But beneath the spectacle lies a question that mainstream commentary continues to avoid, despite its growing inevitability: Was Epstein operating as part of an intelligence-linked blackmail operation? And if so, for whom? This is not a conspiracy theory, but a legitimate question that the files themselves provoke.

Crosspost from https://news.abolish.capital/post/24757

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Sunday she plans to send humanitarian aid to Cuba this week, including food and other humanitarian aid.

Sheinbaum's comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump said he asked the Mexican leader to suspend oil shipments to the Caribbean island.

Sheinbaum said at a public event in the northern state of Sonora that she did not discuss Cuban affairs in a phone conversation with Trump on Thursday. She added that her government seeks to “ diplomatically solve everything related to the oil shipments (to Cuba) for humanitarian reasons.”

Earlier, Trump told reporters that he told the Mexican president not to send oil to Cuba.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/42583154

Limia Díaz is a historian, writer, member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba and director of the Cuban TV program MARCAS.

Feb. 2, 2026

The U.S. military leaders know that Cuba is not Venezuela, that they wouldn’t have the easy victory of January 3rd. We do not know the word surrender, and that is why Trump has set out to recreate the shameful chapter of Weyler’s Reconcentration, ordered by that Spanish general to starve our people into submission, given his inability to defeat the Mambí Army on the battlefield. They cannot forgive us for being considered a moral compass despite all the difficulties, and the spirit of revenge leads them to act with genocidal cruelty. What will humanity do: succumb to fascism or respond with courage and integrity? “Whoever stands with Cuba today, stands for all time.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/42599528

enero 27, 2026

Empire nazi terrorists

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/42586503

de Panorama Mundial
febrero 2, 2026

Ernesto Limia Díaz es historiador, escritor, miembro de la Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (conocida como UNEAC, su acrónimo en español) y director del programa cubano MARCAS. También es autor del libro bilingüe Patria y cultura en tiempos de revolución. El pasado octubre, Panorama-Mundial publicó una entrevista con él sobre los desafíos que enfrenta hoy la Revolución Cubana.

Los jefes militares de Estados Unidos saben que Cuba no es Venezuela. Que acá no tendrían el paseo invernal del 3 de enero. No conocemos la palabra rendición y por ello Trump se ha propuesto reeditar la vergonzosa página de la Reconcentración de Weyler, dispuesta por aquel general español para rendir por hambre a nuestro pueblo ante su incapacidad de derrotar al Ejército Mambí en el campo de batalla. No nos pueden perdonar que a pesar de todas las dificultades se nos tome como brújula moral, y el espíritu de revancha los lleva a actuar con saña genocida. ¿Qué hará la humanidad: plegarse ante el fascismo o responder con valentía e integridad? “Quien se levanta hoy con Cuba, se levanta para todos los tiempos”.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/42586503

de Panorama Mundial
febrero 2, 2026

Ernesto Limia Díaz es historiador, escritor, miembro de la Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (conocida como UNEAC, su acrónimo en español) y director del programa cubano MARCAS. También es autor del libro bilingüe Patria y cultura en tiempos de revolución. El pasado octubre, Panorama-Mundial publicó una entrevista con él sobre los desafíos que enfrenta hoy la Revolución Cubana.

Los jefes militares de Estados Unidos saben que Cuba no es Venezuela. Que acá no tendrían el paseo invernal del 3 de enero. No conocemos la palabra rendición y por ello Trump se ha propuesto reeditar la vergonzosa página de la Reconcentración de Weyler, dispuesta por aquel general español para rendir por hambre a nuestro pueblo ante su incapacidad de derrotar al Ejército Mambí en el campo de batalla. No nos pueden perdonar que a pesar de todas las dificultades se nos tome como brújula moral, y el espíritu de revancha los lleva a actuar con saña genocida. ¿Qué hará la humanidad: plegarse ante el fascismo o responder con valentía e integridad? “Quien se levanta hoy con Cuba, se levanta para todos los tiempos”.

On Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump had a good laugh with members of the press in the US state of Iowa as he issued a rather serious decree regarding the short-term future of Cuba: “Cuba will be failing pretty soon. Cuba is really a nation that’s very close to failing.”

To be sure, this is not the first time that Trump has predicted the downfall of the Caribbean island nation, which the US has effectively been trying to destroy for no fewer than 67 years – ever since the triumph in 1959 of Cuba’s communist revolution that overthrew the brutal right-wing dictator and US buddy Fulgencio Batista.

One would hope, then, that other countries – particularly the self-declared allies of Cuba – might step up to defend the island against US predations or at least credibly register their opposition to imperial impunity.

