brings

The deal is back in an exclusive sale

Home Bargains has brought back a “lightweight” piece of luggage that will be instantly approved for travel on dozens of airlines as an under-seat cabin bag. The offer reduces the price from £14.99 to just £5.99, while stocks last.

Describing it online, Home Bargains said that the Bordlite Under Seat Cabin Bag is a “lightweight, compact travel buddy with three external pockets and a long shoulder strap”. It is ideal for “organised journeys and approved by over 30 airlines”, according to the brand.

The approximate bag dimensions were shared as 40 x 30 x 20cm. Shoppers can be assured the bag is suitable for free travel on most major airlines, such as Ryanair, easyJet, TUI Airways, Jet2, Wizz Air and more.

Below is a full list of the 30 airlines which accept this size (or larger) when booking. In most cases, carriers include a free personal item or underseat item with the ticket price — but always check with the airline directly before risking an unexpected airport charge.

What airlines accept this size bag?

UK and Europe:

1. Ryanair (Up to 40 x 25 x 20cm)
2. Wizz Air (40 x 30 x 20cm exactly)
3. FlyOne (40 x 30 x 20cm exactly)
4. easyJet (Up to 45 x 36 x 20cm)
5. Jet2 (Up to 45 x 36 x 20cm)
6. British Airways (Allows a large cabin bag up to 56 x 45 x 25cm for free)
7. Lufthansa (Up to 40 x 30 x 10cm for personal item, but easily fits their free overhead limit of 55 x 40 x 23cm)
8. Air France / KLM (Up to 40 x 30 x 15cm for personal item, but easily fits their free overhead limit of 55 x 35 x 25cm)
9. Norwegian Air (Up to 38 x 30 x 20cm)
10. Iberia (Up to 40 x 30 x 15cm for personal item / 56 x 45 x 25cm for overhead)
11. TAP Air Portugal (Up to 40 x 30 x 15cm for personal item / 55 x 40 x 20cm for overhead)
12. Aegean Airlines (Up to 40 x 30 x 25cm)
13. Vueling (Up to 40 x 30 x 20cm)
14. Eurowings (Up to 40 x 30 x 25cm)
15. Pegasus Airlines (Up to 40 x 30 x 15cm for personal item / 55 x 40 x 20cm for overhead)
16. SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) (Up to 40 x 30 x 15cm for personal item / 55 x 40 x 23cm for overhead)
17. Swiss International Air Lines (Up to 40 x 30 x 10cm for personal item / 55 x 40 x 23cm for overhead)

Middle East and Asia

1. Emirates (Allows an overhead bag up to 55 x 38 x 20cm for free on all tickets).
2. Qatar Airways (Allows a cabin bag up to 50 x 37 x 25cm for free).
3. Etihad Airways (Allows a cabin bag up to 56 x 36 x 23cm for free).
4. Singapore Airlines (Allows a personal item up to 40 x 30 x 10cm or a main cabin bag up to 55 x 40 x 20cm)
5. Turkish Airlines (Allows a personal item up to 40 x 30 x 15cm or a main cabin bag up to 55 x 40 x 23cm)

American and Transatlantic

1. Delta Air Lines (no specific personal item dimensions, must fit under the seat)
2. United Airlines (Up to 43 x 25 x 22cm)
3. American Airlines (Up to 45 x 35 x 20cm)
4. Air Canada (Up to 43 x 33 x 16cm for personal item / 55 x 40 x 23cm for overhead)
5. JetBlue (Up to 43 x 33 x 20cm)
6. Spirit Airlines (Up to 45 x 35 x 20cm)
7. Frontier Airlines (Up to 45 x 35 x 20cm)
8. WestJet (Up to 41 x 33 x 15cm for personal item / 53 x 38 x 23cm for overhead)

What else is new in Home Bargains?

Although the peak summer holiday season is well and truly over, shoppers can still find major bargains in-store and online for their travel needs. Recent offers include full suitcase sets and more compact cases to dodge airline fees.

The Overlow Suitcase Set (worth £149.99) includes three different-sized pieces of luggage for £59.99, saving shoppers £90. Home Bargains calls the deal “perfect for every trip, whether you pack light or heavy”.

