US defense secretary continues ramp-up of pressure against country including sanctions and devastating oil blockade
Pete Hegseth has warned Cuba against acquiring weapons that could threaten the United States, during a visit to the US military base at Guantánamo Bay.
Washington has ramped up pressure against Cuba with sanctions and a devastating oil blockade, and Donald Trump has repeatedly signaled that the Cuban government could be the next after Venezuela to fall to US pressure.
Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is largely targeting people from the countries most vulnerable to displacement from climate-driven disasters, a Guardian analysis shows.
As the Trump administration pushes policies to boost planet-heating fossil fuels, millions of people are being forced to flee their homelands due to storms, floods and droughts worsened by the climate crisis.
Earthquake was region’s strongest tremor in nearly 150 years and was also felt in parts of Mexico including Cancún
An earthquake on Monday off the coast of Cuba, which was that region’s strongest tremor in nearly 150 years, could be felt in Florida and parts of Mexico.
The 6.1-magnitude earthquake, which struck in the afternoon, occurred approximately 65 miles (105km) north-west of Mantua, Cuba, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS added that the earthquake had a depth of 16 miles.
Plane on way to pick up Yadier Molina and his family crashed in Dominican Republic, killing pilot and co-pilot
A pilot and co-pilot from the United States have died in a fiery plane crash as they attempted an emergency landing in the Dominican Republic, authorities said.
Former major league baseball all-star catcher Yadier Molina said on social media that the plane was bound for Texas to pick him up, along with family and friends.
Former Cuban leader Raúl Castro made his first public appearance Friday since the Trump administration charged him with murder over the 1996 shoot-down of planes operated by a Cuban exile group.
Castro appeared on state television during an Interior Ministry celebration in Havana, according to Reuters.
The appearance came weeks after the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment accusing Castro of playing a role in the downing of two aircraft operated by the Miami-based exile organization Brothers to the Rescue nearly 30 years ago.
Castro was charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder.
Castro, who turned 95 on Wednesday, was last seen publicly during May Day celebrations in Havana, days before the indictment was unsealed.
Prior to his May Day appearance, Castro had remained out of public view for months, appearing only at a public ceremony in Cuba's capital in January honoring 32 Cuban soldiers killed during the U.S. military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The indictment centers on a February 1996 incident in which Cuban military aircraft allegedly shot down two unarmed civilian planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, killing four men: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.
Prosecutors allege the aircraft were flying outside Cuban territory when they were destroyed.
The indictment came amid rising tensions in the Caribbean and a series of comments from Trump and his surrogates hinting at possible regime change in the island nation.
President Donald Trump previously praised the indictment, saying Cuban Americans whose families suffered under the communist regime had waited decades for accountability.
"We have big news on Cuba, as you know, with the indictment of Castro," Trump said. "A lot of people have suffered very big, very, very, at levels that few people would understand."
Trump also suggested tensions with Cuba would not escalate following the indictment.
"There won’t be escalation," he said. "We won’t have to."
"At the very least, it means symbolically that he is now set up just as Nicolás Maduro was," Christine Balling, a Cuba expert at the Institute of World Politics and former advisor to U.S. Special Operations Command South, previously told Fox News Digital.
The U.S. indicted Maduro on narco-terrorism charges while tightening sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector, backing opposition efforts to remove him from power and increasing military operations in the Caribbean.
"I don't think that we are necessarily going to conduct the same operation," Balling said. "Raúl Castro is 94 years old. It might not be worth the trouble."
Still, Balling argued that the indictment sent "a very straightforward message that we are 100% behind the fall of the Castro regime."
Fox News Digital's Robert McGreevy, Greg Wehner and Morgan Phillips, along with Fox News' David Spunt, Bill Mears and Jake Gibson contributed to this report. Reuters also contributed to this report.
An AI-colored reconstruction of an 18th-century depiction of pirate Henry Avery. Credit: GR Archive
Six shipwrecks linked to the real ‘Pirates of the Caribbean‘ have been found in Nassau’s harbor in the Bahamas for the first time, an international expedition announced.
The New Providence Pirates Expedition conducted the survey in late 2025 after receiving the first official permission to dive in the harbor’s restricted zone. Marine archaeologist Sean Kingsley and Michael Pateman, the Bahamas’ ambassador for history and culture, co-directed the project.
Three of the six wrecks are tied to the golden age of piracy, a period from the 1690s through the 1720s when Nassau served as a base for buccaneers, including Blackbeard, Henry Avery, Calico Jack Rackham, and Anne Bonny.
The standout find is a charred wooden hull fastened with wooden treenails, a method typical of 18th-century shipbuilding, burned down to the waterline. Pateman said that pirates burned seized ships after stripping them to remove evidence of their crimes.
Burned hull may belong to Avery’s missing pirate ship
Researchers believe the hull may be the Fancy, last commanded by Avery. In 1695, his crew seized gold, silver, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds from Mughal Empire vessels, a haul worth around $150 million today.
The ship was never found afterward. The wreck fits the Fancy’s estimated age, size, and construction, though no formal identification has been made.
Pirates of the Caribbean shipwrecks found in the Bahamas for the first time reveal Nassau as history's most notorious golden age pirate port. pic.twitter.com/9WrS1pxMI1
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) June 5, 2026
A second site about 20 miles east of Nassau yielded iron cannons, 25 lead musket balls, a grinding stone for sharpening swords, and a swivel gun. Kingsley described swivel guns as pivot-mounted weapons pirates used to open fire on enemy crews at close range.
A third site under Nassau’s old bridge produced hull planks, rigging, wine bottles, wooden crates, and galley bricks. Nearby, researchers recovered 143 clay tobacco pipes marked with a horse, unicorn, crown, and the English royal crest.
The style suggests they were made in London around the 1740s. Kingsley said the cargo reflects Nassau settling back into regular trade after the pirate era closed.
Bahamas shipwrecks reveal the real ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
The discoveries came despite significant disturbance to the harbor floor from years of dredging. Kingsley said the finds are likely only a fraction of what may remain and estimated that dozens more wrecks could be hidden in the harbor. The team plans to return using underwater drones but has found no evidence of treasure.
Until now, no shipwrecks connected to Caribbean pirates had been found in the Bahamas, even though Nassau served as the pirates’ primary base throughout that period.
The findings are featured in a documentary series, Mystery of the Pirate King’s Treasure, now on Wreckwatch TV, and in the latest issue of Wreckwatch magazine.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio says anyone providing services to listed entities ‘is at risk of sanctions themselves’
The United States has announced fresh economic sanctions on Cuba’s president and some of his immediate family, alongside members of the Castro family, in Washington’s latest ramping up of pressure on its communist-led neighbour.
Among those targeted were the son and a grandson of former president Raúl Castro, who no longer holds an official position but remains a key figure on decisions about the future of the island.
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