Instead, all Cuba has really gotten are some perfunctory professions of support – such as from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who, like her ostensibly leftist predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has perfected the art of pretending to counter US machinations while doing exactly what the gringos want.

Now, just as the struggle has become more critical than ever, it remains to be seen whether any of Cuba’s professed allies will stick their necks out to keep the country from “failing”.

In the event it does fail – and Trump manages to swing regime change in a place that has resisted for so long against all odds – it’s safe to say that nowhere is safe from imperial designs.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/42544329

Ruaridh Nicoll in Havana
Sun 1 Feb 2026 08.00 EST

In a social media post on Friday, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, accused Trump of trying to stifle the island, writing: “Under a false and baseless pretext … President Trump intends to suffocate the Cuban economy by imposing tariffs on countries that sovereignly trade oil with Cuba.”

Jorge Piñón, an energy expert at the University of Texas, said diesel is key: “[If Cuba runs out,] the impact would be catastrophic as diesel fuels transportation – both passenger and commercial, the railroad, agriculture, industry, water distribution and sugarcane.” It also powers an electricity system that is faring so badly that many parts of the island suffer from 12-hour-plus blackouts every day.

Help does not seem to be on the way. A shipment due to arrive from Mexico has been cancelled – a “sovereign decision” according to that country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, despite clear pressure from Washington.

Documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday reveal previously unreported details about financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s role as a backroom power broker amid the rapid strengthening of India-Israel ties in 2017.

Epstein connected an Indian billionaire close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak ahead of the first ever trip by an Indian PM to Israel. Days later, that billionaire, Anil Ambani, told Epstein after a visit to Delhi that “Leadership” wanted Epstein’s assistance for Ambani to meet “jared and Bannon asap,” and requested his “assistance” regarding Modi’s upcoming meeting with Trump.

Modi’s landmark visit to Israel in 2017 helped accelerate the burgeoning relationship between the three countries. Afterward, Epstein celebrated in an email that Modi had “danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president.”

The organisation said it was unable to secure basic assurances regarding the use and protection of that information. "Despite repeated efforts, it became evident that we were unable to build engagement with Israeli authorities on the concrete assurances required," MSF said.

The charity added that it sought guarantees that staff details would be used only for administrative purposes and would not place employees at risk.

MSF said those assurances were not provided and that it therefore "concluded that we will not share staff information in the current circumstances".

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/42532547

from +972’s Sunday Recap 972 Magazine [published in Israel] Jan. 25, 2026

A year after their expulsion from the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams camps, refugees wait not only to return, but to reclaim the rights the camps preserved.

Also:

• Germany never stopped arming Israel’s genocide
• Despite ceasefire, Israel’s siege allowing only a trickle of aid into Gaza
• Israel’s new national consensus: Returning to October 6
• PODCAST: ‘Israel is using organized crime to control Palestinian citizens’

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/42529417

from +972’s Sunday Recap 972 Magazine [published in Israel] Feb. 1, 2026

Muhammad Shehada unpacked how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sabotaging phase two of the Gaza ceasefire. By undermining the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a new Palestinian technocratic body supervised by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, Israel is trying to make Gaza appear ungovernable — and prove the need for its sustained military rule.

Also:

• What the Joint List’s revival signifies for Palestinian politics in Israel
• Inside a coordinated, multi-village settler-soldier pogrom in Masafer Yatta
• ‘Wet tent syndrome’ is killing Gaza’s infants
• ‘I cannot help my clients’: The impossible task of representing Palestinian detainees
• The theft at the heart of Israel’s booming wine industry

A declassified FBI memo from the Epstein files, released on Friday, includes incendiary allegations about US President Donald Trump.

The memo says that Trump was “compromised by Israel”, that convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein worked with Israeli intelligence, and that a Jewish religious group calling itself Chabad-Lubavitch sought to hijack his first term in office.

The memo, written in 2020, formed part of an FBI investigation into domestic or foreign influence over the US electoral process. It draws on information from a confidential human source (CHS) and appears among a vast trove of Epstein-related files released by the US Justice Department.

Chabad-Lubavitch, a religious Jewish sect founded in Russia, has grown to an estimated 90,000 members. Its messianic, ultra-Orthodox ideology has repeatedly been linked to hardline settler colonial politics in Palestine.

The memo also cites Berel Lazar, a Chabad member and the former chief rabbi of Russia, describing him as a close adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Chabad is basically state-sanctioned Judaism. It is used by Putin to keep tabs on all the Russo-Jewish oligarchs,” the FBI memo adds.

The source goes further, saying: “Trump has been compromised by Israel. And Kushner is the real brains behind his organization and his Presidency.”

