Israeli raids and attacks across Gaza and the occupied West Bank have continued as Trump and Netanyahu prepare to meet.
Published On 11 Feb 202611 Feb 2026
Share
Feb. 10 (UPI) — A grand jury rejected the Justice Department’s effort to indict congressional Democrats for their recent online video telling military members they don’t have to obey illegal orders.
The grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday evening declined to indict the lawmakers, all of whom either are veterans or served in the national intelligence community, The New York Times reported.
The lawmakers are Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, along with Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chrissy Houlahan and Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania.
Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, organized the video, which did not cite any specific orders or provide context. The video was published online after the Trump administration began carrying out deadly aerial strikes on alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean Sea in September.
It’s unclear if all or only some of the lawmakers were subject to the grand jury proceedings, according to NBC News.
The news outlet said the effort by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro is an example of the Justice Department targeting the president’s political enemies.
Slotkin described the grand jury that declined to indict her and her Democratic colleagues as “anonymous American citizens who upheld the rule of law.”
“Today wasn’t just an embarrassing day for the Administration. It was another sad day for our country,” she said in a social media statement Tuesday night.
“Because whether or not Pirro succeeded is not the point. It’s that President [Donald] Trump continues to weaponize our justice system against his perceived enemies. It’s the kind of thing you see in a foreign country, not the United States we know and love.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the effort to indict them was “a despicable, vindictive abuse of power” targeting lawmakers and veterans “because the administration didn’t like the content of their speech.”
In the video published online in mid-November, the six lawmakers all said military members can refuse to carry out illegal orders, and some said that “threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but right here at home.”
Trump called the video “seditious behavior” and suggested George Washington would have had all six hanged for treason.
The six lawmakers later said the FBI had contacted the respective House and Senate sergeants-at-arms to arrange interviews as part of a criminal investigation.
The four House members issued a joint statement in which they accused Trump of using the FBI to “intimidate and harass members of Congress.”
They said that “no amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also tried to censure Kelly and seek to demote, the senator said in a lawsuit.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has sanctioned two leaders of Pacific island nations for alleged corruption, accusing them both of creating openings for China to increase its influence in the region.
On Tuesday, the US Department of State issued a notice alleging that the president of Palau’s Senate, Hokkons Baules, and a former mayor in the Marshall Islands, Anderson Jibas, had engaged in “significant corruption”.
list of 3 itemsend of list
Neither they nor their families will henceforth be allowed to enter the US, according to the statement.
“The Trump Administration will not allow foreign public officials to steal from U.S. taxpayers or threaten U.S. interests,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott wrote on social media.
The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) also posted its support for the sanctions.
“Corruption that hurts U.S. interests will be met with significant consequences,” it said.
In both cases, the US credited the politicians’ actions with allowing the expansion of Chinese interests in the Pacific region.
The State Department alleged that Baules took bribes in exchange for supporting Chinese interests in Palau, an island in Micronesia that is the 16th smallest country in the world.
“His actions constituted significant corruption and adversely affected U.S. interests in Palau,” the US said in its statement.
Jibas, meanwhile, stands accused of “orchestrating and financially benefitting from” schemes to misuse the Bikini Resettlement Trust, a US-backed fund designed to compensate those negatively affected by nuclear bomb testing on the Bikini Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands.
The trust was worth nearly $59m in 2017, when the first Trump administration decided to hand control of the main resettlement fund to local authorities and relinquish its authority to audit.
Since then, the fund has emptied precipitously. As of February 2023, the trust had plummeted to a mere $100,000, and payments to Bikini Atoll survivors and descendants have ceased.
Critics have blamed Jibas, who was elected in 2016 to lead the Kili, Bikini and Ejit islands as mayor. He campaigned on having more local autonomy over the fund.
But reports in The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets accused him of misappropriating the funds for purchases including vacations, travel and a new pick-up truck.
In Tuesday’s announcement, the State Department connected Jibas’s alleged abuse to the spread of Chinese power in the Pacific and an increase in immigration to the US, two key issues in Trump’s platform.
“The theft, misuse, and abuse of the U.S.-provided money for the fund wasted U.S. taxpayer money and contributed to a loss of jobs, food insecurity, migration to the United States,” the department wrote.
“The lack of accountability for Jibas’ acts of corruption has eroded public trust in the government of the Marshall Islands, creating an opportunity for malign foreign influence from China and others.”
Both Palau and the Marshall Islands were US territories, occupied during World War II and granted independence in the late 20th century.
They both continue to be part of a Compact of Free Association with the US, which allows the North American superpower to continue military operations in the area and control the region’s defence.
They are also part of a dwindling list of countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s government, much to the ire of the People’s Republic of China.
Only about a dozen remain, and they are largely concentrated in Central America, the Caribbean or the Pacific islands.
But China has sought to pressure those smaller countries into rupturing their ties with Taiwan and recognising its government in Beijing instead.
The Asian superpower – often seen as a rival to the US – has also attempted to expand its sphere of influence to the southern Pacific, by building trade relations and countering US military authority in the area.
Baules, for example, is among the local politicians who have advocated for recognising Beijing’s government over Taipei’s, and he is a vocal proponent for increased ties with China.
Those shifting views have placed island nations like Palau and the Marshall Islands in the midst of a geopolitical tug-of-war, as the US struggles with China to maintain dominance in the region.
In other parts of the world, the US has also used sanctions to dissuade local officials from seeking closer ties with China.
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, for instance, has accused the US embassy in his country of threatening to strip local officials of their visas, as the US and China jockey for influence over the Panama Canal.
Similar reports have emerged in neighbouring Costa Rica, where officials like lawmaker Vanessa Castro and former President Oscar Arias have accused the US of revoking their visas over ties to China.
But there have been other points of tension between the Pacific Islands and the US in recent years.
The Trump administration has withdrawn from accords designed to limit climate change and quashed international efforts to reduce emissions, straining ties with the islands, which are vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Still, the US State Department framed the sanctions on Tuesday as an effort to ensure local accountability and defend US interests in the region.
“The United States will continue to promote accountability for those who abuse public power for personal gain and steal from our citizens to enrich themselves,” it said.
“These designations reaffirm the United States’ commitment to countering global corruption affecting U.S. interests.”
Leqaa Kordia’s family say they were left in the dark when the 33-year-old was rushed from an immigration detention centre in Texas to a nearby hospital late last week.
For more than 12 hours, Kordia’s family and legal representation said they were given no information about her whereabouts and condition. Her cousin, Hamzah Abushaban, said the family was “stonewalled, like hardcore”, as they searched for answers.
list of 3 itemsend of list
“Full transparency: Many people in her family thought she might have died, especially with the secrecy of her condition,” Abushaban told Al Jazeera. “Sometimes, silence speaks for itself.”
