North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui praised the ‘spiritual closeness’ between the two states.
Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025
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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has met North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in the latest high-level engagement between the two countries, which have strengthened ties during the Ukraine war.
Footage released by Russian state news agencies showed Putin greeting Choe in the Kremlin on Monday. Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov also appeared at the meeting.
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Putin said the countries’ “relations and development prospects” are progressing “according to plan”, and extended regards to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to Russia’s Sputnik news agency. Choe, in turn, passed on “warm wishes” from Kim, having earlier praised the “spiritual closeness” of the two nations’ relationship in talks with Lavrov.
Russia and North Korea, both under extensive Western sanctions, have significantly bolstered ties in recent years, including signing a 2024 defence pact committing each country to provide military support to the other in the event of “aggression”.
Since then, North Korea has sent around 10,000 troops to join Russia’s war against Ukraine, at least 600 of whom have died in combat, according to estimates from Seoul and Kyiv.
Several days ago, Kim held a ceremony marking the opening of a museum in Pyongyang to honour the North Korean troops killed in the conflict. He said their deployment “marked the beginning of a new history of militant solidarity” with Russia, with which there is an “invincible” alliance.
Putin last met Kim in person on September 3 in Beijing, where the leaders held official talks after attending a military parade hosted by China’s President Xi Jinping. At the time, Putin praised North Korean soldiers for fighting “courageously and heroically” in the Ukraine war.
“I would like to note that we will never forget the sacrifices that your armed forces and the families of your servicemen have suffered,” Putin said.
The deepening Russia-North Korea relationship has drawn concern from the United States, which says there is evidence that Russia is increasing technology support for North Korea, including in space and satellite programmes. After Putin and Kim’s September meeting, US President Donald Trump claimed they were conspiring against the US – a statement dismissed by the Kremlin.
For the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a NATO member has formally invoked Article 4 of the alliance’s founding treaty after a major airspace breach. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna tells Talk to Al Jazeera why repeated Russian provocations are more than isolated incidents – they’re a test of NATO’s credibility. As United States President Donald Trump questions the value of collective defence, Tsahkna warns that Europe’s security consensus is fraying and hesitation could invite danger.
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who spent the week belting “You Don’t Own Me” with the same gusto as an empowered ex-wife dressed in white.
Diane Keaton died this week at age 79 at her Los Angeles home. The L.A. native had a career that spanned more than five decades and included a wide-ranging and indelible list of performances in films such as “The Godfather” saga, “Annie,” Baby Boom,” “Father of the Bride” (and its sequel), “The First Wives Club,” “Something’s Gotta Give,” “The Family Stone” — the list goes on and on. Take a moment to read film editor Joshua Rothkop’s illuminating snapshot of Keaton’s life. Of course, her legacy goes far beyond the performance. Times film critic Amy Nicholson wrote how Keaton showed us how to dress up our insecurities and embrace the kooky. And if you want to take a dive into her oeuvre, we have a roundup of 10 Keaton performances worth watching. Pluto TV is featuring an on-demand collection called “Remembering Diane Keaton,” with 15 of her most beloved films available to stream anytime.
And speaking of women who leave a lasting impression — this week saw the return of Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, the highly competent seasoned foreign service officer, with the arrival of “The Diplomat’s” third season. The Netflix series has spent its time tracking the career diplomat’s journey being primed to assume the role of vice president. Its backdrop storyline of an aging president who is expected to pass the torch to a younger female vice president — and the chaos that ensues when the plan is upended — may have real-world parallels, but the show’s creator, Debora Cahn, whose other credits include “The West Wing” and “Homeland,” insists the series is not a commentary. She stopped by Guest Spot to discuss the political thriller.
Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations are an eclectic pair: a documentary that chronicles the 60-year movement to convert abandoned railroads into public spaces around America and, for those looking to make their viewing of Guillermo Del Toro’s take on “Frankenstein” a double-feature kind of night, we make the case for a ‘90s gory horror-comedy twist on the legend.