For those looking for a budget-friendly way to stay within some airlines’ free allowance, the store recently added the Salisburys Underseat Backpack for £19.99. Described as a “stylish and practical choice” for travellers, it measures 20 x 30 x 40cm, making it suitable for the likes of Ryanair, EasyJet and Jet2.

For Samoa, a second successive World Cup ends in defeat by Australia, after being beaten 30-10 in the final four years ago.

The two nations have met six times, with Australia winning all six.

But this one hurt more. Samoa clearly felt they could win, as their ultra-aggressive Siva Tau war dance pre-match proved – getting right in the Australian faces, even forehead to forehead in some cases.

But they were aggrieved by some debatable refereeing decisions, including two disallowed tries – Crichton in the first half, then Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow denied with 10 minutes to go after contact between Manuleleua and Liam Martin was deemed illegal.

It bubbled over shortly before the break, when Spencer Leniu was sin-binned for dissent by Australian referee Adam Gee.

“You guys saw the game. You report on it,” was Samoa coach Ben Gardiner’s terse response to questions about the decisions.

On whether his side cost themselves with a lack of discipline, he said: “I’m not quite sure.

“On the back of some of the penalties that were given, we just didn’t react very well. There was one thing into another and then a try. It made it difficult to be able to fight back from that.

“And then to be down by 18 points, 20 points at half-time, to chase back from that… I thought we did well in the second half to fight back.

“But then again, we scored a try and gave up another one straight away. We bounced off too many tackles in that early period, missed too many tackles in the game in general.

“That had nothing to do with the emotion. That’s a Test match, that’s what you do. It’s physical, there’s push and shove, stand your ground.”

On a Wednesday morning in Terminal 1 at LAX, traveler Nikki Hexum found herself in tears. Crying, on its face, is not an unusual occurrence at LAX. The notorious airport is a tender spot for Angelenos and tourists. Nearby, a displeased lawyer squabbles about a case into his phone. Flight attendants whisk by in pressed uniforms. A delay is announced over a speaker.

Today, an unexpected brush with poetry brought Hexum to tears. She was about to board a flight to Nashville, where she would discuss AI regulation at a film festival for her job, when she stumbled upon Brian Sonia-Wallace, the poet laureate of Los Angeles, sitting at a 1940s-model Underwood typewriter writing custom poems for passing travelers. As Hexum told him about her trip, he began to type, the clacking of the keys echoing through the terminal. When he finished, he read the poem aloud. Hexum’s eyes began to well.

“I sat in something where there was discomfort, but at the end of it, it became something amazing,” Hexum says. The encounter affirmed something for Hexum: the importance of spontaneous human interactions in a world where communication is increasingly relegated to AI. “I think we lost that ability to do that a lot,” she says as she wipes her eyes.

Hexum was one of dozens of travelers who received a custom poem from Sonia-Wallace as they waited to board their flights. Some were traveling to funerals, weddings and family reunions that the poet laureate commemorated in a poem written in minutes. Even flight attendants confided in Sonia-Wallace about their love of travel, which he honored in a poem. Soon, a line of eager travelers began to form.

Poet Brian Sonia-Wallace, center, chats with a traveler as others wait their turn for their own personalized poem in Terminal 1 at LAX.

“We had a couple of criers today,” says Sonia-Wallace. “There’s something about the typewriter and poetry that brings out the best in people.” On the table beside the typewriter, a placard reads: “Retro Chat GPT.” Behind the poet, a banner reads: “Everyone deserves a poem.”

Traveler Silvia Portillo was waiting to board a flight to Colorado. She was heading to her hometown of Glenwood Springs, Colo., to attend her sister’s wedding when she encountered Sonia-Wallace and his typewriter. She asked for a poem dedicated to her sister’s wedding, which she plans to present on the big day. “I thought it would be really cool if he made a personalized one for her, a little extra wedding gift,” Portillo says.

Waiting for a delayed flight, traveler Cassie Feldman tells the poet that she’s looking to shed old patterns before boarding a flight to St. Louis for a family gathering. He begins to read her the poem: “We gather with our old new selves.”

Feldman is delighted. “It was really cool,” she says. “It was an experience you don’t really get, especially at the airport.”

Los Angeles Poet Laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace dubs his pop-up poetry project as “Retro Chat GPT.”