Her family and legal team confirmed on Tuesday that she has been released from the hospital. Kordia had suffered a seizure, but her family has only had fleeting contact with her since the medical emergency.
The ordeal is the latest turn in Kordia’s nearly yearlong detention, which began when she was among several protesters targeted by immigration officials for taking part in pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia University in 2024.
Kordia remains the only person targeted in connection with the demonstration who is still in immigration detention.
Personal losses helped inspire her protest: Nearly 200 members of her family have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Her recent medical emergency underscores the dangers she faces from her continued detention, not to mention the urgent need for her release, according to Abushaban.
“She’s a fighter, but she’s not fooling anyone,” he said. “She’s still very sick”
On Monday, Amnesty International joined calls for Kordia’s release, echoing her family’s assertion that she is being unfairly targeted for her pro-Palestine advocacy.
“She has been arbitrarily detained for over ten months for exercising her rights to free speech and protest,” Justin Mazzola, the deputy director of research at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.
“The Trump administration must stop playing cruel political games with Leqaa’s life. Leqaa Kordia must be immediately released, and there must be accountability for the flagrant violation of her human rights.”
Kordia’s lawyers have also alleged unjust treatment, noting that federal judges had twice ruled she was eligible to be released on bond.
Each time, her release has been blocked after immigration officials filed “discretionary stay” requests to keep her in custody while the government appealed.
Since March 2025, the administration of President Donald Trump has targeted a range of student activists for deportation. They include Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both of Columbia University, and Rumeysa Ozturk, who attended Tufts University in Massachusetts.
But those pro-Palestinian student activists have all successfully petitioned for their release as their cases continue in immigration court, though courts have signalled that they could be taken back into custody.
Kordia, however, has not had that same success.
Kordia came to the US in 2016 from the town of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Initially, she arrived using a visitor’s visa, later transitioning to a student visa.
Eventually, she applied for permanent residency through her mother, a US citizen residing in New Jersey.
But her legal team has said she was wrongly advised by a trusted mentor that the initial approval of her application meant she had legal status. She subsequently allowed her student visa to lapse.
Immigration officials have, in turn, maintained that Kordia was detained for overstaying her student visa, not for her pro-Palestine advocacy.
However, in an initial news release announcing Kordia’s arrest in March 2025, the Department of Homeland Security suggested that she and a second protester – who allegedly “self-deported” – were targeted for their advocacy.
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in the release.
“When you advocate for violence and terrorism, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”
In his statement on Monday, Mazzola accused immigration officials of showing “blatant disregard” for Kordia’s human rights in detention, pointing to the deterioration of her health.
Kordia has been held at the Prairieland Detention Facility, some 2,400km (1,500 miles) away from her family in New Jersey.
Laila El-Haddad, an author and advocate, said she visited Kordia in December, finding her “very thin, very gaunt” as she complained about unsanitary conditions and a lack of nutritious food at the crowded facility.
“She talked about this being a place that is intentionally dehumanising; that aims to strip her and others of their dignity and their humanity,” she told Al Jazeera.
Kordia’s lawyers and family, meanwhile, said she regularly suffers dizzy spells, fainting and other signs of subpar nutrition.
Still, El-Haddad found that Kordia remained upbeat, and she described the 33-year-old as a pillar of support for other detainees.
“She’s very humble. She kept talking about how ‘I’m not a leader or an activist,’” El-Haddad remembered.
El-Hadded added that Kordia’s case has not gotten as much attention as those of other student protesters, but her story is just as powerful.
“She wasn’t a public-facing activist or speaker in the way some of the other [targeted protesters] were,” El-Hadded explained.
“But she found herself in a position and felt compelled [to protest] because of her own humanity and because she was a person with a deep moral compass and consciousness to act and to speak out.”
Abushaban said he has felt Kordia’s absence acutely at family events. It has been a year of missed birthdays, holidays and other gatherings.
He called for US officials, regardless of political affiliation, to have empathy for her plight.
“I was born and raised here, and the rest of my family were all born and raised here,” he said. “And just because we are Palestinians, we still have to feel suppressed in this country.”
These are the key developments from day 1,448 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 11 Feb 202611 Feb 2026
Share
Here is where things stand on Wednesday, February 11:
A Russian attack killed four people, including three small children, in the Ukrainian city of Bohodukhiv, west of Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app early on Wednesday.
United States President Donald Trump has continued to threaten Iran with possible military attacks if Tehran does not accede to his demands on issues ranging from nuclear enrichment to ballistic missiles.
In comments to the Israeli outlet Channel 12, published on Tuesday, Trump hinted at aggressive actions if no deal comes together with Iran.
list of 3 itemsend of list
“Either we reach a deal, or we’ll have to do something very tough,” Trump told the news outlet.
The remarks come as Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani meets with the sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, to discuss the results of talks between US and Iranian officials last week.
In recent weeks, Trump has touted an increase in US military forces in the region, having sent a “massive armada” to nearby waters. That deployment includes the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier.
Channel 12 and the news outlet Axios reported on Tuesday that Trump is also thinking about sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East.
That military build-up has spurred fears of an impending US strike against Iran. Critics fear such an attack could destabilise the region.
Already, on Monday, the US has issued guidelines to US-flagged commercial ships, warning them to stay “as far as possible” from Iranian territorial waters.
Since January, Trump has heightened US pressure on Iran, warning that his country’s military is “locked and loaded and ready to go”.
Trump has also compared Iran’s situation to that of Venezuela, where a US military operation on January 3 resulted in the abduction and removal of deposed President Nicolas Maduro.
“Like with Venezuela, [the US military] is ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary. Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal,” Trump wrote on social media on January 28.
Late last month, his administration issued three overarching demands. They include an end to Iran’s uranium enrichment, a requirement to sever ties with regional proxies, and limits on the country’s ballistic missile stockpiles, a goal long sought by Israel.
During his first term, Trump pulled the US out of a 2015 deal that placed strict limits on Iran’s nuclear activities, in exchange for sanctions relief.
Now, Trump has resumed his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran since taking office for a second term in January 2025.
That campaign has included severe sanctions and pressure to dismantle Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for civilian energy purposes only.
Already, last June, Trump authorised a military strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities, as part of a 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
Trump’s renewed threats in January have coincided with a recent wave of anti-government protests in Iran.
The government in Tehran reacted to those demonstrations with a violent crackdown that reportedly killed thousands of people, drawing widespread condemnation from rights groups.
