June 25 (UPI) — A cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was attacked Thursday, prompting officials to halt the evacuation of sailors stranded in the chokepoint by the war.
It was unclear who attacked the cargo ship. According to the British navy’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations office, the vessel was struck on its starboard side by an unknown projectile at about 5:40 p.m. local time. It was about 7 1/2 nautical miles southeast of Dahit, Oman, when it was attacked, it said.
The vessel’s bridge sustained damage, but no casualties or environmental impact were reported.
Following the attack, the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization paused its evacuation operation in the Strait of Hormuz.
“I have decided to temporarily pause its implementation in order to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on our evacuation list and all those in the region,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.
The war, which began Feb. 28, left some 11,000 sailors stranded in and around the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy shipping route. The IMO announced the evacuation operation Tuesday, after the United States and Iran agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding that seeks to pave a path to ending the war.
The vessel struck Thursday was not transiting the Hormuz under the IMO’s evacuation framework, the U.N. agency said.
Though it unclear who was responsible for the attack, the Iran’s U.S.-sanctioned Persian Gulf Strait Authority, newly created by Tehran to oversee and manage the strait, issued an advisory Thursday, stating it is not responsible for the protection of vessels transiting “outside designated routes.”
“Any consequences arising from unauthorized routing shall be the sole responsibility of the vessel owner, charterer and master,” it said.
Control of the strait has been a focus of ongoing U.S. efforts to end the war.
Iran effectively closed the strait after being attacked Feb. 28, causing energy prices to surge and threatened nations with worsening energy crises.
Since then, Iran has attempted to maintain control of the strait and has sought to impose fees on ships that transit it.
The United States is seeking to secure free maritime travel through the strait as part of the MOU. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is currently in the Middle East trying to sell the MOU to allied nations.
However, the Institute for the Study of War said in a report Thursday night that Iran’s alleged attacks and threats directed at vessels in the strait “advance its objective of establishing control over the waterway” as well as “undermine international efforts to guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”
“Iran is using military threats and economic incentives to try to convince Gulf states to support its efforts to control the strait, but the Gulf states appear to be resisting Iranian pressure at present,” it said.
June 24 (UPI) — The United States has sanctioned five Cuban state companies and the wife of Raul Castro‘s son, as the Trump administration continues to apply economic pressure on the Caribbean nation.
Three of the companies blacklisted by the State Department on Tuesday are associated with Grupo de Administracion Empresarial, which the United States initially sanctioned during the first Trump administration on accusations of being a Cuban military-controlled umbrella enterprise with interests sprawling throughout the island nation’s economy.
The two other entities hit are accused of operating in Cuba’s mining sector with foreign investment from Australia as well as working in collaboration with Russia.
Annalie Lilliam Rueda Cadero was sanctioned for being the wife of Alejandro Castro Espin, the son of Raul Castro, Cuba’s former head of state. Alejandro Castro was sanctioned by the Trump administration earlier this month.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media statement that he was sanctioning GAESA network entities for diverting Cuba’s money and assets and the two other companies for exploiting its mineral and metal reserves.
“The situation in Cuba is devolving as the island’s corrupt, brutal and anti-American Communist regime continues to prioritize its own total control over the freedom, opportunity and basic well-being of the Cuban people,” he said.
Sanctions generally freeze U.S.-based property or interests in property under the control of those designated while threatening foreign businesses with secondary sanctions for doing business with them.
The United States has long imposed a blockade and sanctions on Cuba, but the economic punitive measures have starkly increased during the second Trump administration, exasperating the power and energy shortages in the country, causing blackouts. The supply shortages have forced more than 100,000 people, including 11,000 children, to wait for surgeries, according to the United Nations.
Tuesday’s designations come under an executive order Trump signed in May permitting the sanctioning of those operating in Cuba’s energy, defense, mining and financial services sectors, as well as those complicit in human rights abuses or corruption related to Cuba working or for providing services to the Havana government.
Trump has been increasing the political and economic pressure on Cuba since ousting Venezuela’s authoritarian leader in January, declaring a national emergency with respect to the island nation early this year.
Since signing the sanctions-related executive order in May, he has used it at least five times to designate Cuba-related entities and individuals.
Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, accused the Trump administration on Tuesday of increasing its sanctions regime against Havana, because Havana continues to prove it is “stronger, more capable and efficient than it expected.”
He accused the Trump administration of collectively punishing the Cuban people.
Ernesto Soberon, Cuba’s United Nations ambassador, accused the United States of lying about employing sanctions due to human rights abuses by Havana.
“No government, no person with even a shred of common sense — and certainly not the people of #Cuba, who are suffering the humanitarian impact of the U.S. economic war — can believe that the tightening of the blockade, the energy siege and the newly announced sanctions are intended to support the Cuban people,” he said on social media.
“Anyone who has doubts should ask the parents of the more than 12,000 children currently awaiting surgery in Cuba as a result of the U.S. government’s genocidal policy.”
1 of 2 | President Donald Trump attends a press conference at the Hotel Royal during the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, on Wednesday. Photo by Yoan Valat/EPA
June 17 (UPI) — U.S President Donald Trump signed an agreement with Iran at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday night while in France for the G7 Summit,
The United States sent an image of the signed agreement to the Iranians, officials said. Dan Scavino, White House deputy chief of staff, later posted a video of the signing on social media.
Earlier, the United States government released the text of the agreement, several days after the agreement was reached. The agreement was expected to be signed Friday in Switzerland.
It includes 14 points, including “the immediate and permanent termination of military operation on all fronts” — including Lebanon, where Israel continued to carry out strikes as of earlier Wednesday — provisions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and measures for easing financial restrictions on Iran. It also offers expectations for addressing Iran’s nuclear program in future talks. CNN reported the text of the agreement, which was read out loud by an official.
Earlier Wednesday at a press conference in France, Trump had said that if Iran doesn’t abide by the memorandum of understanding, the United States may bomb the country.
The press conference lasted more than an hour, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick standing behind him.
“If they don’t honor that, we’ll probably go back to bombing them until they honor it, you know?” he said. “It’s amazing what bombs can do.”
The president called the MOU the “Trump deal,” and said that the deal says Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.
He also said that if an agreement hadn’t been reached with Iran, the United States could have continued the war.
“If we didn’t do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, two years,” Trump said.
The president also defended releasing Iranian frozen assets.
“We have taken a lot of their money,” Trump said. “We have taken their money; it’s not our money, it’s their money, and we froze it at a certain point in time. I guess we’re going to have to give it back.
“As far as sanctions are concerned, at some point, you know, we have sanctions, which will never let them rebuild. They would have no money. They would be in poverty.”
Trump has said the United States won’t give any money to Iran, but he defended allowing Iran access to its own frozen funds.
“We’re not doing anything; we’re not putting up money, only if they’re doing things right. If they’re doing things right, if people want to invest, they can invest, but they had this $300 million fund. It’s only $300 million fund; it’s only if they’re doing things right,” CNN reported Trump said.
