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Sep 17, 2026 - World

While dozens of major companies flee Cuba under President Donald Trump-era sanctions, a select group of insiders with ties to the president are quietly positioning themselves to scoop up the island's assets, according to the Guardian.That includes executives working for the Trump Organization.Spanish hotel giants Meliá and Iberostar, Canadian mining firm Sherritt International, European shipping companies, and even Visa and Mastercard have all pulled out of Cuba this summer, spooked by sweeping new secondary sanctions tied to Trump's pressure campaign following the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Axios last month there are "no escape valves" left for the island.But the Guardian reports a different story is playing out behind the scenes."A growing cast of Washington and Florida insiders – from billionaire Trump cronies and Rubio-linked lobbyists to Cuban exiles – are jockeying for control of the communist-ruled island-nation’s key assets, charging top dollar to help clients navigate the ever-expanding web of sanctions, and positioning themselves for lucrative business opportunities in the case of regime collapse," the Guardian's Lee Schlenker and Ed Augustin reported.The Guardian report added that, "several Trump Organization executives who had previously traveled to the island to explore real estate deals and who even registered the Trump trademark there in 2008 have in recent months returned to Cuba under the aegis of Dominari Holdings for meetings."Meanwhile, ordinary Cubans have endured a fuel blockade since January, after the administration cut off oil shipments from Venezuela and pressured Mexico into halting its own deliveries. Yet Treasury-authorized fuel exports from Florida and Texas to Cuba's private sector have surged past $160 million this year, up from almost nothing in 2025."If I had done during the Biden administration what Trump's friends have done now, I'd have been put in jail," said one longtime Cuba policy expert, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Sep 17, 2026 - World

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed a decree increasing benefits of his welfare program by 15%

Sep 17, 2026 - World

A Nobel Peace Prize-winning psychiatrist fears President Donald Trump has become too unstable to be trusted with nuclear codes.Dr. Henry David Abraham, professor of psychiatry emeritus at Tufts University School of Medicine, told The i Paper's Kieron Monks he's troubled, not by the results of Trump's cognitive tests, but by how often he's taking them. Trump announced in May he'd scored a perfect 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCA, for the fourth time — his third such test in just over a year."You give a MoCA for a rapid screen. Is the person functioning in a cognitive sense or not?" Abraham told Monks. "If you are doing two, three, four, you're not doing a rapid screen. You're looking for a trend."Abraham, who shared in the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize as part of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, said Trump's conduct during "recent strikes on Iran and Venezuela" worries him most. "He's certainly our most impulsive president in my lifetime," Abraham said. "He is an unstable individual with absolute control over the American nuclear arsenal.""Some of the President’s threats towards Iran, such as 'a whole civilisation will die tonight', were widely taken as a veiled reference to nuclear weapons," the report notes. "The clinician also pointed to disturbing images Trump has posted on social media, including an AI-generated image of him pressing a red button while surrounded by explosions and mushroom clouds."Citing the Iran war quagmire, Abraham said, "He’s embarrassed every day about it, or at least attacked every day about it. What prevents him one night from saying, ‘Oh, I can solve this Iran problem in 10 seconds’ – which would essentially be the use of nuclear weapons.”Abraham also drew attention to "Trump’s medical records, pointing to a recent check-up that involved a record 22 medical specialists.“Those 22 doctors, they had better figure it out, and they better come forward,” he insisted, while "urging whistleblowers to share details from Trump's medical files, including a recent checkup involving a record 22 specialists."

Sep 17, 2026 - World

Mohammad Sharifullah, 28, was convicted of aiding the terrorist group that took credit for the suicide bombing An Islamic State group member was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years in prison for aiding the terrorist organization that took credit for a suicide bombing that killed 13 US service members and about 160 Afghans at the Kabul airport five years ago during the US military’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.A federal jury in Virginia had convicted Mohammad Sharifullah in April of providing material support to the IS affiliate known as Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). But jurors could not agree whether he bore some responsibility for the airport bombing on 26 August 2021. Continue reading...

Sep 17, 2026 - World

World leaders are not impressed with President Donald Trump's claim that welcoming Canada into partnership constitutes a "hostile act," the Washington Post reported Thursday.Trump made this claim in North Carolina Wednesday in response to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's proposal to make Canada the European Union's first-ever "associate member." "If it's a good intention, that's fine," Trump said. "If it's a bad intention, we'll put very heavy tariffs on Europe."Now leaders from up north and across the pond are saying they don't intend to be influenced by Trump or the United States. Benjamin Haddad, France’s European affairs minister, said on French television Thursday that the U.S. has no veto over decisions made by the 27-nation bloc, according to the Post.“It is not up to a foreign power, not the United States or anyone else, to choose the geopolitical direction of the Europeans,” he said on Public Sénat. “Once again, we have a relationship ⁠with Canada, and we are fully entitled to seek to deepen it.”European Union Commission spokesman Olof Gill said the E.U. leader made clear that “the proposed strengthening of our partnership with Canada is not against anyone else, but for our common strength.”Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, set to address European lawmakers on Thursday, described a partnership between his country and the European Union as "natural."According to the Post, he said both wanted “a deeper partnership that reinforces our mutual sovereignty to create more opportunities and prosperity for our peoples.”