.
"I don't think ⁠there's a precedent for that," he said.
Cai, heading the Communist Party Central Committee's General Office among his other intraparty posts, is Xi's de facto chief of staff. And as part of the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, he is ‌among the handful of most powerful officials in China.

Hasan Piker put SXSW London on blast Monday for not defending him after he and uncle Cenk Uygur were banned from entering the United Kingdom over previous criticisms they’ve made against Israel.
“SXSW was a minor part of my trip to the U.K.,” Piker wrote on X Monday. “They totally didn’t defend me or Cenk at all, they’re actual f–king losers and I will never work with them for the rest of my life. If you bought a ticket expecting to see me you should demand a refund.”
Kicking off Monday for the second year in London, the Austin, Texas-founded culture and arts festival was due to have Piker speak this week in conversation with British journalist and libertarian communist political activist Ash Sarkar.
In a separate video on his Twitch page, Piker went in harder on the fest, calling SXSW’s statement “disgusting.”
“It’s not like they’re paying me, right? I’m not getting paid by SXSW to do this, right? It’s actually really insane. I’m doing this as a f—king favor and they’re literally farming donations off of my image off of my likeness,” he said. “Then it’s crazy that they just, once the Home Office intervened and revoked my visa, when the Home Office intervened and revoked my visa, SXSW’s statement was disgusting. Like, it was literally nothing.

Cuban protesters ransack Communist office as energy crisis deepens

Protesters in Cuba have ransacked a Communist Party building following a rally over steep food prices and persistent power cuts, in a rare show of public dissent.
Five people were arrested after a small group vandalised the offices in the central city of Moron overnight into Saturday, Cuba's Interior Ministry (Minint) said.
Discontent among Cubans has been mounting as the island is buffeted by rolling blackouts and shortages of food, fuel and medicine, exacerbated by a prolonged US oil blockade.
The protest came hours aft

Protests erupt in Cuba as US restrictions spark food, energy shortages

Protesters in central Cuba have torched a local communist party office, as conditions on the island continue to deteriorate under severe restrictions from the United States meant to squeeze the economy.
Authorities said on Saturday that five people were arrested amid what the government called “vandalism acts” in the city of Moron.
“What began peacefully, after an exchange with the authorities in the area, degenerated into vandalism against the headquarters of the municipal committee of the Communist Party,” the state-

Trump says he'll 'work something out' with NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump indicated Sunday that he plans to meet with New York City's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and said they'll “work something out," in what could be a detente for the Republican president and Democratic political star who have cast each other as political foils.
Trump has for months slammed Mamdani, falsely labeling him as a “communist” and predicting the ruin of his hometown, New York, if the democratic socialist was elected. He also threatened to deport Mamdani, who was born i