A reporter asked if the president would hold anyone in the administration responsible for the bombing of an elementary school for girls in Iran in late February, and he replied that it was under investigation. The strike killed more than 170 people, mostly children.
Trump responded that it was a “strange question” and said, “You’re talking about a long time ago.”
“But nobody did that on purpose,” Trump said. “I guess you’d have to say about them, what about the thousands of soldiers that they blew up when they opened their car door? What about the thousands of people that were killed by Iran? No, mistakes are made, war is nasty, but I know it’s under investigation.”
Trump also offered a rare criticism of Israel, saying it could do better in its conflict with Lebanon.
“I think they could do better with respect to Hezbollah. I am not saying they should not protect themselves. I am saying when two drones are shot into the desert and dropped harmlessly, you do not have to knock down buildings in Beirut,” Trump said.
“They could behave better and, frankly, they could do a better job.”
“On that, I don’t think they’re doing well, and I feel very bad for Lebanon,” he said. “Lebanon’s been, you know, it was a great culture. It was a great, they had the professors, the doctors, the lawyers, it was an incredible culture, maybe the highest in the Middle East for years and years, centuries. And for the last 50 [to] 60 years, they have been just trashed. They have been, they have been living in hell.”
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel (C) attends an event in support of former Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana on May 22 after the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed two days earlier a federal criminal indictment charging the 94-year-old Castro, along with five other co-defendants, for his alleged role in the February 1996 shoot-down of two unarmed U.S. civilian aircraft operated by a Cuban exile relief group. Photo by Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA
June 12 (UPI) — Cuba’s government on Friday announced a broad package of economic reforms aimed at restructuring key aspects of the country’s economic model, just hours after the United States imposed a full financial blockade on state oil company Unión Cuba-Petróleo, or CUPET.
Speaking on state television, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel defended the shift toward decentralization, saying that “these are times when change is necessary.”
The measures are part of the government’s 2026 Economic and Social Program, a roadmap inspired by the economic models of China and Vietnam. Havana says the plan is intended to address the island’s deep economic crisis, high inflation and widespread shortages of goods and services.
| En declaraciones a la prensa, el Presidente @DiazCanelB informó sobre nuevas medidas que estará tomando el país próximamente para dinamizar la economía cubana, en medio del recrudecimiento sin precedentes del #bloqueo de los Estados Unidos a la Isla.https://t.co/72AGrGjMKj— Presidencia Cuba (@PresidenciaCuba) June 12, 2026
The reforms came only hours after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubioannounced on X sanctions against CUPET, freezing all of the company’s assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting commercial transactions with it.
Rubio said that “Cuba’s communist elites have turned energy into a tool of social control and profit,” accusing the government of hoarding fuel supplies for its own benefit and using them to repress the Cuban people.
“President Donald Trump wants a new future for the Cuban people with greater freedom and opportunity,” Rubio wrote.
The secretary of state said the sanctions were justified because CUPET operates assets that were allegedly confiscated from U.S. owners decades ago. Washington also warned that foreign companies continuing to do business with the state oil company could face secondary sanctions.
Cuba announced the measures two days after the Miami Herald reported on a proposed commercial agreement between Florida-based Vanguard Energy and Cuban agencies to deliver 250,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel fuel intended exclusively for Cuba’s private sector, small and medium-sized enterprises and humanitarian organizations.
The arrangement included a five-year lease of state-owned storage tanks operated by CUPET. Under the proposal, Vanguard would retain ownership of the fuel to prevent it from being diverted to the Cuban government and would operate outside the island’s banking system.
However, within hours of the agreement becoming public, the U.S. State Department halted the shipment, saying the company did not possess a specific license authorizing the transaction and reaffirming that the Trump administration’s sanctions against Cuba remain fully in force.
Despite the tightening U.S. restrictions, Díaz-Canel rejected suggestions that the reforms were a response to pressure from Washington, describing them as a necessary internal restructuring effort.
The economic plan centers on decentralization and greater openness to investment. Municipal governments and state-owned companies will receive expanded authority over imports, exports and foreign currency management in an effort to reduce bureaucratic obstacles.
The government also plans to ease restrictions on private small and medium-sized businesses, open financial investment opportunities for Cubans living abroad and allow foreign companies to lease agricultural land to boost food production.
To support the reforms, Havana plans a significant reduction of the central bureaucracy, cutting the number of government ministries to 20 from 27 through mergers and eliminations.
Díaz-Canel said Cuba must move toward “new models and new actors” capable of making use of existing infrastructure, acknowledging that sectors such as tourism have been hurt by U.S. sanctions.
“We cannot focus only on the large international hotel chains when many of them, because of pressure from the United States government, have left the country,” he said. “We are developing real estate and tourism projects with new models and other actors that have not traditionally participated in these sectors.”
On energy policy, Díaz-Canel said Cuba would continue shifting toward solar power and renewable energy sources.
“We are going to eliminate, as much as possible, the restrictions that exist on vehicle imports,” he said. “We will continue prioritizing, through tariffs and pricing policies, the importation of electric vehicles powered by solar energy.”
Recent U.S. measures against Cuba have significantly tightened the decades-old embargo through Executive Order 14404 and additional restrictions targeting the energy sector, including CUPET. The sanctions also affect senior government officials, their relatives and military-linked entities.
Washington says the measures are intended to cut off revenue to the Cuban government, encourage political change and punish human rights abuses.
Cuban authorities argue that the restrictions have worsened an already severe economic crisis marked by chronic shortages and power outages that have lasted more than 48 hours in some parts of the island.
International organizations, including the United Nations, have warned about the humanitarian impact on the civilian population.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was slapped with sanctions by the United States on Thursday as Washington continued to ratchet up pressure of the island nation’s communist government. File Photo by Ley Royero/EPA-EFE
June 4 (UPI) — The United States on Thursday leveled sanctions against Cuban Miguel Díaz-Canel, members of former President Raul Castro‘s family, the Cuban military and other organizations as it continued a crackdown on the country’s communist government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the measures against Diaz-Canel the others in a statement, asserting they are being targeted because they “fund the [Cuban] regime and its efforts to mobilize its radical revolutionary movements in the United States and around the world.”
The Cuban president, Rubio said, poses a threat to U.S. national security, while the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, with its “many majority holdings and subsidiaries,” is also now “considered blocked.”
Other organizations newly added to the sanctions list are the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP, Amistur Cuba S.A., Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and Minera La Victoria S.A.
The individuals sanctioned include Alejandro Castro Espin, the former head of the Cuban intelligence services and the son of Raul Castro, and Raul Alejandro Castro Calis, Castro Espin’s son.
“For decades, Cuba has been the world capital for radical left-wing terrorism,” Rubio asserted. “The regime in Havana has recruited, trained and backed violent Marxist and ‘third-worldist’ movements across our hemisphere and beyond.
“Today, we are targeting the network that enables and funds Cuba’s subversive and radical operations.”