Reports have found that state security forces opened fire on crowds of protesters as the country was under an internet blackout.
On January 2 — one day before his military operation in Venezuela — Trump threatened to intervene on behalf of the protesters and “come to their rescue“, although he ultimately declined to do so.
Some analysts have pointed out that the proposed strikes on Iran would do little to aid the protesters, but would align with longstanding US and Israeli goals of reducing Iran’s military capacity.
The Iranian government has argued that the protests included the violent targeting of security forces by armed groups, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of officers. It has also accused outside powers like the US and Israel of backing the anti-government demonstrations.
Details around the protests and their crackdown remain difficult to verify, but Iranian officials have conceded that the government’s response killed thousands of people.
Departing for Washington, DC, Israeli prime minister hails his close ties to the US president amid nuclear talks with Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will present Donald Trump with “principles” for negotiating with Iran as he heads to Washington, DC, for his sixth official visit with the US president over the past year.
Netanyahu hailed the “unique closeness” between Israel and the United States and his own warm ties to Trump before leaving Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
list of 3 itemsend of list
“I will present Trump with principles for negotiations with Iran that are important not only to Israel but to everyone who wants peace and security,” Netanyahu told reporters, according to The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
“In my opinion, these are important principles for everyone who wants peace and security in the Middle East.”
His visit comes days after Washington and Tehran concluded a round of nuclear talks in Oman – the first negotiations since the June 2025 war that saw the US bomb Iran’s main nuclear facilities after waves of Israeli attacks.
Israel is not part of those talks, but Netanyahu has long sought to exert influence over US presidents to shape Washington’s policies in the region.
Netanyahu did not provide details about his “principles” for a potential Iran deal, but he has previously said Tehran should agree to full disarmament of heavy weapons, akin to Libya’s 2003 deal with the West.
Iran has ruled out negotiations over its missile programme, which it views as one of its most important deterrents against Israeli attacks.
When Israel launched its surprise assault against Iran in June of last year – killing several of the country’s top generals and nuclear scientists as well as hundreds of civilians – Tehran relied primarily on its missiles to respond after air defences were taken out.
Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Israel, dozens of which penetrated the country’s multilayered air defences, killing 28 people and causing significant damage.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera on Saturday that Iran’s missile programme is a defence issue that is “never negotiable”.
Israel and the US may also push Iran to end support to its network of allied non-state actors in the region – including the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, and armed groups in Iraq.
But that alliance, known as the Axis of Resistance, has already been weakened by Israeli assaults over the past two years.
Another sticking issue in the talks is whether Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium domestically.
While Tehran has said it would agree to strict limits and monitoring of its nuclear activities, it has maintained that domestic enrichment is a sovereign national right.
Despite Washington’s talks with Tehran, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee – who is joining Netanyahu on his trip – has stressed Israel and the United States have the same red lines when it comes to Iran.
“I think there’s an extraordinary alignment between Israel and the United States. Everyone would love to see something that would resolve without a war, but it will be up to Iran,” he told reporters.
“If they insist on holding nuclear weaponry and enriched uranium, then I think the president made very clear that this is not acceptable.”
The United States has moved the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, destroyers, and fighter jets to the Middle East to pressure Iran into an agreement. Tehran says it won’t be swayed by threats of war.
A day after airlines were warned that there would be no jet fuel for them to refuel in Havana, Air Canada announced Monday that it was suspending flights to Cuba. File photo by Graham Hughes/EPA
Feb. 10 (UPI) — Air Canada became the first scheduled airline to withdraw services to Cuba due to shortages of jet fuel as the United States tightened its energy embargo on the Caribbean island.
Canada’s Montreal-headquartered flag-carrier announced Monday it was suspending its 16 weekly flights serving Havana and three other cities, effectively immediately, but said it would send aircraft to bring home 3,000 customers already in Cuba.
“For remaining flights, Air Canada will tanker in extra fuel and make technical stops as necessary to refuel on the return journey, if necessary,” the airline said.
Airlines in Russia, where Cuba is also a top holiday destination, said they had no plans to change their schedules, but Russian media reported at least one Rossiya Airlines flight was canceled with the carrier instead dispatching an empty aircraft to collect Russian tourists.
As many as 4,700 Russians on package holidays were thought to be on the island currently, according to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia.
Spain’s Iberia and Air Europa said flights from Madrid to Havana would now stopover in the Dominican Republic to refuel but would otherwise continue as normal.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico said they would continue flying the route, with American telling CNN that the aircraft it used on the route could carry enough fuel for the round trip without refueling.
On Sunday, an international NOTAM system notice confirmed that no A-1 jet fuel, the standard for commercial aviation, would be available at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport for one month between Tuesday and March 11.
The aviation fuel shortage and its knock-on effect on tourism was the most visible economic casualty of additional measures imposed 10 days ago by U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at shutting off all oil shipments to the island.
Accusing Cuba of harboring terrorist groups, Trump threatened any country supplying oil to Cuba with tariffs in a move principally aimed at Mexico, one of the only remaining points of supply since the United States severed the economic lifeline provided by Venezuela in January.
Venezuela was the source of most of Cuba’s oil imports until the United States’ Jan. 3 military operation to remove President Nicolas Maduro, seize control of the country’s oil and turn off the tap to Cuba.
The move was in line with the Trump administration’s efforts to ratchet up a six-decade-long U.S. trade embargo with the energy blockade exacerbating rolling blackouts and forcing the communist government to ration health and transport, shorten hours in schools and state-owned workplaces, and close some hotels as it scrambles to conserve fuel.
Official Cuban government data shows Canada was the number one source of tourists to the island with more than 754,000 Canadians traveled there in 2025, compared with 110,000 from the United States, 56,000 from Mexico and 46,000 from Spain.
BREAKINGBREAKING,
White House official says Trump sees stability in the Palestinian territory as a ‘goal to achieve peace in the region’.
Published On 9 Feb 20269 Feb 2026
Share
United States President Donald Trump opposes Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank, a White House official has said.
“A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure, and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region,” the official said on Monday, according to the Reuters news agency.
The comment from the White House comes after eight Muslim-majority countries denounced Israel for approving controversial new measures to expand control over occupied Palestinian territory, making it easier for Israelis to acquire land for new settlements, which are illegal under international law.
On Monday, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates condemned Israel’s move “in the strongest terms”, according to a statement from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow shortly.
UN spokesperson says the international body is ‘waiting to see exactly when payments’ will be made by Washington.