Sarah Cifarelli, the LAX arts program director, was thrilled when Sonia-Wallace reached out about doing an installation at the airport. “Airports can feel very transactional with lots of logistics and very functional. Being able to engage with someone like Brian brings more humanity to that journey,” says Cifarelli. She works on programming art and installations at LAX that showcase the city’s vibrant arts scene, including its literary merits. “I think this helps us recalibrate our brains … to connect with others and take notice of what’s going on around us.”

The interactions between subject and poet can be surprisingly intimate. Travelers described lost loved ones, personal tragedies and battles with insecurity, regret and doubts. “My favorite people will be like, ‘I didn’t know this was going to be therapy,’” says Sonia-Wallace. “It’s whatever you want to use it for.”

Over the last decade, Sonia-Wallace has made it a habit to bring poetry to unexpected places like the Los Angeles airport. Since being announced as the poet laureate of Los Angeles in April, he has hit the ground running — delivering poetry to civic spaces like the L.A. Zoo and animal services. “What a poet can do is create pause,” he says. “Like, ‘hold on, what am I thinking? What am I feeling?’”

Poet Brian Sonia-Wallace’s beloved 1940s-model Underwood typewriter.

Sonia-Wallace describes the clacking of the typewriter as his siren song. The inherent theater of it lures a crowd. “If you see someone with a notebook or a laptop, that person wants to be left alone. If you see someone with a typewriter, there’s something happening here,” says the poet. He’s become something of a collector, with 10 typewriters stored in the trunk of his car because he’s run out of room in his studio apartment, even storing one in his bathroom.

Clad in a newsboy hat, Sonia-Wallace sees his practice as being as much about performance as the poetry, comparing his work to that of a pastor or tarot reader. “I was really into [the performance artist] Marina Abramovic, and this idea of the artist is present, and how does the presence of someone making something influence how we think about art,” he says.

The collision of LAX pandemonium and poetry intrigues Sonia-Wallace. The poetry softens people even in the throes of a hectic travel day, he argues. “I love the element of surprise. If someone comes to a poetry event, they’re expecting that. If someone’s just in the airport, and then there’s poetry there. All of a sudden, poetry becomes more interesting,” he says.

The practice began in 2010 when Sonia-Wallace wrote custom poetry for travelers at a Metro line opening on a borrowed typewriter. In 2014, when he got laid off, Sonia-Wallace experimented with making a living from poetry by writing at farmers markets, festivals and the Venice Beach boardwalk — and accepting tips. “I just popped up wherever I could,” he explains. Eventually, the poet began writing custom poetry at private events like weddings and corporate parties before he partnered with the city of Los Angeles.

Traveler Silvia Portillo, center, in Terminal 1 at LAX, accepts her freshly written poem.

The poet hopes to humanize bureaucratic spaces like the airport, a thorny subject for many disgruntled travelers. “I think about using poetry as a stand-in for arts and culture more generally to humanize bureaucratic spaces and create an experience for people that’s a little more personal.”

Cifarelli plans to bring Sonia-Wallace and his typewriter back to LAX in the coming months, and to invite a piano and other poets along.

Hexum prepared to board the plane to Nashville with her freshly inked poem in hand. “I’m gonna treasure this forever,” she says, gripping the poem as she floats toward her gate, and soon, into the sky.

Upcoming poetry pop-ups with the poet laureate of Los Angeles:

• Nov. 21 — Poets in the Wild at the Los Angeles Zoo
• Dec. 7 — Terminal 3 at LAX, a three-poet activation marking National Letter Writing Day.
• Feb. 11 — Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX, West Gates, a full performance activation with multiple poets and a pianist, ahead of Valentine’s Day.

Connors is a culture journalist in L.A. She covers books, food, entertainment and offbeat Los Angeles. She’s currently at work on a book of essays about tourism in all its forms.

San Francisco artist Barry McGee, 60, walked through Jeffrey Deitch’s Santa Monica Boulevard gallery on a recent Wednesday, while a small army of friends went about their business — some moving objects, others equipped with power tools. A few stood near a closet-size replica of a 99 Cents Only store, an homage to the weeklong art takeover McGee staged at the shuttered Wilshire Boulevard retailer in February.