In a stated response, Diaz-Canel said the latest sanctions are “illegitimate” and are “aimed at reinforcing the blockade measures and the scenario of conflict between Cuba and the United States.
“This political blindness is added to the coercive measures applied in recent weeks against our country, designed to harm the Cuban people,” he added. “The aggressiveness and perversity of the Yankee government will clash with our determination to confront the worst scenarios and resist the imperialist onslaught.”
The newly issued sanctions are the latest in a series of moves designed to ratchet up pressure on the Cuban government.
The Trump administration has set a Friday deadline for foreign companies to sever ties with GAESA, the business conglomerate run by Cuba’s Armed Forces, sparking a mass exodus of tourism-related businesses from the island nation.
Meanwhile, Cuba is struggling with the effects of a January 2026 executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump imposing a fuel blockade against the nation on national security grounds.
The move has resulted in shortages of electricity, fuel, medicine and medical supplies across Cuba, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Health Organization, which says emergency care, blood banks, laboratories, immunization programs and maternal and child health services have all been “severely disrupted.”
June 2 (UPI) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate on Tuesday morning that Iran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz and commit to future talks on its nuclear program before the United States will make concessions.
He testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before a scheduled afternoon meeting with a House panel on State Department spending. Both sessions were planned so that Rubio could defend the department’s nearly $36 million budget request for the 2027 fiscal year.
Rubio is also President Donald Trump‘s national security adviser.
The Washington Post reported that Rubio’s testimony with lawmakers has been mostly friendly. He served in the Senate for 14 years and in the House for 8, representing Florida.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have expressed frustration with the cost and potential political fallout from the war with Iran.
“This war and the administration’s decision to blockade has now held the entire world economy, and the U.S. economy, hostage to the ability to negotiate an agreement with Iran,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, The Post reported.
The Strait of Hormuz, which has been closed by Iran since late February, must reopen, Rubio stressed. The strait is a critical waterway for shipping of much of the world’s oil, gas and fertilizer. The closure has caused gas prices to rise, causing anxiety as Republicans fear losing House and Senate seats in November.
Rubio said Trump demands that Iran enter into negotiating “severe and long-term limitations” on its nuclear program, including disposing of enriched uranium, and those talks could take months.
But he said he’s optimistic that Iran is more willing to negotiate on nukes.
“They have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago, just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention,” The Guardian reported Rubio said. He warned that it’s “not a guarantee that ultimately it will lead to a deal that’s acceptable,” and Iran’s leadership instability has made the negotiations more difficult.
Rubio said Iran had intended to use its conventional weapons capabilities as a “shield” to protect its nuclear program, The Guardian reported.
“What they tried to do is, they were going to try to build a conventional shield and hide behind that conventional shield,” he said, explaining why Trump wanted to start the war.
He also admitted, after questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that another sticking point for Trump was that Iran stop supporting terrorist proxy groups. He said Trump is not willing to ease sanctions just for opening the strait.
Rubio said that Iranian Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is believed to be alive.
“I would imagine, given what’s happened to multiple leaders in that system, being very public is probably not something that’s recommended for them internally,” he said. “But that said, I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries.”
Along with Iran, lawmakers were expected to ask Rubio about the president’s comments about Cuba and Taiwan.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump participate in a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo
The U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces carried out “defensive strikes” in southern Iran on Monday, targeting missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Zoe Simpson
May 25 (UPI) — The United States launched strikes in southern Iran on Monday even as negotiators for Tehran and Washington were preparing for further talks to end their war, a U.S. military spokesman said.
Capt. Tim Hawkins of the U.S. Central Command said in a statement issued to media outlets that the strikes were “self-defensive” in nature and were carried out “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.”
“Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines,” Hawkins said. “U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing cease-fire.”
The semi-official Mehr News Agency in Iran reported that “several explosions” were heard in the area of Bandar Abbas along the Strait of Hormuz and that civil defense sirens had been sounding there.
The agency said the situation in the city “is completely under control and there is no reason for any concern for the honorable people of Bandar Abbas.”
The announcement of new strikes came only hours after U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely,” but also issued a warning that the war could reignite if an agreement isn’t reached.
Iran, meanwhile, confirmed some progress had been made but cautioned that no agreement was on the verge of being signed.
Tehran’s lead negotiator, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf, and Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi arrived in Doha for the talks, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
The renewed attacks came on the heels of Secretary of State Marco Rubio signaling to reporters while in India that an agreement appeared on the horizon before walking it back hours later.
Rubio had said that the president may have an update on negotiations but later walked that back, saying the agreement was “still a work in progress.”
The United States is seeking to have Iran reopen the important Strait of Hormuz energy route. After that is achieved, negotiations will entered the next phase focused on ending the war.
Iranians rally after a ceasefire announcement at Enqhelab Square, in Tehran on April 8, 2026. Photo by Behnam Tofighi/UPI | License Photo
Smoke rises following overnight Russian strikes on Kyiv on Sunday amid the Russian invasion. More than 600 drones and 90 missiles struck several sites across Kyiv overnight on Sunday, resulting in multiple fatalities and more than 80 injuries, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA
May 25 (UPI) — Russia on Monday warned the United States it will continue targeting “decision-making centers” in Kyiv and advised Washington to evacuate its personnel from Ukrainian capital as it ratcheted up pressure in the conflict.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a phone conversation the Russian Armed Forces are now launching “systematic and consistent strikes against facilities in Kyiv used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and against the relevant decision-making centers,” according to a readout supplied by the Kremlin.
The Russian assault is in response to “the Kyiv regime’s ongoing terrorist attacks against civilians and civilian objects on Russian territory,” the statement said.
Lavrov also warned Rubio that the United States, “along with other states with missions in Kyiv, ensure the evacuation of their diplomatic personnel and other citizens from the Ukrainian capital.”
Earlier Monday, Moscow decried what it called “a bloody drone attack” on a college dormitory on Friday in Luhansk, a part of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces and claimed as a “people’s republic.”
Twenty-one people, including children, were killed and 42 others injured in strike, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed while calling it a deliberate “terrorist strike.”
Ukraine, however, described it as an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Rubicon drone military unit in Starobilsk, Luhansk.
That incident was followed by Russia’s largest-ever drone and missile attack on Kyiv overnight from Saturday into Sunday, in which two were killed more than 80 injured.
Strikes were recorded in almost every district of the city, hitting cultural targets such as The National Art Museum, the Chornobyl Museum, the National Philharmonic, the Ukrainian National Academy of Music and the Kyiv Opera Theater, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Julie Davis, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, condemned the overnight strikes on Monday, calling them “deliberate strikes on civilian populations and civilian infrastructure” which she deemed “unacceptable.
“As President Trump has stated before, this war must end. We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this horrific tragedy.”
Such strikes in the capital are set to continue, Russia warned Monday, although insisting they are aimed at military rather than civilian targets.