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Must-read stories you might have missed
Diane Keaton arrives at a news conference at the 40th Cannes Film Festival to introduce her feature directorial debut, “Heaven,” in 1987.
Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
A view of the Island Line Trail in “From Rails to Trails.”
(PBS)
“From Rails to Trails” (PBS.org)
Trains ran close to where I grew up, and I’m still stupidly excited whenever I see one in action. There are fewer now than there were then, but part of their romance is the alternative routes they carved through the land. “From Rails to Trails” documents the 60-year movement to transform abandoned rail lines — which is to say, most rail lines — into paths for biking and hiking, turning them into linear public parks, making the countryside accessible but also remaking urban spaces. It’s a movement not without its opponents, its reversals and consequences, including the gentrification that can follow them. But this often moving hour-long documentary is a paean to old-fashioned coalition building and community activism — needed now more than ever — and the success of a new idea many now take for granted. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean and former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg chime in. New voice of the everyman Edward Norton narrates. — Robert Lloyd
“Frankenhooker” (Pluto TV, Tubi)
The lament of “The Bride of Frankenstein” is that the heroine herself is only onscreen for a few minutes. Get your fix by watching Frank Henenlotter’s “Frankenhooker.” This sleazy-brilliant 1990 romp is so clever it ranks (severed) head and shoulders with the black-and-white classics. An inventor, Jeffrey (James Lorinz), is bereft over losing his fiancée Elizabeth (Patty Mullen) to a freak lawnmower accident. He vows to rebuild his future bride — but hotterr. “I can make you the centerfold goddess of the century,” Jeffrey says with a leer. The real vanity is his. He wants a sexy, mindless babe. Henenlotter (also of the schlock hit “Basket Case”) claimed he didn’t think deeply about the subtext of his horror movies, a feint that dates back farther than George A. Romero pretending “Night of the Living Dead’s” martyred Black hero wasn’t a comment on race. They’re both fibbers. “Frankenhooker” is a giddy, popcorn-chomping comment on the disposability of women, especially the sex workers Jeffrey murders for spare parts. But what brings it to life is Mullen’s uproarious resurrected sexpot. Stomping around wearing a purple bra and a ghastly sneer, she belongs to no man — ring on her finger or not. Make it a double feature with Guillermo Del Toro’s terrific new “Frankenstein” in theaters this week. — Amy Nicholson
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Allison Janney as Grace, Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler and Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in Season 3 scene from “The Diplomat.”
(Alex Bailey / Netflix)
Will the U.S. ever be ready for a female president? Time will tell. But “The Diplomat” has provided its contribution to the list of fictional ones. The Netflix drama, a fast-paced look at the art of diplomacy, stars Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, a newly-appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom who is tapped from the ranks of career diplomats to be quietly prepped to become vice president. The plan, of course, hasn’t gone as expected. In the whirlwind final moments of last season, the president dies and suddenly the person Kate was enlisted to push out, Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney), is whisked into duty — just as Kate has discovered the VP is responsible for hatching a terrorist plot. The show returned for its third season earlier this week and explores the aftermath as Penn is sworn in as president. Here, creator Debora Cahn shares what she was interested in unpacking in Season 3’s marriage dynamics, orchestrating a “West Wing” reunion and the time she met former Vice President Kamala Harris. There are some mild spoilers ahead, so bookmark for later if you haven’t begun the season! — Yvonne Villarreal
What did you want out of Kate’s journey this season? Her professional ambitions are once again tested by her marriage. Hal keeps claiming it’s Kate’s time to be in the spotlight and yet he manages to steal it.
We wanted to look at how it happens that someone like Hal winds up in the spotlight even when he’s desperately trying not to; the circumstances that surround decisions like this, which make it such that even the people in the middle of them don’t really have any control over it. You can look at what Grace is doing, and you can understand why she thinks Kate is fantastic, but that the choice, in terms of what’s going to make it easier for her to get through the day, is Hal. And we didn’t want to have a science fiction White House where there are two women happily running the country. That’s just not the world that we’re living in. And it felt like the most honest thing that we could do is tell a story about what it means to be really qualified and really experienced and really ready, and then watch it all slip away at the last second.
