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Oct 24, 2026 - World

Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly invited Cubans to work with the CIA on Friday, and the reaction across the political spectrum was immediate.“To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba - now is the time,” Rubio wrote on X. “The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA.”A few hours later, the CIA’s official account posted the same message in Spanish. It included a video ending with the words “Contacte a la CIA” (“Contact the CIA”).Many people were stunned that the message was public at all.“Rubio is just putting this out on main,” wrote Ryan Grim, a reporter at Drop Site News and co-host of “Breaking Points.”Ben Rhodes, who was deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote that “‘Please help us coup’ is a logical endpoint to Rubio’s worldview.”Some on the left said the post confirmed what they’d long argued about U.S. policy toward Latin America.“Good to see the State Dept lifting the mask of diplomacy and exposing itself as cover for malign CIA destabilization ops aimed at installing puppet governments,” wrote Max Blumenthal, editor of The Grayzone.Journalist Ben Norton, editor of Geopolitical Economy Report, called Rubio a “warmonger” who is “publicly asking Cubans to help the CIA organize a coup attempt.”“The US empire used to organize its many coups in secret,” Norton wrote. “Now it puts job postings for treasonous CIA coup-plotters on Twitter.”Australian writer Caitlin Johnstone predicted that anyone who later blames the CIA for unrest in Cuba will “STILL get called a crazy conspiracy theorist” after the agency said it “right out in the open.”Plenty of Trump allies loved it.“Cuba Libre!” wrote Monica Crowley, a longtime Trump ally and former administration official.“‘Create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA,’” wrote conservative national security commentator David Reaboi. “I want the t-shirt.”Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich responded with a pair of eyes emojis.Jacob Creech, a pro-Trump influencer who posts as “Clandestine,” tied the post to a recent comment from President Donald Trump about Cuba.“Yup, that comment from Trump about Cuba was not an accident,” Creech wrote. “We are going to be cleansing Cuba, which has been a Deep State/CIA hotspot for decades.”The State Department and the CIA didn’t specifically say what kind of “partnership” they were offering.

Oct 24, 2026 - World

A gas venture that came up in President Donald Trump's Ukraine peace talks had a hidden backer, according to its former boss.Polar LNG, a startup pitching a plan to export natural gas from Alaska's North Slope, received secret funding from Russian energy giant Novatek, The New York Times reported Friday. Joel Riddle, who ran the company until he resigned in September, told the Times he was misled into believing the money came from a firm in the United Arab Emirates.Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the project last month with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, people familiar with the negotiations told the Times. White House officials see energy deals like it as a way to smooth relations with Moscow."It's not only unlawful, but it's not in the U.S. interest," Riddle told the Times. Novatek, which is under partial U.S. sanctions, was already set to supply the project's technology.Text messages reviewed by the Times show Novatek deputy chairman Denis Solovyov and chief executive Leonid Mikhelson discussed sending as much as $15 million to Polar LNG's Abu Dhabi parent company, Tech Wave, to keep the effort going. "The first 5 million were supposed to arrive by today," Solovyov wrote to Riddle in early September.In a statement to the Times, Novatek said it was moving to become a "minority shareholder" in the project. Polar LNG named Tim Talkington acting chief executive and called Riddle a "disgruntled former employee" who was fired for cause. Documents obtained by the Times show Riddle resigned six days before the company sent him a termination letter.Memos from law firm Baker Botts, attached to Riddle's resignation letter, said Treasury Department sanctions enforcers had flagged "potential Russia-related sanctions concerns." Recent sanctions legislation specifically targets Novatek, but Trump temporarily waived the law's Russia sanctions last week, saying the move was needed to keep peace talks alive.The push to bring Novatek equipment to Alaska also involved Gentry Beach, a college friend of Donald Trump Jr. who said in February he had negotiated with the Russian company. A spokesman for Trump Jr. said the two are no longer close, and Novatek said Beach played no role in its talks over a Polar LNG stake.There is no indication Witkoff or Kushner knew about Polar LNG's ties to Novatek, the Times reported. Still, Geoffrey Pyatt, a former State Department energy official under President Joe Biden, warned the idea "feeds the belief that Putin can get an out-of-jail-free card."Riddle said he and two other departing executives warned the Trump administration about the Russian financing and urged officials to investigate. The Energy Department did not respond to the Times."I felt like I did the right thing to notify authorities at the appropriate time," Riddle said.