“All this has exhausted our patience In this situation,” the Foreign Ministry said. “The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are beginning to launch consistent and systemic strikes at enterprises of the Ukrainian defense industry in Kiev, including specific facilities for designing, manufacturing and programming drones and preparing them for operation.”
The strikes “will target decision-making centers and command posts,” Moscow claimed.
Firefighters conduct work while smoke rises from a building after it was attacked by Russian drones in Kyiv, Ukraine, on October 17, 2022. Photo by Vladyslav Musiienko/UPI | License Photo
1 of 5 | President Donald Trump delivers remarks in the Amphitheater after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Memorial Day. Photo by Kyle Mazza /UPI | License Photo
May 25 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Monday laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Park in Arlington, Va., to mark Memorial Day.
The annual tradition also saw Trump give an address honoring the 13 U.S. service members that have been lost during the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran during the last three months, the New York Post and USA Today reported.
“These incredible men and women gave their lives to ensure that the world’s number one state sponsor of terror will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said after laying the wreath.
“Oh, and they won’t,” he said. “They will never have a nuclear weapon. I’m sure you know that one.”
The United States and Iran are reportedly close to a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said early Monday that “we’re either going to have a good agreement or we’re going to have to deal with it another way,” while Iran said the agreement is “still a work in progress.”
The Armed Forces Full Honor Wreath Ceremony started around noon on Monday, with Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pet Hegseth and Major Gen. Antoinette Gant, commanding general of the Joint Task Force for the National Capital Region and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine in attendance.
In his remarks, Trump asked the family Air Force Capt. Airiana Savino, one of 13 service members to die in the Iran war, to stand for applause.
Trump also asked people to applaud for 97-year-old Harry Miller, who lied about his age, joined the armed forces at age 15 and found in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
“Harry Miller lied about his age to enlist and was soon fighting to stop the SS Panzer divisions as part of the famed 740th Tank Battalion,” Trump said. “The Daredevils, they were called, of which he is among the last surviving members.”
Members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, or “The Old Guard,” place some 250,000 American flags throughout Arlington National Cemetery in preparation for Memorial Day in Arlington, Va., on May 21, 2026. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
May 25 (UPI) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio tamped down expectations Monday for progress toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz after signaling a day earlier that he might have “good news” within hours.
Speaking to reporters at India’s Palam Air Base in New Delhi on Monday, the United States’ top diplomat said an agreement was “still a work in progress.”
“We thought we might have some news last night, maybe today,” he said, adding the holdup is that it takes time to hear back from the Iranians.
“I’m very confident — we should all be very confident — that we’re either going to have a good agreement or we’re going to have to deal with it another way. We’d prefer to have a good agreement.”
The United States is seeking to have Iran restore shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz before negotiations enter a subsequent phase focused on Iran’s nuclear program.
Rubio said what is on the table for opening the strait is “pretty solid,” but there is “a very real, significant time limit” to negotiations on the nuclear issue.
“Hopefully, we can pull it off,” he said.
Rubio is in India until Tuesday to discuss energy security, trade and defense cooperation with senior Indian officials. Meanwhile, U.S.-Iran negotiations have been ongoing through Pakistani and Qatari mediators.
After reporters that negotiations were edging toward completion, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson later Monday said that talks were focused on ending the war, with no discussions yet on its nuclear enrichment program, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The spokesperson also voiced skepticism over U.S. reliability, stating there is no guarantee Washington will hold up its end of the agreement once one is reached.
Speaking alongside Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at a joint press conference on Sunday, Rubio said that he believed more news about the agreement would come from President Donald Trump.
“But I do think perhaps there is the possibility that over the next few hours the world will get some good news, at least with regards to the straits,” he said.
The on-again, off-again negotiations have been conducted amid a fragile cease-fire called in April in the war that began in late February.
Trump has sought a new agreement to prevent Iran from securing a nuclear weapon since 2018, when during his first administration he unilaterally withdrew the United States from a landmark Obama-era multinational nuclear accord called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Calling it “defective at its core,” Trump has criticized several aspects of the JCPOA, including its sunset provisions easing restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program.
Critics have rebutted his accusations, saying that not all aspects of the JCPOA were to expire and that the expiring provisions afforded time were intended to afford time for further diplomacy.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. On Sunday, he urged negotiators on the deal with Iran to take their time and get it right. Photo by Al Drago/UPI | License Photo
May 24 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Sunday urged his negotiators “not to rush into a deal” with Iran because “time is on our side.”
He made the comments in a post on Truth Social that also took aim at the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the so-called Iran nuclear deal created in 2015 and which Trump withdrew from in 2018. In his post, Trump called it “one of the worst deals ever made by our country” and blamed former President Barack Obama and his administration.
“It was a direct path to Iran developing a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote. “Not so with the transaction currently being negotiated with Iran by the Trump Administration – THE EXACT OPPOSITE, in fact!”
Trump said Saturday the deal with Iran had been “largely negotiated” and that final aspects were being worked out. On Sunday, he added that talks were “proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner.
“I have informed by representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” he wrote.
“Both sides must take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said Sunday that “significant progress” had been made and hinted that Trump may make an announcement on the issue “a little bit later today,” The New York Times reported.
“Suffice it to say some progress has been made, significant progress, although not final progress,” he said during a news conference in New Delhi.
A missile identified as “Khorramshahr-4” was on display during a public rally in Tehran’s Enghelab Square on April 21, 2026. Photo by Behnam Tofighi/UPI | License Photo
May 23 (UPI) — Iran and Pakistan submitted a revised proposal Saturday to the United States in the hopes of ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump told Axios Saturday that he would meet with his negotiators to discuss the offer and would likely decide by Sunday. He said odds were a “solid 50/50” on whether he would be able to make a deal or “blow them to kingdom come.”
Trump conducted a call on Saturday with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan, Axios reported.
“While I very much wanted to be with my son, Don Jr., and the newest member of the Trump Family, his soon to be wife, Bettina, circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so,” the president said on Truth Social. “I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time. Congratulations to Don and Bettina!”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio alluded to news coming possibly today.
“There may be news later today. I don’t have news for you at this very moment, but there might be some news a little later today. There may not be. I hope there will be, but I’m not sure yet,” Rubio told reporters in New Delhi on Saturday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Axios that some leaders in the gulf have pushed Trump to strike Iran to weaken the regime and get better terms. But other leaders and the president’s advisors are urging him to take the deal that’s been offered. They say Iran can destroy Gulf oil operations if attacked.
“Count me as a strong skeptic that Iran can’t be prevented from terrorizing the Strait of Hormuz and that we can’t defend vital interests in the region after massive attacks against Iran — if they have been truly obliterated they shouldn’t be able to do either,” Graham said. “Time will tell. I am hoping for a good outcome still.”
Trump told Axios he’d meet with Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Vice President Vance later Saturday.
“I think one of two things will happen: either I hit them harder than they have ever been hit, or we are going to sign a deal that is good,” Trump said.
Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghadam said on X that he discussed the “achievements of the negotiations with the officials of my country after returning from Tehran” with Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.