Gallery visitors were careful not to step on the sprawling assemblage of photographs, drawings and artifacts scattered across the floor. Many were destined for the large installation McGee’s friends helped to assemble for “Another Round,” his recently opened exhibition, which runs through Jan. 30.

Like “99 CENT,” McGee’s aim is for the Deitch show to serve as a gathering place. A makeshift storefront houses an “anarchist bookstore” with activities organized by Matthew James-Wilson, who operates the Heavy Manners lending library and gallery in Echo Park. Events planned during the show’s three-month run include French beading and papier-mâché workshops, clothed figure drawing, and “music shows.”

Adjacent to the bookstore, the untitled work bends and bulges on a plywood structure. It serves as a portal into McGee’s artistic life: Framed messages, photographs of friends, colorful, textile-inspired imagery and his father’s sketches of cars on napkins are grouped together in a bold display.

An untitled installation piece by Barry McGee at Jeffrey Deitch gallery. McGee is showing at the gallery for the first time in 20 years.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

A related installation is in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and has also been shown at the Oakland Museum of California. “It feels like something entirely new this time and definitely unplanned,” McGee said of the work taking shape at the Deitch show.

The exhibition is billed as McGee’s first gallery exhibit with Deitch in more than 20 years, although the artist and dealer have collaborated on projects since the 1990s. McGee came up in San Francisco’s graffiti scene in the 1980s, developing a visual language under the moniker Twist that included faces, liquor bottles and stylized screws. Deitch traces McGee’s primary influences to the city’s punk, skate, surf and graffiti cultures, as well as its hand-painted signs. McGee has exhibited at the Hammer Museum, Fondazione Prada and the 2001 Venice Biennale.

When asked whether he was bringing street art inside for the Deitch show, McGee pushed back. “That’s not my goal at all,” he said.

McGee long ago achieved cult status and comes from a tradition of graffiti that he sees as separate from work made for a gallery. When he began tagging in the 1980s, he said, it wasn’t to create something for the market: “There’s no product at the end.” McGee’s connections across the graffiti scene and the gallery world attract artists and audiences alike for exuberant gatherings, sometimes with complications, as when he transformed the vacant 99 Cents Only Store into a pop-up resembling an indoor flea market during L.A.’s Art Week.

The tagger-turned-blue-chip artist Barry McGee reopened a former 99 Cents Only on Wilshire Boulevard for a one-week art fair event.

(Mariella Rudi)

McGee and Bay Area artist Tom Franco worked with Deitch and the Hole, a gallery that has since closed its Los Angeles location, to stage the exhibition. McGee’s devoted following came out in force: Deitch estimated that about 25,000 people visited. “L.A. really showed up for that,” McGee said.

The event also drew complaints. Several neighboring businesses and apartment buildings were tagged, though McGee said the graffiti was cleaned up. In July, L.A. Taco found that several participating artists had not been paid for work sold during the exhibition. Kathy Grayson, who runs the Hole in New York, wrote in an email that all artists and vendors have since been paid. “It was a gigantic undertaking,” she wrote of staging the exhibit, adding that she had stepped in to help McGee realize his “dream-come-true project.”

Barry McGee is a celebrated street artist who is equally comfortable in a blue-chip world. He brings both sensibilities to bear in his new show, “Another Round,” at Jeffrey Deitch.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

While McGee has no plans to revive the concept, he has created a miniature replica of the 99 Cents Only Store at the gallery, complete with the store’s iconic blue-and-white floor. “The element of surprise is always the best thing,” he said.

Throughout the gallery, McGee’s paintings, drawings and found objects are displayed alongside work by what he estimates will be “around 200” like-minded artists, including C.R. Stecyk III, Chito K.K. and Chris Lux, who mounted two stained-glass works beneath the gallery’s skylights.

“When we do a show with Barry, we get the whole community,” Deitch said. “That’s one of the great things about it.”

Although the exhibition bears his name, McGee is wary of being the center of attention. “In this day and age, a solo anything seems ridiculous,” he said. “The ego of the artist is a tricky thing.” He prefers to bring together different generations and sensibilities: “Some young people, some older people, things that you wouldn’t imagine being next to each other.”