Published On 9 Feb 20269 Feb 2026
Share
The United Nations has asked the United States for clarity regarding unpaid budget dues, as declining US engagement puts the international organisation under growing strain.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday that while the US ambassador, Mike Waltz, said last week that payments would begin within weeks, no further details had been offered.
list of 3 itemsend of list
“We’ve seen the statements, and frankly, the secretary-general has been in touch for quite some time on this issue with Ambassador Waltz,” Dujarric said during a news briefing.
“Our [budget] controller has been in touch with the US; indications were given. We’re waiting to see exactly when payments will be made and in what amounts,” he added.
UN officials have said that unpaid fees from the US account for about 95 percent of all outstanding UN budget dues, as the administration of President Donald Trump decreases US involvement in international organisations.
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned in a January letter that the international body faces “imminent financial collapse” on account of unpaid membership dues.
The US owed the UN about $2.19bn by the start of February, along with another $2.4bn for peacekeeping missions and $43.6m for UN tribunals. UN officials have said that the US did not pay $827m for the budget last year, and has not paid $767m for 2026.
The US and its top ally, Israel, have frequently criticised the UN and sought to undermine its agencies, which they say are in opposition to their national interests.
The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Turk, said last week that his office was in “survival mode” amid budget shortfalls. The Trump administration cut off contributions to the agency in 2025.
Turk’s office has frequently issued critical reports about severe rights abuses by Israeli forces against Palestinians that the US and Israel have denounced.
Waltz said last week that the UN would see a “significant” payment towards the US dues soon, telling the Reuters news agency that “you’ll certainly see an initial tranche of money very shortly”.
“Just in general, towards the arrears, and also in recognition of some of the reforms that we’ve seen,” he said.
Last year, the Trump administration released a National Security Strategy, which asserted that the “world’s fundamental political unit is and will remain the nation-state”, not international organisations.
The US has historically been the largest donor to the UN and its programmes.
However, some conservatives from Trump’s Republican Party view the organisation as a hindrance to US global dominance, and international rules and regulations as a threat to the country’s sovereignty.
If the proposal is implemented, workers would not be able to seek remedy through an independent review board.
Published On 9 Feb 20269 Feb 2026
Share
The administration of United States President Donald Trump is making it harder for fired federal employees to get their jobs back by limiting their right to appeal dismissals to an independent review board.
The change was proposed as part of a government plan released on Monday by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Under the proposal, federal employees seeking to challenge their termination would be required to appeal directly to OPM, which reports to the president, rather than to an independent body known as the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).
list of 4 itemsend of list
The MSPB acts as a mediator between federal workers and the government and has been in place since 1978. After Trump took office, the board’s caseload surged by 266 percent between October 2024 and September 2025. Federal workers who were cut in early 2025 and accepted buyouts received their final paycheques at the end of September.
If implemented, the proposal would build on Trump’s broader push to shrink the federal government and limit workers’ ability to challenge those decisions. The administration forced out roughly 317,000 federal employees last year.
The move comes amid a separate proposal announced last week that would reclassify high-level career civil servants as “at will” employees. That change would give the administration broader authority to fire career officials who do not align with the sitting president’s agenda, affecting roughly 50,000 workers at the nation’s largest employer.
Outlined in a more than 250-page document, the directive would allow workers to be fired if they were “intentionally subverting Presidential directives”.
“Congress gave OPM the authority to set how reduction-in-force appeals are handled, and this rule puts that responsibility to work,” an OPM spokesperson told Al Jazeera in a statement. “It replaces a slow, costly process with a single, streamlined review led by OPM experts. That means agencies can restructure without years of litigation, and employees get faster, fairer resolution if mistakes occur.”
The proposal also comes as the administration has sought to fire political appointees from previous administrations without just cause. Since last year, the White House has been attempting to remove US Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud.
Cook challenged the decision in federal court, which ruled that the president did not have the authority to fire her. The White House appealed, and the case is now before the Supreme Court.
While the court has not yet issued a ruling, a decision in the president’s favour would make it easier to remove political appointees who do not align with a given administration’s agenda.
An operational notice from the international NOTAM system Sunday confirmed that Havana’s José Martí international airport will not have Jet A-1 fuel, the standard for commercial aviation, for one month between Tuesday and March 11. File Photo by Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA
Feb. 9 (UPI) — The fuel shortage in Cuba began to simultaneously impact air transportation and tourism after an international aviation alert reported that Havana’s José Martí airport will not have fuel for one month.
The government also began to close hotels and relocate tourists as part of an emergency plan in the face of one of the worst energy crises in the island’s history, worsened by the end of oil shipments from Venezuela and pressure from the government of Donald Trump on crude oil supplies.
An operational notice from the international NOTAM system Sunday confirmed that Havana’s José Martí international airport will not have Jet A-1 fuel, the standard for commercial aviation, for one month between Tuesday and March 11, digital outlet CiberCuba reported.
The notification not only warns of the fuel shortage, but also of temporary limitations in landing aid systems, in addition to the inoperability of the runway visual range system, which is used to measure visibility when weather conditions are unfavorable.
The restriction is not limited to the capital. Similar notifications indicate fuel shortages at the country’s nine other airports.
Aviation authorities warned airlines that reserves could run out within a short period if supplies are not restored.
The measure compromises commercial, charter, cargo and executive aviation flights, and forces companies to arrive with extra fuel, make refueling stopovers in other countries or reschedule operations, reported Cuba Noticias 360.
This situation contrasts with recent statements by Transport Minister Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, who had said operations at ports and airports remain guaranteed.
So far, international airlines have not communicated how they will deal with the contingency.
The impact is projected directly on tourism, the island’s main source of foreign currency.
Cancellations, delays and reduced air connectivity threaten the arrival of visitors from key markets such as Canada, Russia and Europe, in a context in which traveler confidence already shows signs of deterioration.
According to official figures, the arrival of international tourists to Cuba fell to 1.8 million in 2025, 17.8% less than in 2024. The result fell well short of the government target of 2.6 million visitors and marked one of the lowest records in more than two decades.
The energy crisis has as its backdrop the interruption of oil supplies from Venezuela, the island’s main supplier, following the capture of Nicolas Maduro.
This was compounded by the recent decision of the United States to declare a national emergency regarding Cuba and warn that it could impose tariffs on countries that supply oil to the Caribbean nation, in an escalation of pressure that has further complicated Havana’s access to fuel.
In parallel with the airport problem, the government has begun to close hotels in key tourist destinations and relocating foreign guests. The measure is part of an emergency plan to reduce energy consumption and reorganize facilities.
At least eight hotels closed in Cuba’s main tourist destinations and their clients are being relocated to other resorts amid the worsening national crisis and the shortage of fuel and supplies, Diario de Cuba confirmed from the island.