“With conservative optimism, we can hope that, if the other side is adequately committed, a positive stride is taking shape which is the result of the positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran based on dignity, the steadfastness of the courageous armed forces and the resistance of the brave Iranian nation, as well as the initiative and dedicated endeavors of the Pakistani mediator,” Moghadam said.
Citizens from various sectors in at least five regional capitals across Bolivia took to the streets Thursday to demand an end to the roadblocks organized by peasant unions and groups aligned with former Bolivian President Evo Morales, who are calling for the resignation of the Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz. Photo by Jorge Abrego/EPA
May 22 (UPI) — Former Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the United States of backing the government of President Rodrigo Paz and attempting to criminalize the protests shaking Bolivia.
“The United States does not defend democracy or respect international law. It finances right-wing coups. It invades countries and steals their natural resources,” Morales wrote in a message Thursday on X.
Officials from the Bolivian identified Morales as the main instigator behind the wave of protests and road blockades demanding the president’s resignation.
The historic leader of the Movement Toward Socialism party, who is entrenched in the coca-growing Chapare region, was declared in contempt by a Bolivian court this month after failing to appear at a hearing linked to a human trafficking case.
The former president was responding to a message published by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on X in which Rubiol said the United States would not allow “criminals and drug traffickers” to overthrow democratically elected governments in the hemisphere.
Let there be no mistake: the United States stands squarely in support of Bolivia’s legitimate constitutional government.
We will not allow criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow democratically elected leaders in our hemisphere.— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 20, 2026
Morales called the remarks “a lie” and accused Washington of supporting the 2019 ouster to gain control of Bolivia’s lithium reserves.
“The United States supported the coup by the gringo against the Indigenous man in 2019 in order to seize our lithium,” he said.
El secretario de Estado de Trump, Marco Rubio, dice que los bolivianos que protestan contra el gobierno de Rodrigo Paz son “criminales y traficantes de drogas”. Esto, además de ser una mentira, es un tremendo cinismo.
Marco Rubio recibió y abrazó, en su oficina, al represor y… pic.twitter.com/pshqxDimct— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) May 21, 2026
In another message published on X, Morales also questioned Paz’s political legitimacy by claiming he was born in Spain, and he accused the president of “criminalizing” and “repressing” Indigenous people, farmers and students participating in the protests.
“Because he is a foreigner, he surely hates Bolivians. He criminalizes, persecutes and represses Indigenous people. He thinks and acts like an imperialist, neoliberal and neocolonial ruler,” Morales wrote.
In an interview this week with La Octava Radio Nacional, Morales called for early elections within 90 days to “pacify Bolivia,” arguing the country is facing a governance crisis.
Morales’ remarks came as Bolivia entered its third week of protests, road blockades and demonstrations led by unions, farming organizations and Indigenous groups rejecting the government’s economic reforms and denouncing fuel shortages, inflation and economic deterioration, according to reports by Bolivian media outlets La Razón and Los Tiempos.
The crisis has also begun to affect the healthcare system. Bolivia’s Health Ministry said at least four people died in recent days because they were unable to receive medical treatment or be transferred in time to healthcare centers due to road blockades and unrest in different parts of the country.
Among the victims was a 12-year-old boy, who died while being transported in an ambulance after the vehicle was unable to pass through blocked roads.
“We are calling for a humanitarian corridor,” the ministry said, according to reports by Infobae.
The Bolivian Highway Administration reported Friday that 51 road blockades were active across seven of the country’s nine departments, most of them concentrated in the highland region, including the departments of La Paz, Oruro and Cochabamba.
May 22 (UPI) — Federal immigration officials have arrested the sister of a sanctioned Cuban executive on the grounds that her presence in the United States poses a threat to the nation and undermines U.S. foreign policy interests.
Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Adys Lastres Morera in Miami on Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
Little information about the arrest was made public. ICE published a photo showing the back of a woman in handcuffs being detained by immigration officers.
The arrest came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a statement that he had terminated Morera’s lawful permanent resident status under a provision of thee Immigration and Nationality Act that makes non-citizens deportable if the secretary of state believes their presence or activities in the United States “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
ICE said her status had been terminated on Wednesday, paving the way for her arrest.
“Allowing Lastres Morera to remain in the country would send a signal that Cuba regime-affiliated networks could continue to access the U.S.’s financial, education and social institutions — but that is not the case,” acting HSI Executive Associate Director John Condon said in a statement.
Adys Lastres Morera is the sister of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, the executive president of the Cuban military-controlled financial conglomerate GAESA.
The State Department sanctioned GAESA and Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera earlier this month on accusations of diverting resources from the Cuban people to “fuel the lavish lifestyles of Castro family members and other regime elites and to finance overseas influence operations as part of Cuba’s long-standing ambition of a global communist revolution,” Rubio said Thursday.
According to ICE, Adys Lastres Morera was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident on Jan. 13, 2023.
“For far too long, the family members of terrorist organizations, repressive anti-American regimes and other bad actors who would threaten the national security of the United States have been given a free pass to enjoy the privileges of living in the United States,” Rubio said.
“No longer. Under President [Donald] Trump, we are removing from our country the family members of [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] terrorists and Cuban regime elites.”
The arrest comes amid mounting tensions in the Caribbean.
A day earlier, U.S. federal prosecutors charged former Cuban President Raul Castro on allegations of authorizing the 1996 shootdown of an aircraft operated by the Cuban American exile organization Brothers to the Rescue.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has accused the Trump administration of using the Castro indictment as a pretext to escalate tensions and potentially justify another military operation in the Caribbean, similar to the January U.S. strike that abducted Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, and brought him to the United States to face narco-terrorism charges.
May 19 (UPI) — Vice President JD Vance took questions from reporters Tuesday at a White House press briefing
, reiterating President Donald Trump‘s repeated assertion that the conflict in Iran is meant to keep the country from developing a nuclear weapon but that it is “not a forever war.”
“We want to keep the number of countries that have nuclear weapons small, and that’s why Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said during the briefing, “on top of all the other things that we might be worried about, that they themselves could use it, that they could use it in leverage and economic control or economic negotiations.”
Vance was the second person, following U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to stand in for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave.
Iran was a dominant topic of the briefing. Vance said the United States has made progress in negotiations despite Iran’s position being “fractured,” but that U.S. forces are ready to attack again if necessary.
“We’re going to take care of business and come home,” he said.
Rubio and Vance are both considered presidential candidate contenders for Republicans in 2028, but the vice president demurred at a question
suggesting the press briefing role could be a sort of audition for candidacy.
“I’m a vice president,” he said. “I really like my job, and I’m going to try to do as good a job as I can.”
Vance also dealt with questions about the Justice Department’s new $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” which was created to compensate those who say they were unfairly targeted by former presidential administrations.
Some officials have criticized the fund as a way for the government to pay Trump allies who say they were targeted during the Biden administration. Earlier Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said he could not rule out payments to convicted Jan. 6 rioters.
