https://en.mercopress.com/ South Atlantic News Agency en Copyright 2026, MercoPress. https://en.mercopress.com/web/img/en/mercopress-logo.gif http://en.mercopress.com/ US President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration will bring the Cuban government to align with Washington and pull away from the orbit of China and Russia, in his first public comments on the island since the unprecedented visit by CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Havana on Thursday. The remarks, delivered during an interview with journalist Bret Baier on Fox News, come in a week marked by contradictory US gestures toward the Cuban regime: the humanitarian offer of USD 100 million accepted by Havana, the judicial pressure on former president Raúl Castro, and the opening of a direct channel between US and Cuban intelligence services.

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 03:45:00 GMT US President Donald Trump on Friday concluded his state visit to China of less than 48 hours without substantial announcements on the main points of the bilateral agenda, although he described the encounter as "very successful" and "unforgettable" and said he had reached "fantastic" trade deals whose details were not disclosed. The final day of the trip, held at Zhongnanhai, the residence of the Chinese Communist Party leadership, produced as its most visible outcome an offer by Chinese President Xi Jinping to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, closed by Iran since the start of the war in late February.

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 03:12:00 GMT The US government is weighing a federal indictment against former Cuban president Raúl Castro over the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft operated by the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue, the CBS network and the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday, citing official sources. The potential charges, which still require grand jury approval, emerge on a day marked by escalating tensions between Washington and Havana and by a confidential visit to the Cuban capital by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

]]> Fri, 15 May 2026 05:08:00 GMT The Cuban government on Thursday accepted the United States' offer of USD 100 million in humanitarian aid for food, fuel, and medicines, in a significant political shift after weeks of public rejection and hours after authorities on the island acknowledged the complete exhaustion of their fuel reserves. The aid will be channeled through the Catholic Church, according to the official statement issued by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who only the day before had described the US offer as "inconsequential and paradoxical."

]]> Fri, 15 May 2026 02:58:00 GMT Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi will travel to Washington "in the coming months" to meet with his US counterpart Donald Trump, in a meeting that national authorities describe as agreed and awaiting only the coordination of calendars, according to Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin's confirmation on Wednesday before the Senate International Affairs Committee. The summit would crown a series of overtures by the Broad Front government toward the Republican administration, initiated in the early weeks of Orsi's term, which began in March, and which have generated controversy within the ruling coalition itself.

]]> Thu, 14 May 2026 09:21:00 GMT The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed economist Kevin Warsh as the 17th chair of the Federal Reserve in a 54-45 vote, in a transition that hands control of the world's most influential central bank to President Donald Trump's pick at a moment of strong inflationary pressure. Warsh, a former Fed governor during the 2008 financial crisis and a former Morgan Stanley banker, will formally take office on Friday 15 May, following the departure of Jerome Powell, whose eight-year term has been marked by successive economic crises and a prolonged clash with the White House over the central bank's political independence.

]]> Wed, 13 May 2026 20:00:00 GMT US President Donald Trump landed in Beijing on Wednesday at 19:52 local time (11:52 GMT) to begin a three-day state visit to the Asian giant, his second trip to the country since the one made in 2017 during his first term and the first by a US president to the Chinese capital in nearly nine years. The summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, will run Thursday and Friday and will tackle the fragile trade truce sealed in Busan last October, the war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran, the technological rivalry between the world's two largest economies, and the dispute over Taiwan.

]]> Wed, 13 May 2026 12:25:00 GMT The official White House account on Tuesday published a series of messages on social media platform X suggesting the annexation of Venezuela to the United States under the formula of the "51st state," a discursive shift that strains the bilateral rapprochement built since the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro on 3 January. The first post shows a map of Venezuela covered with the US flag and the caption "51st State"; eight minutes later, a video revives Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement of Maduro's capture, with footage of the former leader being flown to New York. The publication comes at a moment of apparent stagnation in the economic opening that acting President Delcy Rodríguez has pushed from Caracas to attract US investment.

]]> Wed, 13 May 2026 11:57:00 GMT The summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that begins on Wednesday in Beijing will unfold around an agenda concentrated on five main fronts: the US war against Iran, the Taiwan question, bilateral tariffs, Chinese exports of rare earths, and, according to The Wall Street Journal, an initial approach to managing the risks of artificial intelligence. It will be the first visit by a US president to the Chinese capital in nearly nine years and comes three days after China's Foreign Ministry released a propaganda video that revived the Soviet-era concept of “peaceful coexistence” to describe the bilateral relationship.

]]> Wed, 13 May 2026 03:20:00 GMT US President Donald Trump described Iran's response to Washington's latest proposal to end the war that has pitted the two countries against each other since 28 February as “totally unacceptable” on Sunday. “I have just read the response from Iran's so-called 'Representatives.' I don't like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

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