The hotel closures are occurring in the middle of the high season but amid travel advisories over the deterioration of internal conditions. The reduction of flights, energy uncertainty and hotel reorganization add pressure to an industry that is strategic for the Cuban economy.
Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said on state television that the executive branch “has designed a plan in tourism to reduce energy consumption, compact tourist facilities and take advantage of the high season,” digital outlet Cuba LLama reported.
Sources from the sector indicated that destinations such as Varadero and the northern cays concentrate much of these measures, where international chains operate.
Authorities are maintaining an emergency plan that includes broader energy restrictions, a reduction of state activities and measures to manage available fuel.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Thursday he was willing to initiate a negotiation process “without pressure” with the United States to help economic difficulties facing the island.
He acknowledged that the lack of Venezuelan oil has placed the country in a “complex” energy situation, affecting not only electricity generation, but also the population’s basic economic activities.
While the United States has sent more than $5.95 million in humanitarian aid managed by the Catholic Church, a measure criticized by Havana because of its “grossly opportunistic political purposes,” it has insisted on the blockade regarding hydrocarbons.
Meanwhile, countries have sent assistance. China was behind a financial package of about $81 million and a food shipment of 60,000 tons of rice in January. Mexico, sent two Navy vessels Sunday loaded with 800 tons of humanitarian aid.
Iran’s atomic energy chief says Tehran is open to diluting its highly enriched uranium if the United States ends sanctions, signalling flexibility on a key demand by the US.
Mohammad Eslami made the comments to reporters on Monday, saying the prospects of Iran diluting its 60-percent-enriched uranium, a threshold close to weapons grade, would hinge on “whether all sanctions would be lifted in return”, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.
Eslami did not specify whether Iran expected the removal of all sanctions or specifically those imposed by the US.
Diluting uranium means mixing it with blend material to reduce its enrichment level. According to the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Iran is the only state without nuclear weapons enriching uranium to 60 percent.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Iran to be subject to a total ban on enrichment, a condition unacceptable to Tehran and far less favourable than a now-defunct nuclear agreement reached with world powers in 2015.
Iran maintains it has a right to a civilian nuclear programme under the provisions of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it and 190 other countries are signatories.
Eslami made his comments on uranium enrichment as the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, prepares to head on Tuesday to Oman, which has been hosting mediated negotiations between the US and Iran.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Tehran, said Larijani, one of the most senior officials in Iran’s government, is likely to convey messages related to the ongoing talks.
Trump said talks with Iran would continue this week.
Both the US and Iran have given mixed signals about their progress in the negotiations. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is “very serious in negotiations” and is eager to “achieve results”. However, he said, “There is a wall of mistrust towards the United States, which stems from America’s own behaviour.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the ongoing negotiations are an “important opportunity to reach a fair and balanced solution”, IRNA reported. He stressed that “Iran seeks guarantees for its nuclear rights” and the lifting of “unjust sanctions”, the agency added.
Trump, for his part, praised the latest round of talks on Friday as “very good” but continued to warn of “steep consequences” for Iran if it does not strike a deal.
“They want to make a deal as they should want to make a deal,” the US president said. “They know the consequences if they don’t.”
Before the two sides agreed to talks, Trump had repeatedly threatened Iran with a “far worse” attack than the US strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities during June’s 12-day Israel-Iran war. He has escalated the pressure by deploying an aircraft carrier and accompanying warships to the Middle East.
Trump is expected on Wednesday to meet with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is pushing the US to take a hardline stance in its negotiations with Iran, demanding not just concessions on its nuclear programme but also on its ballistic missiles and regional alliances.
Andreas Krieg, an associate professor in security studies at King’s College London, said the US and Iran appear to be “pivoting closer to a deal” than they were several weeks ago, even though there’s still a high risk of conflict.
“The [US] ‘armada’, as Trump calls it, is still in the area, so we still have that coercion going against the [Iranian] regime by the Americans,” Krieg told Al Jazeera. “But it seems to be fruitful in the way that the pressure works, and the Iranians have to make concessions.”
He added: “All the messaging from the Gulf countries – from Qatar, from Oman – from everyone involved, including from the Americans, has been very positive. And the Iranians’ feedback themselves was very positive.
“I think the problem that we have right now is how do we translate this momentum that we have right now on a strategic framework into the nitty-gritty of the details.”
Feb. 8 (UPI) — Louisiana House District 60 has a new representative.
Democrat Chasity Verret Martinez beat out her Republican opponent Brad Daigle, accumulating some 5,159 votes during the Saturday special election.
The former representative for the district, Chad Brown, had vacated his post to helm the Department of Alcohol and Tobacco Control.
The results mark the eighth time that Democrats have flipped a special election seat amid President Donald Trump‘s second term, CBS reported.
Kenn Barnes and Sidney J. Barthelemy II will face off for the Senate District 3 spot, while Ed Murray is projected to win State House District 97.
Voters will choose between Dana Henry and Kenya Rounds to represent District 100 in a runoff election.
Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman detained in the United States by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency since March, has been rushed to a hospital after a medical episode, according to media reports.
Kordia is being held in Texas after being detained as part of US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestine protests on college campuses across the country.
Her legal team said she was targeted for her protest against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza near Columbia University in New York in 2024, but the federal government said she was arrested for allegedly overstaying her student visa.
Since her hospitalisation on Friday, Kordia’s legal team and family said they have not been able to speak with her and do not know her whereabouts.
Here is everything we know about Kordia and why she continues to remain in detention:
Kordia grew up in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah before coming to the US in 2016. She arrived on a visitor’s visa, staying with her mother, a US citizen, in Paterson, New Jersey, home to one of the largest Arab communities in the country.
She later transitioned from a tourist visa to a student visa, according to her habeas corpus petition.
After her mother applied for Kordia to remain in the US as the relative of a citizen, her green card application was approved in 2021. However, she received incorrect advice from a teacher that led to her student visa expiring in 2022, according to her lawyers.
Before her arrest, Kordia worked as a server at a Middle Eastern restaurant on Palestine Way in New Jersey and helped to care for her autistic half-brother.
Kordia was moved to protest against Israel’s war due to personal loss. Since the start of the war in October 2023, Kordia said, more than 200 of her relatives have been killed.
Israel has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded more than 170,000 in a war that human rights groups, a United Nations commission and a growing number of scholars said amounts to genocide. Since a “ceasefire” began in October, Israel has killed more than 500 Palestinians and continues to impose curbs on the entry of aid into Gaza.
If deported, Kordia would be handed over to the Israeli government.
She was first arrested in April 2024 during a protest outside the gates of Columbia University, but the case was soon dropped.