The season includes a delightful “West Wing” reunion, a show you wrote for. Allison Janney returns as VP-turned-President Grace Penn and Bradley Whitford portrays her husband, Todd. What was it like to see them back together onscreen? And what did you want their marriage dynamic to say?
It was like first day of school jitters for the first day that each of them was on set. We really wanted to make sure that this was something new and it wasn’t a reference to the work that we’d done together in the past. And the second they started, it was just clear that we were watching a new relationship that these two great actors were building together and informed by the fact that they know each other quite well and that they’ve been good friends for 20 years, but using that to create something new and fresh and really, really satisfying.
This is a marriage that has some very similar structural dynamics to Kate and Hal, but there are some fundamental differences, which is, there was never an assumption that Todd’s career could continue to function alongside Grace’s once she became vice president; and certainly when she becomes president, there’s no question that will become the focus for both of them. And so there are dynamics that Kate and Hal still wrestle with, which we see are kind of absolved with Todd and Grace. And in some ways that helps, and in some ways it doesn’t help.
We’re looking at a couple that’s 10 years farther down the road in their marriage and have made, in some ways, a more pragmatic decision about what it means to have two smart, capable people with careers existing at the same time. Their decision is that one of them isn’t going to exist right now. I think the thing that I enjoy most about both Hal and Todd is that these are people who really, really, really love their wives and really want to be supportive and they still fail or they struggle so, so mightily. We’ve talked about this before: I don’t like writing villains. I don’t want to write politicians that have bad values or selfish goals. I also don’t want to write people in a marriage who don’t give a s— about each other. I would much rather look at the much larger problem, which is, you do really care about each other. You do really want the best for each other, and you still can’t manage to make it happen.
Allison Janney as President Grace Penn and Bradley Whitford as First Gentleman Todd Penn in “The Diplomat.”
(Clifton Prescod / Netflix)
“The Diplomat” premiered in a different political climate from the one it’s in now. The show is not a direct commentary on what’s happening now, but how does the current reality, particularly as it relates to what those in civil service are facing, inform how you think about or build stories moving forward? What sorts of questions are you asking now of people who work in the government?
We write a story two years before the audience watches it, so we we don’t want to be making a direct commentary. Even if we did, the world is moving so fast, we couldn’t try and keep up. But we do want to be in the foreign policy headspace that the world is in, and try to be looking at what are the bigger questions and bigger conflicts that face people who are working in this field. We think a lot about the fact that 300,000 people were fired from the federal government. We think a lot about what it’s like to work for this administration and — I’m trying to figure out what to say without getting into Season 4, which I don’t want to do. It doesn’t inform the specifics of any of the stories that we’re telling, but it does inform the worldview and the bigger questions that face people in this field as the field changes. As the world changes.
You’re writing about people whose job it is to make hard decisions every day. What was the hardest decision you had to make for this third season — either in the writing phase or the production phase?
We moved the base of production from the UK back to New York. The first two seasons we were based in the UK, and then for Season 3, we did half and half. There were a lot of really good reasons for that. It also meant that we had a crew that grew this organism with us — and we were very close to them; they had huge influence on the show — and leaving them behind was really, really terrible. It’s a tough time in the film and television industry right now, and we felt pretty good about bringing jobs back to this community. That was something that was important to us and we really wanted to do. So, we are comfortable with the decision that we made, but, boy, it sure wasn’t fun making it and going through it. It’s people’s livelihood. It’s not a small thing.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris recently released a book chronicling her whirlwind and brief campaign as a 2024 presidential candidate. Have you read it?
I have not read it. But did I tell you about when we met her?
No. Tell me. You were also filming this third season during the election, right?
We were we were shooting it during the election. We were writing it during the election. And we we were worried about how it was going to look. We didn’t want it to look like a commentary on this presidency. But we did have a female vice president that we liked a whole lot, and a male president that we really loved and was of a certain age and didn’t make it through the process — the dynamics kept getting more and more troubling.
