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The Trump administration will defend America’s decades-old economic embargo on Cuba in a United Nations vote this week, the State Department said Tuesday, in a reversal from the Obama administration that reflects deteriorating U.S.-Cuban relations. Every year the U.N. votes to condemn the embargo, and for years the U.S. predictably voted “no.” But last year, under President Barack Obama, the U.S. abstained for the first time, as Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro moved forward with the historic warming of relations. A “no” vote Wednesday from U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley will return the United States to a...

Quite fittingly, in his “retirement” (will not seek re-election) speech this week Sen. Jeff Flake, this relentless champion of the relentlessly Stalinist Castro regime, attacked Communist-fighter Joe McCarthy.“As I contemplate the Trump presidency, I cannot help but think of Joseph Welch,” Flake emoted. “Welch spoke: “Until this moment, Senator (McCarthy), I think I never really gauged your cruelty, or your recklessness… Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?... The moral power of Welch’s words ended McCarthy’s rampage on American values.”Most people forget that, as Ann Coulter patiently explained in her...

"In the wake of the disrespectful, unacceptable and meddling statements made by President Donald Trump in his address to the U.N. General Assembly at a time when the U.S.-Cuba Bilateral Commission was sitting in session, the Cuban delegation voiced a strong protest," the (Cuban) Foreign Ministry statement said. The Castro Dynasty’s eunuch ambassador to the U.S. Jose Cabanas also went on social media to whimper that the “U.S. government presents dangers and inevitable dilemmas” and that the U.S. was acting aggressively and said the trade embargo burdens Cuba with “humanitarian and economic hardships” that are “extraordinary and growing.” And what...

PUTTING IT IN PERSPECTIVE - Beijing's caution risks undermining its growing reputation as a global player. But seeming weakness is a price it appears willing to pay now, in the interests of a long-term leadership goal: to take over America's old mantle as the dominant power in Asia. PARIS AND BEIJING—Is China’s courage failing? Exasperated and embarrassed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, Beijing is nonetheless shrinking from using all the influence it has to stop them. China reportedly refused to back US proposals for an oil embargo against Pyongyang, for example, forcing Washington to soften the UN Security...

Three men carrying false identification were denied access to the federal courthouse in downtown Miami Thursday. They attempted to enter at multiple vehicle check-points until security guards recognized one of the men and immediately contacted deputies from the U.S. Marshals Service. The men used badges that resembled those from three different federal agencies, including a U.S. Marshal badge, but within seconds of examining the badges, security guards knew they were fraudulent. Once the men were detained, officers searched their vehicle and discovered other fraudulent law enforcement clothing. One man was arrested and could face charges by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,...

President Donald Trump is set to announce a rollback of former President Barack Obama’s policies toward Cuba, The Daily Caller has learned.Two sources told TheDC that the development is due to the behind-the-scenes efforts of Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and Republican Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.This information coming from an anti-embargo group, which spoke on the condition of anonymity, was confirmed Sunday by John Kavulich of the nonpartisan U.S. – Cuba Trade and Economic Council. “The Trump Administration has been ‘ready’ since February 2017 to announce changes, but issues unrelated to Cuba have intervened,”...

KOBANI, Syria — I recently stayed overnight in Serekaniye and awoke to unusual sounds at about 5 a.m. I looked out and saw a group of Asayish (local Kurdish police), both men and women, engaged in physical training in an empty lot. Serekaniye had been the scene of clashes in 2012-13 between the Kurds and groups supported by Turkey. Now, the Asayish there look like a disciplined army.  Not quite 200 miles away in Kobani, there is other evidence that the Kurds have serious aspirations for Rojava, officially the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria. Though rubble remains in most parts, the city is both rebuilding and launching new construction. There is...

President Obama believes Congress will lift the embargo against Cuba — under the next president. Obama made the admission ahead of a historic visit to the communist island nation, intended to cement his new policy of openness toward the United States’s former Cold War foe. “My strong prediction is that sometime in the next president's administration, whether they are a Democrat or a Republican, that the embargo in fact will be removed,” he said in an interview with CNN en Español that aired Monday. The president has relied on his executive powers to establish new trade and travel links with...

France called on the U.S. to lift the economic embargo against Cuba during a historic state visit Monday by the Caribbean island's president aimed at boosting economic relations between Havana and Paris. Raul Castro's trip comes after a breakthrough deal was reached in the French capital in December to lighten Cuba's foreign debt. French President Francois Hollande, the former leader of France's Socialist party, greeted Castro on Monday with a warm hug in the courtyard of the Elysee presidential palace, and then started the meeting saying "Vive Cuba!" ("Long live Cuba!") Both presidents vowed to develop economic, political and cultural...

The United Nations General Assembly has almost unanimously voted to condemn the US embargo on Cuba, in the first such resolution since US-Cuban diplomatic ties were restored earlier this year. The motion won more support than it has done in the past, with 191 members of the 193-member body voting in favour. Only the US and Israel opposed the resolution, which is non-binding.