On March 13, 2025, Kordia showed up at the ICE headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, for what she believed to be routine immigration questions. She was detained there, “thrown into an unmarked van and sent 1,500 miles [more than 2,400km] away”, Kordia wrote in the USA Today newspaper last month.
Kordia was neither a student at Columbia University nor a part of political circles.
“Though I was not a student, I felt compelled to participate. After all, Israel, with the backing of the United States, has laid waste to Gaza, forcibly displacing my family, killing nearly 200 of my relatives,” she wrote in USA Today.
Today, Kordia is the only person who remains in detention from the Columbia campus demonstrations. She has been held at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.
A leader of the protests, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student with Algerian citizenship and a US green card, and others have been released. Khalil, however, is still in a legal battle to remain in the US with his American wife and child. Last month, an appeals court panel dismissed a lawsuit Khalil filed challenging his detention and deportation order. The judges concluded that the federal court that ordered Khalil’s release last year lacked jurisdiction over the matter.
The US government has called Kordia’s money transfers to relatives in the Middle East evidence of possible ties to “terrorists”.
Kordia’s lawyers have continuously argued for her release, saying she was targeted by federal officials for her participation in pro-Palestinian protests.
The federal government has maintained that the case against Kordia is of overstaying a student visa.
“Her arrest had nothing to do with her radical activities,” the Department of Homeland Security said in April. “Kordia was arrested for immigration violations due to having overstayed her F-1 student visa, which had been terminated on January 26, 2022, for lack of attendance.”
Writing in USA Today last month, Kordia said she does not consider herself either a leader or an activist.
“I am a devout Muslim who is deeply committed to my faith and community. I’m a Palestinian woman who enjoys playing the oud, making pottery and hiking,” Kordia wrote. “Speaking out against what rights groups and experts have called a genocide is my moral duty and – I thought – a constitutionally protected right for all in this country. Except, it seems, when that speech defends Palestinian life.”
An immigration judge has called for Kordia’s release twice. However, it has been repeatedly blocked through a series of procedural and administrative moves.
“[The] Trump administration has exploited rarely used procedural loopholes to keep me confined, a practice now being challenged in federal district courts across the country, with many finding the practice unconstitutional,” Kordia wrote.
Since Kordia was moved to the ICE detention facility in Alvarado in March, she has been facing a range of issues, from sleeping on a bare mattress on the floor to being denied religious accommodations, including halal meals.
“Inside the ICE facility where I’m being held, conditions are filthy, overcrowded and inhumane,” Kordia wrote in her piece for USA Today. “For months, I slept in a plastic shell, known as a ‘boat,’ surrounded by cockroaches and only a thin blanket. Privacy does not exist here.”
Last year, when Kordia’s cousin Hamzah Abushaban visited her a week after her arrest, he told The Associated Press news agency in an interview that he was taken aback by the dark circles under her eyes and her state of confusion.
“One of the first things she asked me was why she was there,” Abushaban said. “She cried a lot. She looked like death.”
Rights groups and some Democratic Party leaders have called her a “political prisoner”, condemning the way her case has proceeded.
State Representative Salman Bhojani said the conditions at the detention facility were “suffocating”.
Kordia’s dorm, he said, had 60 mattresses crammed into a space designed for 20 women.
“She does not even have clothing that fully covers her body. Community organizations have tried to provide more appropriate clothing and have been turned away,” Bhojani said. “Male staff enter the dorm at any time, leaving her body exposed in violation of her religious obligations.”
Calling for her release, Amnesty International noted that ICE has “repeatedly violated” Kordia’s religious rights. “She has been served almost no halal meals, forcing her to eat food that doesn’t meet her dietary requirements and causing significant weight loss,” the human rights group said in a statement.
“During Ramadan, staff refused to let her save food for when she could break her fast, forcing her either to go hungry or to break her fast early,” Amnesty said. “She has not been provided with clothing suitable for prayer or a clean prayer space.”
On Friday, Abushaban said he heard about Kordia’s hospitalisation in the morning from a person formerly detained with his cousin.
Kordia had fallen, hit her head and suffered a seizure in a bathroom at the Prairieland Detention Center, he told The Dallas Morning News newspaper.
In a statement on Saturday, Kordia’s attorneys and family members demanded answers from the Department of Homeland Security and Prairieland Detention Center regarding her health and whereabouts.
“[Kordia] was reportedly hospitalised yesterday morning after fainting and having a seizure at the Prairieland Detention Center,” the statement said, adding: “Neither her legal team nor family have been provided answers about where she has been hospitalised, the specifics of her health status, and whether and how ICE will ensure her health upon discharge from the undisclosed, off-site hospital.”
“We have since learned that she is expected to spend another night there, but we still have not been able to speak with her directly or have any confirmation of what brought her to the hospital in the first place,” the statement said.
The family members told US media that they called all hospitals in the vicinity but could not locate Kordia.
In 2024, pro-Palestinian student encampments at Columbia University helped ignite a global movement against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The protest sites, however, were broken up after Columbia University allowed hundreds of New York City police officers on campus, leading to dozens of arrests.
The student protesters demanded an end to Israel’s war in Gaza and the university’s divestment from companies linked to the Israeli military.
Columbia University imposed severe punishments, including expulsion and revocation of academic degrees, on dozens of students who participated in the protests. University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, who was criticised for the handling of the student protests, stepped down.
The protests also put Columbia at odds with the Trump administration, whose officials alleged anti-Semitism on campus. Campaigners said the campus crackdown violated US free speech rights.
Trump also cancelled millions of dollars in federal funding for the university, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students. Later, Columbia settled and agreed to pay $200m to the government over three years. In exchange, the Trump administration agreed to return parts of the $400m in grants it froze or terminated.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud responds to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland – a self-governing Somali territory, allegations of a possible Israeli military presence near the Red Sea and shifting power dynamics in the Horn of Africa. He addresses criticism by the United States as well as President Donald Trump’s remarks on Somalia, growing ties with regional allies and fears of wider instability as tensions rise between Israel, Iran and their rivals. At home, Mohamud faces pressing questions over security, human rights, media freedom and whether he will seek a third term ahead of crucial elections.
Published On 8 Feb 20268 Feb 2026
Share
The US president praises his newly inaugurated ‘friend’ and hails strong US-Honduras security ties.
Published On 8 Feb 20268 Feb 2026
Share
Donald Trump has met with Honduran President Nasry Asfura in Florida, with the US president hailing what he described as a growing alliance aimed at curbing drug trafficking and irregular migration.