Keri and I were at the [White House Correspondents’] Dinner. And there was a receiving line, and we met and shook hands with the president and the first lady and the vice president and the second gentleman. And I said, “Ma’am, I’m writing a story about what it’s like for a woman who’s really experienced and really smart and really capable and really ready to do a job who then gets passed over for someone who is perhaps less qualified.” And she laughed. Then she said, “Call me.”
Have you called?
I have not called. I felt like she had some stuff going on. I didn’t really want to bother her and say, “Heyyyyy … let’s talk about how that went …”
What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?
“Dying for Sex” [Hulu, Disney+]. It was brutal and intense and very funny and extremely well-written. And I just thought what they did from a public health service perspective, sharing practical information about what it actually means to go through the process of death, I thought it was just a huge public service.
What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?
“Postcards from the Edge” [VOD] — it is just so smart and so funny and both Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep are just absolutely to die for.
Keri Russell has been a recognisable face on TV screens since the 90s – and she has a famous partner
Netflix’s The Diplomat is back with a third season, featuring Kate Wyler (portrayed by Keri Russell) in an unexpected new role.
Keri Russell, a 49 year old American actress, has been celebrated for her television roles since the 90s.
Born and raised in California, she has an older brother and a younger sister, and due to her father’s job as a Nissan Motors executive, the family moved around frequently.
In 1999, she bagged a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the drama Felicity, and has received four additional nominations for her roles in The Americans and The Diplomat.
In recognition of her contributions to television, she was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017.
One of her earliest roles was at the tender age of 15, when she featured in the Disney Channel’s revival of The Mickey Mouse Club.
Her dancing skills, honed during her middle school and high school years, helped her secure a spot on the show.
She was a regular cast member from 1991 to 1994, and during this period, she made her film debut in Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.
From 2013 to 2018, she starred opposite Matthew Rhys in the series The Americans, where he played her character’s husband.
The on-screen couple became real-life partners during this period.
Who is Keri Russell’s famous partner?
The Diplomat star was previously married to Shane Deary, a Brooklyn-based contractor whom she met through mutual friends.
They tied the knot in 2007 and have two children – a son and a daughter.
The pair parted ways in 2014 and since then, she’s been romantically linked with Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, famed for his roles in Brothers and Sisters and Perry Mason.
They share a son and despite affectionately referring to each other as husband and wife, they haven’t tied the knot.
The duo have voiced their eagerness to collaborate professionally once more, with Russell suggesting to People that her partner could “totally” join the cast of The Diplomat.
“I think that would probably be more in his court,” she added, indicating their mutual desire to work together again.
“But he’s pretty busy doing a million other things. He’s got, like, five other jobs or something,” she quipped.
WASHINGTON — The State Department said Wednesday that it has fired a U.S. diplomat over a romantic relationship he admitted having with a Chinese woman alleged to have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The dismissal is believed to be the first of its kind for violating a ban on such relationships that was introduced late last year under the Biden administration.
The Associated Press reported earlier this year that in the waning days of President Biden’s presidency, the State Department imposed a ban on all American government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the diplomat in question was dismissed from the foreign service after President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reviewed the case and determined that he had “admitted concealing a romantic relationship with a Chinese national with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”
“Under Secretary Rubio’s leadership, we will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any employee who is caught undermining our country’s national security,” Pigott said.
The statement did not identify the diplomat, but he and his girlfriend had been featured in a surreptitiously filmed video posted online by conservative firebrand James O’Keefe.
In Beijing, a Chinese government spokesperson declined to comment on what he said is a domestic U.S. issue. “But I would like to stress that we oppose drawing lines based on ideological difference and maliciously smearing China,” the Foreign Ministry’s Guo Jiakun said at a daily briefing.
Lee writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.