“We’re not trying to give money to anybody who attacked apolice officer,” Vance said at the briefing. “We’re trying to compensate people where the book was thrown at them, they were mistreated by the legal system.”
May 19 (UPI) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he has imposed additional sanctions against Cuba, with more to come in the days and weeks ahead, as the Trump administration ratchets up the pressure on the communist government of President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
The sanctions announced Monday by the U.S. State Department target 11 Cuba officials and three Cuban security and intelligence entities, freezing any assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting U.S. persons from doing business with them.
Agencies blacklisted were Cuba’s Ministry of Interior, the National Revolutionary Police Force and its Directorate of Intelligence, Havana’s primary foreign intelligence agency.
Officials hit included the heads of the Revolutionary Police Force as well as various ministers, the chief of staff of military counterintelligence, the chief of the Central Army of Cuba, the chief of the Eastern Army of Cuba, and the president of Cuba’s National Assembly for People’s Power, among others.
Rubio described them as “Cuban regime elites” and officials who have been involved in repressing the Cuban people.
“Regime-aligned actors such as those designated today bear responsibility for the suffering of the Cuban people, the failing Cuban economy and the exploitation of Cuba for foreign intelligence, military and terror operations,” he said in a statement, while warning that more sanctions “can be expected” in the following days and weeks.
“Today’s designations further restrict the Cuban regime’s ability to suppress the will of the Cuban people.”
Late Monday, Diaz-Canel lashed out at the United States over the sanctions, saying no one in Cuba’s government, political party or military institutions has any assets or property to protect under U.S. jurisdiction — and the Trump administration knows this.
“The anti-Cuban rhetoric of hate tries to make people believe such things exist in order to justify the escalation of its total economic war,” he said in a social media statement.
“That’s why we will continue to denounce, int he firmest and most energetic way possible, the genocidal siege that seeks to strangle our people.”
He described Trump’s Cuban policy as “collective punishment” and “an act of genocide,” calling on the international community to prosecute those responsible for it.
President Donald Trump has been targeting Havana with sanctions and economic restrictions since early this year, when he declared a national emergency concerning Cuba on the grounds that it has aligned with “numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups and malign actors adverse to the United States.”
Trump has blocked Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba, adding to the decades-old economic embargo and worsening the island nation’s energy crisis. The country’s fuel oil stocks have run dry, according to officials, and blackouts are common.
Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of military action against Cuba and has stopped short of directly calling for regime change as he seeks to extend the United States’ influence across the Western Hemisphere.
Cuba blames the United States for its current economic and energy situation, and the sanctions came as its foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, on Monday, defended Havana’s right to self-defense in response to reports that claimed the island nation had purchased drones from Russia and Iran.
While some Republicans, including Sen. Rick Scott and Rep. Carlos Gimenez, both of Florida, celebrated the sanctions, several Democrats have condemned the Trump administration’s broader campaign, accusing it of manufacturing a pretext for war.
Reps. Delia Ramirez of Illinois and Nydia Velazquez of New York lambasted the administration in a joint statement, accusing it of attempting to justify another “unauthorized and unlawful military invasion,” seemingly referring to the U.S. military abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January and Trump’s late February strikes on Iran, which triggered a war later halted by a fragile cease-fire.
“For the Trump administration, the goal is another military incursion. They will justify their actions by claiming it serves the freedom of Cubans,” the Democratic pair said, calling on Congress to pass a war powers resolution to curb Trump’s ability to make war without congressional authorization.
“Today, we must act to stop the destructive ambitions of imperialists and warmongers.”
Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news conference on anti-fraud initiatives in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Daniel Heuer/UPI | License Photo
1 of 2 | U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) lead their delegations into a gala dinner at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday during a high-stakes summit in the Chinese capital. Photo by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
May 14 (UPI) — Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted President Trump at a glittering state banquet in the Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday as the two leaders wrapped up the first day of a planned two-day summit.
The elegant dinner came after a day of discussions in which Xi warned Trump that mishandling the matter of Taiwan’s independence could push the two superpowers into “conflict,” but which also included moments of agreement and praise offered by both leaders.
The dinner menu included roast duck, pork buns and and beef ribs served by waiters in traditional red clothing, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported, while the entertainment program was highlighted by a performance of the American hit song “YMCA” by the People’s Liberation Army band.
During his speech at the elaborate dinner, Trump described U.S.-China relations as “one of the most important in history” and focused on the long-standing ties between Washington and Beijing.
Xi, meanwhile, drew parallels between the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence and the start of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan for economic and social development.
“The over 300 million American people are reinvigorating the spirit of patriotism, innovation and enterprise, and ushering in a new journey for the development of the United States,” he said, according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The peoples of both China and the United States are “great,” Xi added, saying, “Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand. We can help each other succeed and advance the well-being of the whole world.”
Among the banquet attendees were administration officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, as well as U.S. business leaders including Tim Cook of Apple and Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, the New York Times reported.
The dinner came during a day of talks held against the backdrop of the Iran conflict and mounting tensions over trade, technology and regional security.
Xi, however, placed Taiwan — a self-governing island of 23 million people that China claims as its territory and has vowed to bring under its control — at the top of the agenda.
“The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” Xi told Trump, according to a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry.
“If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability,” Xi said. “Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy.”
Trump did not answer questions from reporters about Taiwan after the meeting.
“Great. Great place. Incredible. China’s beautiful,” Trump said when asked about the talks with Xi, according to a pool report.
Washington does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taipei but is Taiwan’s main international backer and arms supplier under the Taiwan Relations Act, a 1979 law that states threats to the island are “of grave concern” to the United States.
The Trump administration announced an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan in December, including rocket systems, drones and anti-tank missiles, though delivery has yet to move forward. Trump said in February that he discussed the sale with Xi and would make a determination “pretty soon.”
Trade also loomed large over the summit after years of tensions over tariffs, export controls and advanced technology restrictions. Trump traveled with a delegation of prominent U.S. executives as his administration seeks expanded Chinese purchases of American aircraft, agricultural goods and energy products.
Xi and Trump also discussed the Middle East, Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula during their meeting, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday evening for his first visit to China since 2017. Xi did not meet Trump at the airport, but welcomed him Thursday with a red carpet ceremony, troop review and 21-gun salute at the Great Hall of the People. Children waved flowers and American flags as the leaders entered the hall for talks.
In comments at the start of their meeting, Xi said the world was at a “new crossroads” amid mounting geopolitical instability and called on the two countries to work together.
“Currently, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe and the international situation is fluid and turbulent,” Xi said. “Can we meet global challenges together and provide more stability for the world?”
“We should be partners, not rivals,” he added.
Trump called the gathering “maybe the biggest summit ever” and praised Xi’s leadership.
“We’ve had a fantastic relationship,” Trump said. “We’re going to have a fantastic future together. Such respect for China, the job you’ve done. You’re a great leader.”