Donald Trump’s longstanding hard line against Cuba has started to soften... Said Trump: “I think it's fine. I think it's fine, but we should have made a better deal. The concept of opening with Cuba — 50 years is enough — the concept of opening with Cuba is fine. I think we should have made a stronger deal.” That’s a far cry from the Cuba position Trump laid out in 1999... “He's been a killer, he's a criminal, and I don't think you should reward people who have done what he's done,” Trump said on Nov. 15, 1999... In August,...

Does Italy still exist, or is it, as Metternich puts it, a geographic expression? By joining the Euro, it lost its monetary sovereignty. It lost its territorial sovereignty after its defeat in the second world war with occupation by the Americans who have never left since then. It lost its military sovereignty as it is now reduced to taking orders from the USA and organising pretend peace missions in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and bombing Libya (thanks also to grandpa Napolitano)/ The fall of Gaddafi is the cause of the immigration of biblical proportions - from that country that no...

Christopher Russell, Professor of Geophysics and Space Physics at UCLA cannot discuss the new high resolution images from Ceres because they have been embargoed by the science journal Nature. ... Russell was able to discuss the issue of Ceres' strange bright spots, appearing prominently in both the large crater known as 'Occator', of which is 60 miles (90 km) across and 2 miles (4 km) deep, and on the slopes of an extremely strange, pyramid-shaped mountain that is 4 miles (6 km) tall. These spots, as described by professor Russell, appear to be a powdery substance that is deposited on...

Three visiting U.S. senators said on Saturday they hoped Congress would support President Barack Obama's opening toward Cuba, including lifting a ban on U.S. citizens traveling to the Communist-run island. Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Ben Cardin of Maryland joined Republican Dean Heller of Nevada on a trip to Cuba where they met First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and ordinary Cubans.

In the age of derivatives, swaps, and electronic money transfers, a new form of warfare has emerged: financial warfare. Recently, the US has passed sanctions on countries such as Syria, Venezuela, and North Korea , but the majority of energy related sanctions passed have been targeted at Iran and Russia. An estimated 68 percent of Russia’s government revenue is derived from oil and gas exports, while 80 percent of Iran’s revenue comes from oil exports. That presents a very large target for the use of financial weapons.

DALLAS (AP) — A Texas delegation is arriving in Cuba with hopes of building a front-of-the-line position for renewed trade with the Caribbean nation long isolated by a U.S. embargo. The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/1IX4MDi ) reports the delegation landing in Havana on Sunday is the first Texas has sent to Cuba since the U.S. and the communist island nation agreed to restore diplomatic relations. Texas industries with potential to expand trade with Cuba include agriculture, airlines, oil, technology and tourism, said Cynthia Thomas, president of the Dallas-based consulting firm Tri Dimension Strategies and leader of the delegation. "The last...

U.S. officials consider removing Castro regime from terror listU.S. officials are considering removing Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, even as Cuban allies continue to launch military attacks and trade for weapons. As part of President Barack Obama’s announcement in December that he would normalize relations with Cuba, Obama instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to review Cuba’s terror designation and issue a report in six months. While reports indicate that the administration is leaning toward removing Cuba from the terror list, such an action would conflict with the Cuban regime’s support for Colombian militants, Iran, and...

Now where have we previously heard Senator Rand Paul’s cliché-fest that constitutes his rebuttal to Senator Marco Rubio on Cuba sanctions? Well, from The Council on Foreign Relations to the New York Times and from Hillary Clinton to The Congressional Black Caucus—and that’s for starters. And oh, we also heard it repeatedly from every single one of the KGB-trained Cuban spies convicted by U.S. juries recently. “The embargo is Castro’s best friend,” Clinton chanted to an extremely friendly audience at the Council on Foreign Relations back in June while citing and promoting her book Hard Choices. The sanctions give “Castro...

Since The Resident’s unexpected and unethical decision to unilaterally discard a half-century of history and reopen diplomatic relations with the Castro brothers’ prison colony known as Cuba, a particularly destructive claim has resurfaced, one that merits careful analysis and rejection. For decades now, the Left has spouted a peculiar claim – that Cuba is poor because of our 54-year-long embargo against the communist country. If the reader has compassion for the suffering denizens of that miserable island, this has to be a strong argument, but it’s wrong – utterly without merit, in fact – for several critical reasons. The claim...

Obama has evidenced a preference for authoritarian regimes. His preference is why he did not force concessions from Cuba, concessions that would have fostered democratic reforms and given hope to those languishing in Castro’s Stygian domains. He appears to be more interested in sanctioning and weakening Israel, our sole democratic ally in the Middle East, than he is in enforcing the current embargo against Cuba. He seems to be more interested in sitting down at the bargaining table with Iran than he is in strengthening relations with America’s Western allies. The president’s actions have enormous implications.