A charter plane is expected to repatriate about 300 South Korean workers who were among 475 arrested during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at a construction site for an electric vehicle battery plant being built in Ellabell, Georgia. Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA
Sept. 14 (UPI) — The United States’ second-most senior diplomat expressed regret Sunday over the recent immigration raid at a Hyundai car battery plant in Georgia.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau met Sunday with First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Yoon-joo to discuss cooperation in the continued efforts to resolve the diplomatic spat stemming from the raid, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
During the meeting, Park highlighted the “uncomfortable treatment” faced by hundreds of South Korean nationals who were detained and deported after the raid and the shock felt across the country at the incident.
“Deputy Secretary Landau expressed deep regret over the incident and proposed using it as a turning point to improve the [visa] system and strengthen the [Republic of Korea-United States] relationship,” the foreign ministry said. Landau was also said to have recognized the significant contributions and investments made by Korean companies for the “revitalization of the U.S. economy and manufacturing industry.”
He added that President Donald Trump is also “highly concerned” about this issue, and that he will ensure that Korean workers who return to the United States will not difficulty with reentering, South Korean officials said.
“The United States welcomes and encourages foreign investment in our country and therefore logically welcomes and encourages the personnel necessary to get those investments up and running,” Landau said in a post to social media after the meeting.
“These are the kind of visitors we want, who are creating American jobs and prosperity right here at home. Korean companies are poised to make massive new investments in our country in shipbuilding among other industries.”
More than 300 workers from South Korea were arrested earlier this month during the raid at the factory, which Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution operate. More than 150 other workers were also detained.
The raid was announced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and included officers from other agencies, such as Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It marked one of the largest immigrant raids in modern American history.
Last Sunday, a senior South Korean official said that the country will charter a plane for the return of hundreds of workers who were detained.
BEIRUT — A U.S. diplomat apologized Thursday for using the word “animalistic” while calling for a gaggle of reporters to quiet down during a news conference in Lebanon earlier this week.
Tom Barrack, who is the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and envoy to Syria and has also been on a temporary assignment in Lebanon, said he didn’t intend to use the word “in a derogatory manner” but that his comments had been “inappropriate.”
Barrack visited Beirut along with a delegation of U.S. officials on Tuesday to discuss efforts by the Lebanese government to disarm the Hezbollah militant group and implementation of the ceasefire agreement that ended the latest war between Israel and the Hezbollah in November.
At the start of a news conference at the presidential palace, journalists shouted at Barrack to move to the podium after he started speaking from another spot in the room. After taking the podium Barrack told the crowd of journalists to “act civilized, act kind, act tolerant.” He threatened to end the conference early otherwise.
“The moment that this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we’re gone,” said Barrack.
The comment sparked an outcry, with the Lebanese press syndicate calling for an apology and calling for a boycott of Barrack’s visits if none was issued. The Presidential Palace also issued a statement expressing regret for the comments made by “one of our guests” and thanking journalists for their “hard work.”
In an interview with Mario Nawfal, a media personality on the X platform, an excerpt of which was published Thursday, Barrack said, “Animalistic was a word that I didn’t use in a derogatory manner, I was just saying ‘can we calm down, can we find some tolerance and kindness, let’s be civilized.’ But it was inappropriate to do when the media was just doing their job.”
He added, “I should have been more generous with my time and more tolerant myself.”
Barrack’s visit came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces could begin withdrawing from territory they hold in southern Lebanon after the Lebanese government’s decision to disarm Hezbollah. When, how and in what order the Hezbollah disarmament and Israeli withdrawal would take place remain in dispute.
The Israeli army on Thursday launched airstrikes in southern Lebanon that it said were targeting “terrorist infrastructure and a rocket platform” belonging to Hezbollah.
Several hours later the Lebanese army announced that two of its soldiers had been killed while investigating an Israeli drone that had crashed in the area of Naqoura on the southern coast, which then exploded. It was not clear why the drone had fallen or what caused the explosion.
LONDON — British Foreign Secretary David Lammy went fishing with U.S. Vice President JD Vance earlier this month and the closest thing he came to catching was a whopping fine.
Lammy was given a written warning for fishing without a license, an Environment Agency spokesperson said Friday.