After talks lasting more than two hours, Trump and Xi traveled to the Temple of Heaven, a ceremonial complex dating to the Ming Dynasty where Chinese emperors once prayed for good harvests. A state banquet was scheduled for Thursday evening.
Reporting from Columbus, Ohio — Donald Trump romped to victory Tuesday in Florida, chasing Marco Rubio from the race, but Ohio Gov. John Kasich won his home state, raising hopes for those seeking to stop Trump and settle the presidential contest on the floor of the Republican National Convention.
Trump also won North Carolina and Illinois and was locked in a close fight with Sen. Ted Cruz in Missouri.
“I’m getting ready to rent a covered wagon, we’re going to have a big sail and have the wind blow us to the Rocky Mountains and over the mountains to California,” Kasich said at a jubilant rally outside Cleveland.
That is just the sort of extended nominating fight the GOP establishment sought to avoid by stacking the political calendar with big early contests, capped by Tuesday night’s winner-take-all primaries in Florida and Ohio. California votes on June 7, near the close of the primary season.
Now, many of those same party types see an inconclusive nominating contest as the best and perhaps only chance of thwarting Trump, even if it threatens to shred the GOP in the process.
The setback in Ohio, where Trump campaigned hard, was his most disappointing performance since he finished second to Cruz in February’s Iowa caucuses.
His unhappiness was evident as he addressed reporters at his posh Mar-a-Lago private club in Palm Beach, Fla., and complained about the miseries of running for president.
“Lies, deceit, viciousness. Disgusting reporters. Horrible people,” the Manhattan businessman and reality TV star said. “Some are nice.”
Cruz, speaking with 99% of the Missouri votes counted, once more insisted he was the only candidate who could defeat Trump.
“Starting tomorrow morning, every Republican has a clear choice. Only two campaigns have a plausible path to the nomination — ours and Donald Trump’s,” the Texas senator told supporters in Houston. “Nobody else has any mathematical possibility whatsoever. Only one campaign has beaten Donald Trump over and over again.”
With Trump’s unmatched string of victories, no other candidate is nearly as well positioned to win the nomination ahead of the July convention in Cleveland. He padded his overall delegate lead with Tuesday’s victories, putting him ahead of Cruz and Kasich, who had not won a state before Ohio.
But there were signs Tuesday that not just the establishment but rank-and-file Republicans have yet to rally around the party’s polarizing front-runner.
Nearly 3 in 10 Republican voters across the five states said they would not vote for Trump if he wins the party’s nomination, according to exit poll interviews. Four in 10 said they would consider voting for a third-party candidate if the choice came down to Trump or the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton.
Defections of that magnitude could badly undermine Trump in the general election, and that prospect will probably be stressed by his opponents going forward into next week’s contests in Arizona and Utah.
Rubio spoke to the controversy surrounding the GOP front-runner as he departed the race.
In a Miami concession speech delivered less than half an hour after the polls closed in Florida, the freshman senator congratulated Trump, wagging a finger and shushing members of the audience who booed his kind words.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich votes Tuesday in Westerville, Ohio.
(Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
Rubio then devoted the bulk of his lengthy remarks to warn against succumbing to the anger and frustration that have fueled Trump’s improbable rise.
“The politics of resentment against other people will not just leave us a fractured party,” Rubio said, as disconsolate family members stood by onstage. “They’re going to leave us a fractured nation” where people hate each other for their political views.
“Do not give in to the fear,” Rubio said. “Do not give in to the frustration.”
The son of Cuban immigrants and, at age 44, the youngest candidate in the field, Rubio was seen as one of the GOP’s rising stars, with a capacity to broaden the party’s support among millennial voters and the nation’s fast-growing Latino population.
But he failed to win more than a few contests and was never seriously competitive in his home state. Trump captured 99 delegates in Florida’s winner take-all-primary, more than a quarter of those at stake in Tuesday’s balloting.
The victory in winner-take-all Ohio gave Kasich 66 delegates, more than doubling his total but still leaving him well behind Trump. His goal is to build momentum with a series of wins positioning him as the strongest candidate heading into the Cleveland convention even if, as seems inevitable, Kasich is shy of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright.
Pennsylvania, where Kasich was born, is the next big target on April 26.
The results Tuesday followed one of the oddest, most contentious weeks in a campaign that has been filled with strange and surreal moments.
The precipitating event was a racially charged near-riot at a Trump rally Friday night in Chicago, which was canceled out of security concerns.
Trump’s opponents quickly seized on the moment and the violent imagery that played around the world to once more challenge his temperament and fitness to be president. They accused him of fomenting the unrest through belligerent remarks that seemed to egg on his audiences into physically confronting dissenters.
Trump denied any responsibility, blaming the violence on what he called professional agitators linked to Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders. He said the protesters provoked his supporters and were stifling their rights to free speech and assembly.
“I don’t condone violence,” Trump said repeatedly, though he sympathized with backers who chose to “be effective” with protesters in the audience. (Previously he used more pugilistic language.)
Trump said he might even pay the legal fees for a supporter who sucker-punched a demonstrator at a North Carolina rally, drawing widespread condemnation. He won the state anyway.
Indeed, for weeks increasingly desperate Republican opponents have mounted an effort to stop Trump, to seemingly little effect.
More than $10 million in negative ads blazed across the Florida airwaves in just the last week alone, attacking Trump for his ethics, the failings of his business empire and his all-over-the-map political ideology.
Those meant nothing to Mark Owens, who stepped into the Miami Beach sunshine Tuesday and lighted a cigar after casting a ballot for the political neophyte.
“We’ve trusted politicians for 200 years to run our country,” Owens said. “It’s time to give someone else a shot.”
With polls suggesting Florida was firmly in Trump’s grasp, much of the campaign focused on Ohio, another traditional fall battleground.
Trump laid on extra events, including an election-eve rally outside Youngstown in place of a planned Florida appearance, and he turned his attention to attacking Kasich after long ignoring the Ohio governor.
He assailed him for his support as a congressman for the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact with Canada and Mexico that, Trump said, devastated the state’s economy. He also laid on personal insults in a bid to snatch a victory in Kasich’s home state and clear the governor from the race.
Kasich, whose strategy centered on staying above the salvos flying among other candidates, accused Trump of creating a “toxic” political atmosphere and, wrapping himself in the establishment mantle, spent Monday stumping alongside Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee.
With Kasich suddenly a factor in the GOP contest, the skirmishing here in Ohio seems a likely preview of what is to come.
While he pledged to take the high road at his victory party Tuesday night, Kasich sent a different message speaking to reporters earlier in the day.
He said, “I will be … forced going forward to talk about some of the deep concerns I have about the way this campaign has been run by some others — by one other in particular.”
May 13 (UPI) — The United States announced visa restrictions on 13 people linked to a U.S.-sanctioned, India-based online pharmacy that the Trump administration accuses of selling Americans hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl.
The people targeted by the State Department on Tuesday were identified as being “close business associates of KS International Traders and its owner.”