Oct 24, 2026 - World

The nation's top spy has sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio an urgent warning that danger to Americans overseas is rapidly escalating.Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton told Rubio that Iran has "substantially increased" its efforts to go after U.S. personnel, such as diplomats, and that lethal plotting against American citizens has reached "advanced stages" in the Middle East and other countries, according to an Oct. 23 memo Axios obtained and reported on Friday."The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries," Clayton wrote in the one-page, unclassified memo, which was also copied to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.CNN's Zachary Cohen posted on X that a U.S. official confirmed the memo is genuine and that CNN had obtained its own copy, adding that a source said its substance is broadly in line with the intelligence community's assessment.The memo doesn't name specific targets or identify which countries outside the region are involved, and it offers no details about how the plots would be carried out.Instead, Clayton stressed that the safety of government personnel abroad is "a top priority" for the administration, warning that the intelligence is "relevant to more individuals than are currently cleared to receive this information."The materials have already gone to appropriately cleared senior staff on Rubio's team, according to the memo, and Clayton pledged to downgrade as much of the intelligence as possible so Rubio can share it with State Department personnel at his discretion.U.S. officials told Axios the warning is one of the factors behind a wave of embassy drawdowns across the region. Earlier this week, the State Department directed family members and nonessential staff to depart the embassy in Riyadh along with consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran. On Friday, it ordered further personnel cuts at embassies in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan, a U.S. official said."We decided that due to the threat of Houthi attacks and Iranian terror plots we need to reduce our footprint and keep only essential staff," the official told Axios.Officials also worry that Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels could widen their attacks beyond Saudi Arabia, while the possibility of new U.S. and Israeli military action against Iran, potentially after the midterms, has further heightened tensions.President Donald Trump floated that very scenario at a rally in Florida on Friday. "We may do another little Operation Epic Fury, or [the Iranians] will agree [to a deal]," he said, adding, "If they're smart, they will just say, 'Let's get down to business,' but I doubt they will do that because perhaps they're not smart."CNN was the first to report the staffing reduction at the four embassies.

Oct 24, 2026 - World

The Denver archbishop who led a prayer over President Donald Trump in the Oval Office is now scrambling to explain himself.Archbishop James Golka told the Denver Catholic, the archdiocese's own newspaper, on Friday that the White House's video of the Oct. 22 prayer was never meant as an endorsement, even as he defended being there and turned his fire on critics."I understand that many people saw the video, posted by the Administration twelve days before an election, as an endorsement," Golka said. "That was never my intention."The invitation came months ago, according to the archbishop, following a June session in which faith leaders pressed the administration on immigration, religious freedom and visas for religious workers. He said progress made by task forces after that meeting encouraged him to accept, even though he knew the meeting "could be shared and some might use it for political purposes."Golka said he learned only shortly before the visit that he would be the one praying over Trump. The bishops first spent three hours with the White House Faith Office discussing religious worker visas, protection of life, religious freedom and school choice."I've had a lot of people, really good friends, ask me, 'What were you doing?' 'Why did you do that?' I just answer, 'I was being a Catholic priest,'" he said.The archbishop then pointed outward. "I'm heartbroken that people are hurt, and that there are people intentionally using this moment to sow disunity. That's not a fruit of the Spirit," he said, urging Catholics to look past headlines he described as "often crafted to provoke."The fallout has reached Rome. Catholic commentator Christopher Hale reported in his Letters from Leo newsletter that a senior official at the Vatican's Dicastery for Bishops called it "a highly inappropriate meeting and insult to Pope Leo."Hale wrote that Golka's account stops short of an apology and never mentions Paula White-Cain, the televangelist and White House Faith Office adviser who stood behind Trump's chair as the bishops laid hands on him. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has said it neither organized the meeting nor has any affiliation with it.Golka closed with a pledge. "This work helps only if the Church carries the same message to leaders of both parties. We will," he said.

Oct 24, 2026 - World

The Trump administration's insistence that it has no say over Elon Musk's satellite network just ran headlong into a damning new account.Reuters reported Friday that the Biden and Trump administrations both asked SpaceX several times over the years to switch its Starlink service on or off in various countries, long before this month's slowdown of Ukraine's military access. Six former senior U.S. officials described the requests to the outlet, which said they had never been reported before.The report lands two days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted the decision over Ukraine's access belonged to Musk and SpaceX rather than the White House."We cannot direct a private company as to the decisions they make or not make," Rubio said Wednesday, according to Forbes.According to the former officials, Biden aides repeatedly handed SpaceX intelligence showing that the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon were using Starlink terminals that reached them through middlemen, then asked the company to find and disable them. At least some were shut down, two of the officials said. The Biden team also pressed SpaceX to widen Starlink use for Ukraine's military after Russia's 2022 invasion.Trump's own administration made similar overtures. A former senior Trump official and a second source told Reuters the administration discussed with Musk getting Starlink terminals into Iran and switched on after U.S.-Israeli strikes in June 2025 and again in February 2026.The revelations raise fresh questions about who throttled Ukraine's service. Reuters previously reported the order to throttle Starshield, the military version of Starlink, came from inside the White House, while The Wall Street Journal reported Musk made the call and Trump later phoned him to lift it.Musk himself pointed back at Washington earlier this week."Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately (by the president of the United States)," Musk wrote.Trump said Friday he had not spoken with Musk about the issue, adding, "if there is a problem, I'll get it straightened out."Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) warned about Washington's dependence on SpaceX."Unelected billionaires and private corporations should not decide what is in the best interest of America's national security," Crow said.Satellite industry consultant Armand Musey told Reuters that Musk is "supposed to be a business executive, with government contracts, and he's essentially making huge foreign policy decisions."Ukraine's embassy in Washington said its priority is getting the service back to normal speed "as soon as possible, as the lives of our people depend on it."SpaceX did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.