International
Cuban President denounces the impact of the U.S. blockade
October 18 |
According to the Cuban president, “the excessive migratory flows are situations that have occurred cyclically and are always related to when the U.S. government tightens the situation”.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced on Monday the impacts on the population and migration, as well as the extraterritoriality of the U.S. blockade against the island.
In an interview with Cuban state television, the Cuban president blamed what he called an increased migration due to the complex economic crisis that the country is going through on the policy of maximum pressure from the US government which induces an “illegal, unsafe and disorderly” irregular flow.
According to the Cuban president, “the excessive migratory flows are situations that have occurred cyclically and always have to do with the U.S. government’s tense situation”, he stressed.
Díaz-Canel criticized the U.S. Government’s strategy of making the new non-state sector an enemy of the Cuban Government and exemplified: “now when a group, with the best intentions, went to an event in the United States that was supposed to be a business event, a commercial event, an exchange event, not political, and they politicized it, and some of them had a terrorist at a dinner”. In that sense, he wondered “Who politicized that, the MSMEs, those from Cuba, the Cuban government? The United States politicized it”.
In his speech, the Cuban president explained that “with Trump’s measures which, among others, were also aimed at creating an unfavorable situation to seek a social outburst”, consular services in Cuba were cancelled.
He denounced that the U.S. government “has taken other measures to close off our income from tourism, such as now recently the automatic visa, the visa for European citizens: if they visit Cuba they take away the visa with which they have facilities to enter the United States.”
The Cuban president emphasized that the relations between Cuba and the United States are “relations with a tremendous asymmetry and where they are marked, above all, on the part of the Government of the United States towards Cuba as a policy of maximum pressure, as a policy of genocide, as a policy of strangulation, and it causes all those things”.
Likewise, the Cuban president wondered “When is the United States going to have to answer for the violation of human rights that constitutes the genocidal blockade it has applied for more than 60 years to Cuba?”
International
Trump to build $200M ballroom at the White House by 2028
The U.S. government under President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that it will begin construction in September on a new 8,000-square-meter ballroom at the White House.
The announcement was made by Karoline Leavitt, the administration’s press secretary, during a briefing in which she explained that the expansion responds to the need for a larger venue to host “major events.”
“Other presidents have long wished for a space capable of accommodating large gatherings within the White House complex… President Trump has committed to solving this issue,” Leavitt told reporters.
The project is estimated to cost $200 million, fully funded through donations from Trump himself and other “patriots,” according to a government statement. Construction is scheduled to begin in September and is expected to be completed before Trump’s term ends in 2028.
The Clark Construction Group, a Virginia-based company known for projects such as the Capital One Arena and L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C., has been selected to lead the project.
The new ballroom will be built on the East Wing of the White House, expanding the iconic residence with a space designed for state dinners, official ceremonies, and large-scale events.
International
Three salvadorans in Florida sentenced in $146 million construction tax fraud scheme
Three Salvadoran residents living in Orlando, Florida, were sentenced for conspiracy to commit tax fraud and wire fraud involving a scheme exceeding $146 million in the construction industry, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. The sentence was handed down by federal judge Timothy J. Corrigan on Tuesday, July 29.
Eduardo Aníbal Escobar (45) was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison, Carlos Alberto Rodríguez (36) to 3 years and 4 months, and Adelmy Tejada (57) to 18 months in prison, followed by 6 months of house arrest. All three pled guilty on April 3, 2025.
In addition to the prison terms, the court ordered restitution payments totaling $36,957,616 to the IRS for unpaid payroll taxes, and $397,895 to two insurers for workers’ compensation claims related to the scheme.
Escobar and Rodríguez are permanent legal residents originally from El Salvador, while Tejada is a naturalized U.S. citizen of Salvadoran origin.
International
Kremlin hails preparedness after Kamchatka quakes leave no casualties
The Kremlin expressed relief that the earthquakes that struck Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula today —the first being the strongest since 1952— resulted in no casualties, and emphasized that the region is well prepared to face such natural disasters.
“Thank God, there were no victims,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov during his daily press briefing.
The presidential representative stated that “all alert systems were activated in time, and evacuations were organized for residents in areas requiring it in response to tsunami threats.”
“Overall, the seismic resilience of the buildings proved effective (…) Therefore, we can say that the technological preparedness demonstrated a high level,” Peskov added.
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