Trump said he met with his “friend” Asfura, a conservative businessman, at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday. Asfura took office last week after a razor-thin election victory.
list of 3 itemsend of list
“Tito and I share many of the same America First Values,” said Trump, using Asfura’s nickname. Trump had strongly backed Asfura during his campaign, even threatening to cut off aid to Honduras if he lost.
“Once I gave him my strong Endorsement, he won his Election!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Following the meeting, Trump praised what he described as a close security partnership between the US and Honduras, saying they would collaborate to “counter dangerous Cartels and Drug Traffickers, and deporting Illegal Migrants and Gang Members out of the United States”.
Asfura is expected to brief Honduran media about the meeting on Sunday, “detailing the issues discussed, the tone of the conversation, and the possible outcomes of the dialogue”, according to Honduras’s El Heraldo newspaper.
The Honduran president’s meeting with Trump comes less than a month after a January 12 meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after which the two countries announced plans for a free trade deal.
Asfura’s rise to power gives Trump another conservative ally in Latin America, following recent electoral shifts in countries including Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina, where leftist governments have been replaced.
Just before the Honduran election, Trump pardoned the country’s former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a fellow member of Asfura’s party who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US for drug trafficking.
That pardon “was widely seen as a gesture of solidarity with the new president’s [Asfura’s] party”, said Al Jazeera’s Phil Lavelle, reporting from Palm Beach, Florida.
The decision drew major backlash, particularly as Trump’s administration invoked the fight against drug trafficking to justify aggressive actions abroad. They include a string of bombings of alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and later the abduction of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, now facing charges including those related to drug trafficking in the US.
‘This is not law enforcement, this is animal cruelty.’
A Tennessee woman says her dog suffered a broken rib after being kicked by a federal officer while agents arrested her boyfriend. The US Marshals Service said the kick was ‘unfortunate’ but done to ‘mitigate a dangerous situation’.
Published On 8 Feb 20268 Feb 2026
Share
A US oil blockade is causing a severe energy crisis in Cuba, as the government has been forced to ration fuel and cut electricity for many hours a day, paralysing life in the communist-ruled island nation of 11 million.
Bus stops are empty, and families are turning to wood and coal for cooking, living through near-constant power outages amid an economic crisis worsened by the Trump administration’s steps in recent weeks.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel has imposed harsh emergency restrictions – from reduced office hours to fuel sales – in the backdrop of looming threats of regime change from the White House.
The Caribbean region has been on edge since the US forces abducted Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro last month and upped the pressure to isolate Havana and strangle its economy. Venezuela, Cuba’s closest ally in the region, provided the country with the much-needed fuel.
So, how dire is the situation in Cuba? What does United States President Donald Trump want from Havana? And how long can Cuba sustain?
Blaming the US for the crisis, Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez‑Oliva Fraga appeared on state television on Friday to inform the millions of the emergency steps “to preserve the country’s essential functions and basic services while managing limited fuel resources”.
Now, the Cuban state companies will shift to a four‑day workweek, with transport between provinces dialled down, main tourism facilities closed, shorter schooldays and reduced in‑person attendance requirements at universities.
“Fuel will be used to protect essential services for the population and indispensable economic activities,” said Perez-Oliva. “This is an opportunity and a challenge that we have no doubt we will overcome. We are not going to collapse.”
The government says it will prioritise available fuel for essential services – public health, food production and defence – and push the installation of solar-based renewable energy sector and incentives therein. It will prioritise shifting energy to selected food production regions and accelerate the use of renewable energy sources, while cutting down on culture and sport activities and diverting resources towards the country’s early warning systems.
Decades of strict US economic sanctions against Cuba, the largest island nation in the Caribbean, have destroyed its economy and isolated it from international trade. Cuba relied on foreign allies for oil shipments, such as Mexico, Russia, and Venezuela.
However, after the US forces abducted Venezuelan President Maduro, Washington blocked any Venezuelan oil from going to Cuba. Trump now says the Cuban government is ready to fall.
Under Trump, Washington has pivoted to the Western Hemisphere, which it wants to dominate. The military actions in Venezuela, the pledge to take over Greenland and changing the government in Cuba are part of the new policy.
Last month, Trump signed an executive order – labelling Cuba a threat to national security – imposing tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to the island nation. Further pressure on the Mexican government reportedly led to oil stocks reaching a record low in Cuba.
“It looks like it’s something that’s just not going to be able to survive,” Trump told reporters last month, when questioned about the Cuban economy. “It is a failed nation.”
Havana has rejected accusations that it poses a threat to US security. Last week, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling for dialogue.
“The Cuban people and the American people benefit from constructive engagement, lawful cooperation, and peaceful coexistence. Cuba reaffirms its willingness to maintain a respectful and reciprocal dialogue, oriented toward tangible results, with the United States government, based on mutual interest and international law,” a statement from the ministry said on February 2.
Trump’s goals in Cuba remain unclear; however, US officials have noted on multiple occasions that they would like to see the government change.
Responding to a question during a US Senate hearing on Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We would like to see the regime there change. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make a change, but we would love to see a change.”
Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, is one of the most powerful figures in Trump’s administration.
“The Cuban-American lobby, which Rubio represents, is one of the most powerful foreign policy lobbies in the United States today,” Ed Augustin, an independent journalist in Havana, told Al Jazeera’s The Take.
“In the new Trump administration, [with] an unprecedented number of Cuban Americans, the lobbyists have become the policymakers,” he said, adding that Rubio has built firm control over the lobby.
On January 31, Trump told reporters, “It doesn’t have to be a humanitarian crisis. I think they probably would come to us and want to make a deal. So Cuba would be free again.”
He said Washington would make a deal with Cuba, but offered no clarity on what that means.
Since Fidel Castro overthrew the pro-US regime in the Cuban revolution in 1959, the country has been under US embargo. Decades of sanctions have denied Cuba access to global markets, making even supply medicines difficult.
Castro nationalised US-owned properties, mainly the oil sector, and Washington responded with trade restrictions that soon became a full economic embargo that continues to this day, undermining Cuba’s economy.
The US also cut diplomatic ties with Havana, and three years later, a missile crisis almost brought Washington and the erstwhile USSR, an ally of Cuba, to the brink of nuclear war.
In 2014, Washington and Havana restored ties after 50 years. Two years later, US President Barack Obama travelled to Havana to meet Raul Castro.
However, during his first term as president, Trump reversed the historic move in 2017. Since then, the US has reimposed a raft of sanctions against Cuba, especially economic restrictions, leading to one of the worst economic crises in the island nation’s history. Within hours of his inauguration in January 2025, Trump reversed the previous administration’s policy of engagement with Havana.