As far as breaking the law goes, it was pretty small fry but could have netted him a fine of up to 2,500 pounds ($3,380) for the offense.
Lammy, whose spokesperson described it all as an “administrative oversight,” purchased a license after-the-fact and reported himself to the agency.
Lammy hosted Vance and his family, who were vacationing in England, at his country estate south of London on Aug. 8. The two men smiled and laughed as Vance provided what Lammy called Kentucky-style fishing tips.
Apparently, the pointers didn’t help Lammy land a fish.
“The one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the foreign secretary did not,” Vance later said.
The Environment Agency would not comment on whether Vance had a license, citing data protection rules. The vice president’s spokesperson did not immediately reply to an email from the Associated Press seeking comment.
The agency said it confirmed that Lammy was given a warning because he had publicized it. In England and Wales, anyone over 13 needs a license for freshwater fishing, the agency said.
In most cases, inexperienced anglers caught without a permit are given warnings — so in that sense, Lammy apparently had some beginner’s luck.
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement of protest against the head of the United States mission to the island, Michael Hammer.
In a news release published on Friday, the Foreign Ministry accused Hammer, a career diplomat, of “unfriendly and meddling behaviour” since his arrival in Cuba in late 2024.
“By inciting Cuban citizens to commit extremely serious criminal acts, attacking the constitutional order, or encouraging them to act against the authorities or demonstrate in support of the interests and objectives of a hostile foreign power, the diplomat is engaging in provocative and irresponsible conduct,” the Foreign Ministry wrote.
“The immunity he enjoys as a representative of his country cannot be used as cover for acts contrary to the sovereignty and internal order of the country to which he is assigned, in this case, Cuba.”
The Foreign Ministry said the message was delivered by its director of bilateral affairs with the US, Alejandro Garcia del Toro.
Friday’s statement is the latest indication of increasingly rocky relations between Cuba and the US, particularly since President Donald Trump began his second term in January.
A history of tensions
Diplomatic ties between the two countries, however, have been icy for decades, stretching back to the Cold War in the 1960s. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the US government imposed strict trade restrictions on the island and backed efforts to topple the newly established Communist government.
But there have been efforts to ease the tensions, notably during the administrations of Democratic presidents like Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the US.
In 2016, for instance, Obama sought to normalise relations with Cuba, only to see those efforts rolled back during the first Trump administration, starting in 2017.
Likewise, President Biden – who formerly served as Obama’s vice president – removed Cuba from the US’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism” in the waning days of his term in January.
But upon taking office for his second time on January 20, Trump reversed course once more, putting Cuba back on the list that very same day.
Trump also included in his presidential cabinet several officials who have taken a hardline stance towards Cuba, most notably former Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Born to Cuban immigrants, Rubio is an outspoken supporter of continuing the trade embargo against the island.
The Cuban government, meanwhile, has continued to accuse the US of attempting to destabilise its leadership.
In Friday’s statement, the Cuban Foreign Ministry accused Hammer of “public and insulting manipulation” for his recent visit to the tomb of a 19th-century national hero, Jose Marti.
The US Embassy to Cuba posted a video of the visit with a voiceover of Marti’s words, “Respect for the freedom and thoughts of others, even of the most unhappy kind, is my passion: If I die or am killed, it will be for that.” Critics have interpreted that citation as an implied endorsement of dissent on the island.
Ramping up pressure
In recent months, there have also been signs that Trump plans to once again tighten the screws on the Cuban government, in a return to the “maximum pressure” campaigns that typified foreign policy during his first term.
In February, for instance, the Trump administration announced it would yank visas from anyone who works with Cuba’s medical system, which sends thousands of healthcare workers abroad each year, particularly in the Caribbean region.
Critics have criticised the healthcare programme for its low pay and hefty restrictions on its employees. Trump and Rubio, meanwhile, have claimed the medical system amounts to a form of “forced labour” that enriches the Cuban government. But leaders in Havana have denied that allegation.
Then, in April, the US government condemned Cuba for re-arresting a group of dissidents, among them prominent figures like Jose Daniel Ferrer and Felix Navarro.