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned KS International and Mohammad Iqbal Shaikh, 34, in September. Shaikh was also among 19 people indicted in New York in the fall of 2024 on charges of selling counterfeit, fentanyl-laced pills to Americans over the Internet and via encrypted messaging platforms.
The targeting of KS International comes amid the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on drug smuggling. Among tactics employed was President Donald Trump‘s December 2025designation of illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as weapons of mass destruction.
In June, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new policy to impose visa restrictions on drug traffickers, their family members and close personal and business associates.
State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott said Tuesday that the barring of entry to the 13 individuals “underscores the United States’ and India’s enduring and shared commitment to dismantling illicit drug entities and disrupting trafficking networks that harm Americans.”
“Those complicit in poisoning Americans will be denied entry to the United States,” he said in a statement.
The Trump administration has increasingly used visa restrictions across several policy areas, from punishing Haitian government officials and members of criminal organizations accused of obstructing the nation’s fight against terrorist gangs to Nicaraguan citizens believed to be facilitating irregular immigration into the United States.
“Someone should ask the U.S. Secretary of State about the fable of the alleged offer of $100 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, which nobody here knows anything about,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla wrote on social media. File Photo by Hector Retamal/EPA/Pool
May 12 (UPI) — Cuba’s foreign minister has denied his government received a $100 million offer in humanitarian aid from the United States, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly claimed Washington tried to send assistance and Cuban authorities refused to distribute it.
In a message posted on X, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla described Rubio’s version as a “fable” and a “$100 million lie,” and questioned who would finance the aid, how it would be distributed and whether it would consist of cash, fuel, food or medicine.
“Someone should ask the U.S. secretary of state about the fable of the alleged offer of $100 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, which nobody here knows anything about,” Rodríguez wrote.
Alguien debería preguntar al Secretario de Estado de #EEUU sobre la fábula del supuesto ofrecimiento de 100 millones de dólares en ayuda humanitaria a #Cuba, que aquí nadie conoce.
Sería bueno saber quién específicamente aportaría el dinero, si se entregaría en efectivo para… pic.twitter.com/g5WKDDt0EY— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) May 12, 2026
Rodríguez also questioned whether the alleged assistance would be “a donation, a deception or a dirty business to undermine our independence,” and argued that “lifting the fuel blockade would be easier.”
The statements responded to comments made Friday by Rubio during a press conference in Italy, where he said the United States offered humanitarian aid to Cuba and that the island’s government did not allow its distribution.
“We have offered the regime there $100 million in humanitarian aid, which unfortunately so far they have not agreed to distribute to help the people of Cuba,” Rubio said.
The secretary of state added that Washington had previously delivered about $6 million in humanitarian aid channeled through Catholic charity Caritas and said the United States seeks to expand assistance because of the island’s economic and social deterioration.
“We want to help the people of Cuba, who are being hurt by this regime, which has destroyed the country and the economy,” Rubio said.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will hold talks with Cuba, although he did not provide specific details about the scope of those contacts.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump described Cuba as “a failed country” and wrote, “Cuba is asking for help, and we’re going to talk!”
According to El Nuevo Herald, Rubio also said he discussed the Cuban situation with Pope Leo XIV during a meeting held at the Vatican. Rubio blamed the Cuban government for preventing greater humanitarian assistance.
The exchange came amid a renewed rise in tensions between the governments of Trump and Miguel Díaz-Canel after sanctions imposed by the Trump administration against the Cuban military conglomerate GAESA, its director and mining company Moa Nickel.
Rubio announced the measures last week as part of an economic offensive aimed at restricting the Cuban regime’s sources of income and pressuring the island for political and economic reforms.
“The sanctions imposed … demonstrate that the Trump administration will not stand idly by while the Cuban communist regime threatens our national security in our hemisphere,” Rubio wrote on social media.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni meets Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Palazzo Chigi, in Rome, Thursday. Rubio was in the Italian capital for high-level meetings with Italian and Vatican officials. Photo Guiseppe Lami/EPA
May 8 (UPI) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio highlighted his support for NATO, the pope and Italy on Friday during his visit to the country, but said President Donald Trump may still continue social media attacks.
“The president will always speak clearly about how he feels about the U.S. and U.S. policy,” Rubio said after being asked by reporters in Rome if he would ask Trump to limit his verbal attacks. He said, “the president of the United States is always going to act on what’s in the best interest of the United States.”
He added that Trump’s decision to remove troops from Germany was already in the works.
“There was always a plan to do some shifting within NATO,” Rubio said. He added that the troops that are being removed from Germany “represent less than 14% of our total troop presence there.”
Rubio, who visited Pope Leo XIV with his wife and several State Department employees Thursday, gifted the pope a crystal football with the State Department’s logo on it, while the pope gave Rubio a pen made from an olive branch.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni gave Rubio documentation of his family’s Italian origins in Piedmont, in the country’s northwest.
Rubio said it was a “true honor” to get the documentation. He said visiting Piedmont is “one more reason to be back” in Italy. He’ll give a speech in Italian next time he visits, he said.
“I need to learn a third language,” Rubio said.
Meloni and Trump had been cordial until the president began attacking the pope and Italy stayed out of the war in Iran.
Meloni said the meeting was a “frank dialogue, between allies who defend their own national interests but who both know how precious Western unity is.”
Polls in Italy show that most Italians are against joining the war against Iran. Meloni said, “we are not at war, and we do not want to go to war.”
President Donald Trump delivers remarks at an event he is hosting for a group that includes Gold Star Mothers and Angel Mothers in honor of Mother’s Day in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
1 of 3 | Pope Leo XIV (L) talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a private audience in Vatican City on Thursday. Photo courtesy Vatican Media/EPA
May 7 (UPI) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Thursday with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, a moment of diplomacy in the wake of President Donald Trump‘s repeated attacks on the Catholic leader.
Rubio and the pope talked about “the situation in the Middle East and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said, The Washington Post reported.
“The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” Pigott said.
The meeting, which was a little more than 2 hours long, was not open to the press. There has been tension between the White House and the Vatican in recent months, with Trump directing insults at the pope and the pontiff (who is the first U.S.-born pope) criticizing the United States’ actions in the Middle East.
Rubio also met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Pigott said Rubio and Parolin talked about “mutual cooperation and pressing international issues” and efforts “to achieve a durable peace inthe Middle East,” CBS News reported.
The meeting comes after Trump said in an interview Monday that the pope’s views on the U.S. attacks on Iran “are endangering Catholics and a lot of people” and that the Catholic leader “thinks its just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” In recent months, the president has also criticized Pope Leo on social media, saying the pontiff is “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy.”
For his part, Pope Leo has said that he “has no fear of the Trump administration.”
“Should anyone want to criticize me for proclaiming the Gospel, they should do so with the truth,” the pope said in response to Trump’s comments Monday. “For years the Church has spoken out about all nuclear weapons, so there’s no doubt about it, there. So I simply hope to be listened to for the value of God’s word.”