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7517754

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/24289

Iran will defend its people decisively if it is pushed to war, reiterated Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday, January 29, after American President Donald Trump’s repeated ultimatums and threats of military strikes in the country.

“If the American side is truly seeking negotiations and genuine diplomacy it must abandon provocative and escalatory measures and demonstrate in practice its commitment to the path of dialogue,” Pezeshkian told his Pakistani counterparts, Shehbaz Sherif and Qatari Sheikh Hamad Bin Thani, during separate phone conversations.

After softening his initial threats of military strikes over the Iranian crackdown of nationwide protests earlier, Trump renewed his threats against Iran this week despite widespread opposition to any such move expressed by the leaders from the Middle East region over the fears of wider regional consequences.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump asked Iran to submit to his demand and make a deal on “no nuclear weapons”, immediately claiming “time is running out”. He threatened that if Iran fails to comply with the demands the strikes this time would be “far worse” than the strikes in June.

Iran responded to the threats made by Trump warning that its responses to aggression inside the country would not be limited and all American assets in the region, including the warships and Israel, would be targeted.

No talks under threats of war

During a press conference on Thursday, Trump repeated his threats while also expressing his willingness to talk.

“We have a lot of very big, very powerful ships sailing to the region right now. Hopefully, we don’t have to use it,” Reuters reported Trump telling the press on Thursday.

Iran has maintained, for years now, that it has no intention to have nuclear weapons and its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes only. It has also expressed its openness for dialogue on the issue, however, refusing to talk under threats of war.

Pezeshkian reiterated on Thursday that his country believes in “dignified diplomacy based on international laws, mutual respect, avoidance of threats and coercion and pursuit of win-win outcomes.”

Changes of a successful diplomacy between Iran and the US have also gone down since the inclusion of fresh demands. Apart from asking Iran to denounce any nuclear ambitions the Trump administration also wants it to agree to restrictions on its ballistic missiles programs and end all support to its regional allies identified as “proxies”.

Regional diplomacy

After Pezeshkian’s conversations with his Pakistani counterpart and Qatari Sheikh, similar phone conversations were held by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi with his counterparts in several other countries in the region and neighborhood, including Turkey and Egypt on Thursday and Friday.

The US has military bases in most of these countries. Iran has declared that in case it is attacked these bases would become legitimate targets of Iranian retaliation.

Several of these countries including Saudi Arabia and UAE have already declared they will not allow their territories to be used in any military strike against Iran.

Meanwhile, Araghchi traveled to Turkey to discuss the issue with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday.

Most of the countries in the region, including Turkey have opposed possible US military aggression against Iran claiming that would have larger regional consequences. They have called for political resolution of differences instead.

EU sanctions

Meanwhile, close US ally European Union (EU) imposed fresh sanctions on several Iranian officials and designated its Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s Corp as a “terrorist organization” on Thursday.

The EU accused the individuals and IRGC of “serious human rights violations” and “killing thousands of protesters” during the recent nationwide protests.

Iran has called the EU’s move “spiteful, hasty and desperate” and “legally inconsistent with international law.”

Over 3,100 Iranians, including civilians and security forces, were killed during weeks-long protests which began over rising economic hardships in the country. Iran claims the protests were hijacked by foreign elements backed by Israel and the US seeking regime change in the country.

Reacting to the EU’s sanctions on Thursday, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament questioned their understanding of terrorism, claiming the IRGC is “one of the strongest and most effective anti-terrorism forces in the world.”

He also claimed that “only those who stand with terrorism deny the IRGC’s record in combating Daesh” or ISIS as it is commonly known and warned that support of terrorism will bring nothing but regret to the European countries, IRNA reported.

The EU has already imposed several sanctions on Iranian entities over Iran’s alleged violations of, now expired nuclear deal, its alleged supply of weapons to Russia and its human rights violations.

The post Iran says if attacked militarily, its response will not be “limited” appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/54502961

Elon Musk's SpaceX has applied to launch one million satellites into Earth's orbit to power artificial intelligence (AI).

The application claims "orbital data centres" are the most cost and energy-efficient way to meet the growing demand for AI computing power.

Traditionally, such centres are large warehouses full of powerful computers that process and store data. Musk's aerospace firm claims processing needs due to the expanding use of AI are already outpacing "terrestrial capabilities".

It would increase the number of SpaceX satellites in orbit drastically. Its existing Starlink network of nearly 10,000 satellites has already been accused of creating congestion in space, which Musk denies.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/42545996

[from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Cuba’s legendary Jazz Plaza festival expands outside Havana this year, bringing musicians from the U.S. and around the world to the island. More than just music, it’s about resilience and resistance.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7519009

Snip:

The Sao Paulo Forum condemned the new measure imposed by the US administration against Cuba on Friday, January 30, calling it “absurd coercion.”