A surfboard installation by Barry McGee is part of his show, “Another Round,” at Jeffrey Deitch gallery on Santa Monica Blvd.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

McGee’s own work is also in dialogue with itself: Geometric patterns, inspired in part by Islamic tile designs, share the canvas with his trademark male faces with drooping, melancholic eyes.

Deitch describes McGee as possessing “a unique kind of charisma.” Though shy, “he’s very accessible and reaches people.”

Franco agrees. He had wanted to meet McGee long before they encountered each other in a San Francisco thrift store last year, and he admires his support for less established artists.

“He nurtures young people,” Franco said. “It’s amazing to see. Somebody at his level, you can easily forget how famous he is, or how accomplished he is, because he’ll hug every single person who comes through the door.”

McGee sees the relationship as reciprocal. “They’re mentoring me also. It’s really mutual,” he said. “Their visual language is so rich.”

Working into the evenings after mornings spent surfing with his crew, McGee is allowing the exhibition to take shape as it goes. His connection to surfing is visible in the gallery, where surfboards are stacked like a wooden fan.

He contrasts his freedom to improvise at Deitch with museums’ lengthy planning schedules: “Their shows are seven years out, sometimes. So there’s no room for spontaneity.”

A week before the Deitch show opened, he was still anticipating what it might become. “I still don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.

The boom in injectable weight-loss drugs, such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, is leading to more used needles turning up at recycling centres, putting workers at risk of serious injury and infection, bosses say.

At a recycling plant in Coventry, I watched staff sorting rubbish on a fast-moving conveyor belt when a crushed yellow sharps container suddenly appeared among the waste.

“A resident has put this in a wheelie bin,” explained supervisor Paul Pagett.

“It then gets crushed by the recycling vehicle and then it comes to us open and obviously we’ve got needles then falling out onto the line putting my guys at risk.”

The sharps box should never have been there.

Used needles should be disposed of separately through dedicated clinical waste services. Instead, recycling bosses say they are increasingly finding them mixed in with household waste.

“There are safe disposal routes for needles but the worst place to put them is in your recycling,” said Richard Dobbs, managing director of Sherborne Recycling.

“It ends up in facilities like ours where it will be touched by people and that’s inherently unsafe.”

A NUMBER of flights to and from a UK airport have been cancelled today as Storm Austen hits the UK.

The country is set to be battered with 80mph winds with the south of England and the Channel Islands set to be affected the most.

Southampton Airport has cancelled the majority of its flights this morning to destinations like the Channel Islands, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast.

Some of the flights that have been taken off the schedule including the 11.20am flight from Southampton to Alderney and the easyJet flight to
Glasgow this afternoon.

Guernsey-based airline Aurigny has cancelled all its services this morning due to the weather.

Departures have been cancelled until at least midday and arrivals until 2pm.

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The Aurigny spokesperson said: “We recognise how frustrating and disappointing these cancellations will be over the holiday period.

“However, these decisions are never taken lightly, and safety must always come first.”

On its website, travel information explained that ‘all cancelled flights will be eligible for a full refund’ and affected customers will be contacted by the airline.

Some flights from Southampton remain on the schedule for this afternoon including the 12.35pm to Belfast with Aer Lingus and the 2.35pm Loganair flight to Newcastle.

On the Channel Island of Jersey, the airport has cancelled all flights this morning but should restart this afternoon.

Meanwhile, holidaymakers flying from Heathrow, Gatwick, or London City Airport have been advised to check the status of their flight today.

The area where Gatwick is located has a yellow wind warning today with predicted wind speeds of up to 60mph.

What’s the opposite of a victory lap?

One answer arrived this year in the form of “Music, Fashion, Film,” Charli XCX’s bracing follow-up to 2024’s Grammy-winning “Brat.” An emotionally complicated dance-pop album about the relationship between power and vulnerability, “Brat” struck a nerve in a weird cultural moment and finally brought Charli the kind of stardom she’d been openly seeking for ages. In the LP’s immediate aftermath, the English musician hungrily scooped up the spoils of her success — playing Coachella’s main stage, starring in a highbrow mockumentary, soundtracking Hollywood’s latest take on “Wuthering Heights.”

Yet “Music, Fashion, Film” wonders what it all meant. It’s a digitally enhanced rock record — probably 2026’s best thing-with-guitar — that cycles through thoughts on ambition and trend-chasing before landing with a moving sense of serenity on the idea that everybody dies and takes their accomplishments with them.