Until last month, Mexico reportedly remained Cuba’s major oil supplier, sending nearly 44 percent of total oil imports, followed by Venezuela at 33 percent, while nearly 10 percent was sourced from Russia and a smaller amount from Algeria.
According to Kpler, a data company, by January 30, Cuba was left with oil enough to last only 15 to 20 days at current levels of demand.
Cuba currently needs an estimated 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday that “the secretary-general is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba, which will worsen, and if not collapse, if its oil needs go unmet”.
Dujarric said, for more than three decades, the UN General Assembly has consistently called for an end to the embargo imposed by the US on Cuba, adding that the UN urges “all parties to pursue dialogue and respect for international law”.
Francisco Pichon, the senior-most UN official in Cuba, described “a combination of emotions” in the country – “a mix of resilience, but also grief, sorrow and indignation, and some concern about the regional developments”.
The UN team in Havana says the vast majority of Cubans are hit by rolling blackouts, with the number of people in vulnerable situations increasing significantly.
“The last two years have been quite tough,” Pichon said, adding that urgent changes are needed to sustain Cuba “in the midst of the severe economic, financial and trade sanctions”.
Feb. 7 (UPI) — The first meeting of the newly formed Board of Peace is planned in the nation’s capital on Feb. 19 after 26 member nations received invitations from U.S. officials on Friday.
The United States created the Board of Peace during the World Economic Forum last month in Davos, Switzerland, which is focused on promoting global peace.
Its first meeting would be on Feb. 19 at the White House, and four nations so far, plus the United States, plan to send representatives, Axios reported.
The date is problematic for some member states because it coincides with the state of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, which starts on Feb. 17 and runs through March 19.
The Board of Peace was formed to ensure a lasting cease-fire and peace in Gaza, which has been enduring violence between Hamas and Israeli forces as each accuses the other of cease-fire violations that led to retaliatory attacks.
Gaza mediators in Turkey, Egypt and Qatar have weighed disarming Hamas, but the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday reported finding 110 mortar rounds, rockets and other military hardware wrapped in UNRWA blankets and hidden among humanitarian aid supplies in southern Gaza.
The IDF on Friday struck a residential building in Khan Yunis it said held a Hamas arms depot.
Before launching the strike, IDF officials warned civilians to leave and did not strike it until after determining all non-combatants had left.
Such incidents are among those that the Board of Peace is tasked with preventing while moving forward with the next phase of a peace agreement signed last year that is designed to permanently end the violence and fighting in Gaza and much of the Middle East.
Some have criticized the Board of Peace’s creation, saying it undercuts the United Nations and its mission of trying to ensure global peace.
President Donald Trump and others have said the United Nations is ineffective and has become more of a political organization instead of a peacemaker.
Feb. 7 (UPI) — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon would end its academic partnership with Harvard University over what he called a “woke” institution that is not welcoming to the U.S. military.
In a video posted on Friday to X, Hegseth said the Department of Defense would end its partnership and work with the private university — which dates to before the American Revolution — over its alleged “wokeness.”
The move, according to a statement from the Pentagon, is “because attendance at the school no longer meets the needs of the [Department of Defense] or the military services.”
Calling the decision “long overdue,” Hegseth said that all professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs at Harvard will be formally ended starting with the 2026-2027 school year.
Members of the military who are already attending classes there, however, will be permitted to finish their courses of study, the Pentagon said.
Noting that the U.S. military has had “an important and often positive relationship” with the university for more than 250 years, Hegseth said that “Harvard is no longer a welcoming institution to military personnel or the right place to develop them.”
“Too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks,” he said, adding that “the school has become a factory for woke ideology and a breeding ground for anti-American radicals.”
Hegseth alleged that Harvard research programs work with the Chinese Communist Party, university leadership has encouraged celebrations of Hamas and allowed attacks on Jewish students, and that the university “promotes discrimination based on race.”
Harvard University has been involved in some way with the U.S. military in an official capacity since 1775 when George Washington used the university as a military base, according to The Harvard Gazette.
Washington basing about 1,000 soldiers in Harvard Yard followed Harvard students and faculty who had “given their lives for the burgeoning nation” in war efforts for 150 years preceding the Revolutionary War, the university said.
Since President Donald Trump was inaugurated back into office in January 2025, Harvard has been one of several universities to draw his administration’s ire.
This has included everything from protests against the war between Israel and Hamas, academic programs and federal investments it deemed waste and their introduction of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs to improve student and faculty life.
Hegseth noted in the statement about Harvard that DOD plans to evaluate all existing graduate education programs for active-duty members of the military at all Ivy League and other universities.
“The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost-effective strategic education for future senior leaders when compared to, say, public universities or our military graduate programs,” he said.
Under the constitution Italy cannot join the board because power would be wielded by one leader standing above other members, minister says.
Published On 7 Feb 20267 Feb 2026
Share
Italy says it’s unable to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” owing to a “constitutional limit” marking the latest setback faced by the self-styled “international peace building body”.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told the ANSA news agency on Saturday that conflicts between Italy’s constitution and the charter of the Board of Peace were “insurmountable from a legal standpoint”, but his country would always be “available to discuss peace initiatives”.
list of 4 itemsend of list
Italy joins a number of European countries – including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – that have not joined the controversial board, which was greenlit by the United Nations last year as a transitional governing body for post-war Gaza before expanding its remit in a sweeping charter that made no mention of the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Italy’s decision comes despite the close relationship between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Board of Peace chairman Trump amid growing concern that the global conflict mediator – launched in Davos, Switzerland last month as the US president made an aggressive play for Greenland – is designed to eclipse the United Nations.
Tajani pointed to Article 11 of the Italian constitution, which precludes the country from joining organisations unless there are “conditions of equality with other states”, which would not be the case under a charter that names Trump as veto-wielding chairman serving as the final authority on its interpretation.
However, speaking after a “very positive” meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Vice President JD Vance on the margins of the Winter Olympics in Milan on Friday, the foreign minister said Italy would be “ready to do our part in Gaza by training the police”.
Tajani’s comments came as the board, which has reportedly demanded members pay $1bn for a permanent seat, leading to criticism it would essentially be a “pay to play” version of the UN, tentatively prepares for its first meeting in Washington, DC, on February 19.
The gathering would come one day after a scheduled meeting between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Saturday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a key Trump ally, said he would go to Washington for the first meeting of the board “in two weeks”.
Last month, Trump invited some 60 countries to join the board. At the time of reporting, its official website listed 26 countries that have joined, including Gaza mediators Qatar and Egypt.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed Trump’s plans last month, saying “The basic responsibility for international peace and security lies with UN, lies with the Security Council.”