[...]

The measure responds to an executive order signed by the US president declaring a national emergency and establishing tariffs on goods from countries that sell or supply oil to Cuba.

This action represents an intensification of the blockade, which has lasted for more than six decades, and is part of Washington’s maximum pressure policy against the island, justified under false pretenses of US national security interests and foreign policy.

Faced with this scenario, the Sao Paulo Forum called on defenders of the sovereignty of nations to act immediately in defense of Cuba.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7518423

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/24135

Caracas, January 30, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan National Assembly has approved a sweeping reform of the country’s 2001 Hydrocarbon Law that rolls back the state’s role in the energy sector in favor of private capital.

Legislators unanimously endorsed the bill at its second discussion on Thursday, with only opposition deputy Henrique Capriles abstaining. The legislative overhaul follows years of US sanctions against the Venezuelan oil industry and a naval blockade imposed in December.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez hailed the vote a “historic day” and claimed the new bill will lead oil production to “skyrocket.”

“The reform will make the oil sector much more competitive for national and foreign corporations to extract crude,” he told reporters. “We are implementing mechanisms that have proven very successful.”

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez signed and enacted the law after the parliamentary session, claiming that the industry will be guided by “the best international practices” and undertake a “historic leap forward.”

Former President Hugo Chávez revamped the country’s oil legislation in 2001 and introduced further reforms in 2006 and 2007 to assert the Venezuelan state’s primacy over the industry. Policies included a mandatory stakeholding majority for state oil company PDVSA in joint ventures, PDVSA control over operations and sales, and increased royalties and income tax to 30 and 50 percent, respectively. Increased oil revenues bankrolled the Venezuelan government’s expanded social programs in the 2000s.

The text approved during Thursday’s legislative session, following meetings between Venezuelan authorities and oil executives, went further than the draft preliminarily endorsed one week earlier.

The final version of the legislation establishes 30 percent as an upper bound for royalties, with the Venezuelan government given the discretionary power to determine the rate for each project. A 33 percent extraction tax in the present law was scrapped in favor of an “integrated hydrocarbon tax” to be set by the executive with a 15 percent limit.

Similarly, the Venezuelan government can reduce income taxes for companies involved in oil activities while also granting several other fiscal exemptions. The bill cites the “need to ensure international competitiveness” as a factor to be considered when decreasing royalty and tax demands for private corporations.

The reform additionally grants operational and sales control to minority partners and private contractors. PDVSA can furthermore lease out oilfields and projects in exchange for a fixed portion of extracted crude. The new legislation likewise allows disputes to be settled by outside arbitration instances.

Thursday’s legislative reform was immediately followed by a US Treasury general license allowing US corporations to re-engage with the Venezuelan oil sector.

General License 46 (GL46) authorizes US firms to purchase and market Venezuelan crude while demanding that contracts be subjected to US jurisdiction so potential disputes are referred to US courts. The license bars transactions with companies from Russia, Iran, North Korea, or Cuba. Concerning China, it only blocks dealings with Venezuelan joint ventures with Chinese involvement.

Economist Francisco Rodríguez pointed out that the sanctions waiver does not explicitly allow for production or investment and that companies would require an additional license before signing contracts with Venezuelan authorities.

GL46 also mandates that payments to blocked agents, including PDVSA, be made to the US Foreign Government Deposit Funds or another account defined by the US Treasury Department.

Following the January 3 military strikes and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has vowed to take control of the Venezuelan oil industry by administering crude transactions. Proceeds from initial sales have been deposited in US-run bank accounts in Qatar, with a portion rerouted to Caracas for forex injections run by private banks. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed that the resources will begin to be channeled to US Treasury accounts in the near future.

In a press conference on Friday, Trump said his administration is “very happy” with the actions of Venezuelan authorities and would soon invite other countries to get involved in the Caribbean nation’s oil industry. Rubio had previously argued that Caracas “deserved credit” for the oil reform that “eradicates Chávez-era restrictions on private investments.”

Despite the White House’s calls for substantial investment, Western oil corporations have expressed reservations over major projects in the Venezuelan energy sector. Chevron, the largest US company operating in the country, stated that it is looking to fund increased production with revenues from oil sales as opposed to new capital commitments.

Since 2017, Venezuela’s oil industry has been under wide-reaching US unilateral coercive measures, including financial sanctions and an export embargo, in an effort to strangle the country’s most important revenue source. The US Treasury Department has also levied and threatened secondary sanctions against third-country companies to deter involvement in the Venezuelan petroleum sector.

The post Venezuela Approves Pro-Business Oil Reform as Trump Issues New Sanctions Waiver appeared first on Venezuelanalysis.

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