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“No One Lasts Forever” is the album’s final track, and Sunday night that was also Charli’s closer at Inglewood’s Kia Forum, where she headlined the second of two shows over the weekend.

Structurally, the concert bookended songs from “Brat” (for which she was accompanied by prerecorded tracks) with stuff from “Music, Fashion, Film” (for which a scuzzy live band backed her up). There were stray oldies too, including “Constant Repeat,” which she introduced as one of the first songs she wrote about her husband, George Daniel — “even though it’s not exactly truthful,” she added — and the landmark hyperpop cut “Vroom Vroom.”

She also did “House,” a spooky goth-folk song from “Wuthering Heights” that had her writhing on the stage in the white-hot heat of a single spotlight — a sex kitten turned scream queen (or perhaps vice versa). And she brought out Adéla, the Slovakian singer famously booted from the reality show that created Katseye, to do her viral hit “Nicole Kidman,” which is just one of a handful of rough-edged pop hits this year that demonstrate “Brat’s” lasting influence.

Indeed, what was illuminating about the middle of the show — basically a half-hour-long club night with strobes cranked happily to here’s-the-seizure-you-ordered — was seeing how very un-tired Charli’s fans are of being pulverized by songs like “Club Classics,” for which she donned her Superman’s-cape sunglasses, and “Guess,” during which pairs of underwear rained down on the audience in a nod to the music video for the song’s remix with Billie Eilish.

Charli had opened with the new album’s “Rock Music,” in which she declares that “the dance floor is dead”; here, her sarcasm fooled precisely nobody.

My favorite part was the home stretch of tunes from “Music, Fashion, Film”: “Camera,” a startlingly frank confession of her movie-star aspirations; “Magic Metal Montana,” a deeply tender ode to her friend and collaborator A.G. Cook; “SS26,” a jittery electro-punk jam about “walking on a runway that goes straight to hell.”

I love the strange emotion in these songs — the feeling that you might as well say what you want because the only thing more embarrassing than taking a risk is not taking one.

At some point, Charli lit up a cigarette and waved it around like someone who’d discovered a critical truth. What were they gonna do — make her end the concert early?

Define early; better yet, define late.

MIAMI — Former Cuban President Raúl Castro is facing more charges in Florida related to the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles after the U.S. government indicted the former leader earlier this year.

Florida Atty. Gen. James Uthmeier on Monday accused Castro, 95, of directing spies to infiltrate the exile group Brothers to the Rescue and ordering the attack on their planes. The state charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder is based largely on a federal indictment announced in May that included charges of murder and destruction of an airplane.

It remains unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S. courtroom. Uthmeier said the arrest warrant will restrict Castro’s ability leave the island nation and prevent him from traveling to any place with an extradition agreement with the U.S.

“I’m not ignorant of the fact that Raúl Castro is an older man who’s probably not looking to march himself into Miami,” Uthmeier said. “I think others would get him before the court of law would, but at the end of the day, we stand ready to prosecute the case.”

According to the state complaint, Castro was the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and First Vice President of Cuba when he gave the final authorization to shoot down the planes. Cuban Directorate of Intelligence agents operating as part of the Wasp Network in the Miami area and the Florida Keys infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue and reported flight plans, investigator said.

On Feb. 24, 1996, three unarmed Cessna aircraft departed Opa-Locka Airport in Miami-Dade County. Well outside Cuba’s territorial waters, Cuban MiGs destroyed two of the civilian planes with air-to-air missiles, killing the four occupants, the complaint said. Both aircraft were traveling away from Cuba and received no warning despite contact with Havana air traffic control, U.S. officials said.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the federal indictment earlier this year a political stunt that sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.” He accused the U.S. of lying and manipulating events surrounding the shootdown.

“Our historic federal indictment laid the groundwork, and James and his team have now taken the important step of bringing charges under Florida law,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said at a news conference.

Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2006 before handing power to a trusted loyalist, Díaz-Canel, in 2018.

While he retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro.

Meanwhile, President Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Cuban government’s longtime patron.

After ousting the Venezuelan leader earlier this year, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

Fischer writes for the Associated Press.