Cuba was expected to release 553 prisoners, many of whom were swept up in antigovernment protests, and in exchange, the US was supposed to ease its sanctions against the island. The sanctions relief, however, never came.
An additional measure was taken against Cuba just this month. The Department of State, under Rubio’s direction, determined that “Cuba did not fully cooperate with US counterterrorism efforts in 2024”. It accused Cuba of harbouring 11 fugitives, some of whom faced terrorism-related charges in the US.
“The Cuban regime made clear it was not willing to discuss their return to face justice in our nation,” the State Department wrote in a news release. “The United States will continue to promote international cooperation on counterterrorism issues. We also continue to promote accountability for countries that do not stand against terrorism.”
As punishment, Cuba was labelled as a “not fully cooperating country” under the Arms Export Control Act, a designation that limits its ability to buy weaponry and other defence tools from the US.
Furthermore, Hammer had recently signalled that new sanctions were on the way for the island.
But in the face of Friday’s reprimand, the State Department indicated it was undeterred and would continue to support dissidents against Cuba’s “malign influence”.
Pakistan reiterates its commitment to the ceasefire but warns it will respond forcefully to any future Indian attacks.
India has ordered a Pakistani diplomat to leave the country within 24 hours as tensions simmer in the wake of heavy military exchanges between the nuclear-armed neighbours before a ceasefire was agreed last week.
The unnamed official, stationed at Pakistan’s embassy in New Delhi, was accused by India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday of “indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status”.
The move comes after a brief but intense military confrontation last week that threatened to erupt into the fifth full-scale war between the two countries. While the truce brought a temporary halt to cross-border missile and drone strikes, sporadic skirmishes continue along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in disputed Kashmir, a region claimed by both nations.
On Tuesday, Pakistan reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire but warned it would respond forcefully to any future attacks.
The statement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned in his first national address since the truce that India would strike “terrorist hideouts” across the border if provoked again.
The ultranationalist Hindu leader added that India “only paused” its military action against Pakistan.
Modi’s remarks were swiftly condemned by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which called them “provocative and inflammatory”.
“At a time when international efforts are being made for regional peace and stability, this statement represents a dangerous escalation,” it said.
“Pakistan remains committed to the recent ceasefire understanding and taking necessary steps towards de-escalation and regional stability,” the statement continued, adding that any future aggression would receive a response.
The conflict ignited after a deadly April 22 shooting attack in the Pahalgam area of India-administered Kashmir, where 25 Indian tourists and one Nepalese visitor were killed. India accused Pakistan’s government of links to the attacks – an accusation Islamabad strongly denied.
India launched strikes on what it called “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
According to Islamabad, 40 civilians and 11 Pakistani military personnel were killed in last week’s violence. India said at least 16 civilians and five Indian soldiers were killed.
The fighting marked the most severe exchange between the two countries in nearly 30 years and ended only after sustained diplomatic pressure. On Monday, India said it held a rare phone call with Pakistan’s military leaders, agreeing to uphold the ceasefire and explore ways to de-escalate the conflict.
Fragile ceasefire
Despite the ceasefire, sporadic violence continued on Tuesday with Indian forces reporting a gun battle in southern Kashmir’s Shopian district. The army said three suspected fighters were killed in a “search and destroy” operation launched on intelligence input.
On Tuesday, Modi visited Adampur airbase near the border and reiterated India’s stance in a speech to air force personnel. “We will not differentiate between the government sponsoring terrorism and the masterminds of terrorism,” he said.
“We will enter their dens and hit them without giving them an opportunity to survive.”
Meanwhile, both sides have taken a series of retaliatory diplomatic and economic measures.
India has suspended most visa services for Pakistani nationals, halted bilateral trade and announced its intention to unilaterally suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, a World Bank-brokered water-sharing agreement in place since 1960 that is critical for farming.
In response, Pakistan banned visas for Indians, closed its airspace to Indian aircraft and imposed a reciprocal trade embargo.
