
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.

An international report presented in Kyiv in late April estimates that between 1,000 and 8,000 Latin Americans are serving in the Russian army in its war against Ukraine, in what its authors describe as a global human-trafficking network run to replenish front-line casualties. The document, titled Fighters, Mercenaries or Victims of Human Trafficking?, was produced by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Ukrainian organization Truth Hounds, and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights.

A spy group linked to Russian foreign intelligence funded the publication of more than 250 articles across at least 23 Argentine digital media outlets between June and October 2024, aiming to discredit Javier Milei's government, according to an investigation based on leaked documents conducted by an international media consortium.

The United States authorized the passage of a Russian oil tanker loaded with crude bound for Cuba, in the first easing of the de facto energy blockade Washington has imposed on the island since the start of the year, The New York Times reported, citing a U.S. official.

The United States has temporarily authorized the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products already loaded on tankers, in a limited easing of sanctions adopted as global energy prices rise because of the Middle East war. The measure was announced by the Treasury Department and will remain in force until April 11.

President Donald Trump declined Friday to comment on media reports indicating that Russia has been supplying Iran with intelligence on the positions and movements of U.S. troops, ships and aircraft in the Middle East.

United States forces executed back-to-back seizures of two major oil tankers on Wednesday, marking a significant escalation in the naval blockade of Venezuela. The operations, part of the broader Operation Southern Spear, targeted vessels accused of defying sanctions and operating within the dark fleet to transport Venezuelan crude.

Russia has reportedly begun evacuating the families of its diplomats from Venezuela as tensions with the United States reach a volatile peak. According to the Associated Press (AP), citing a European intelligence source, the operation began on Friday and involves women and children.

Three Argentine mercenaries who had been fighting for the Ukrainian Army for over a month have died in combat, according to reports from Kyiv. They were part of a commando unit made up of two other Argentines and one Colombian, who also fell in action during their first operation against Russia, in the Sumy region, northeast of the country.

The Russian Parliament officially ratified the Strategic Partnership Treaty between Moscow and Caracas on Wednesday, expanding political and economic cooperation between the two nations amid heightened military tensions in the Caribbean Sea in view of the United States' deployment targeting alleged drug smuggling boats. The Russian Federation Council (Upper House) approved the treaty, confirming the prior approval by the State Duma (Lower House).