TV News LIES

Donald Trump has suggested the US could carry out a “friendly takeover” of Cuba as tensions between Washington and Havana reach a new high after the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

As he left the White House for a campaigning event in Texas on Friday, Trump said: “The Cuban government is talking with us. They’re in a big deal of trouble.”

Although he gave no further details, it has been widely reported that US officials had met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of 94-year-old Raúl Castro, on the sidelines of the Caribbean leaders summit, Caricom, as part of negotiations on opening up the island.

Trump said on Friday: “They have no money, they have no anything right now. But they’re talking with us and maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”

The president’s comments come as relations between the two countries have sunk to one of their lowest points in an often bitter 67-year history. The US has cranked up pressure on Cuba’s struggling regime after its successful abduction of Venezuelan president and Cuba ally Nicolás Maduro in January.

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Four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war is still being fought far away from the frontlines – behind locked doors, in windowless cells, and in silence.

Thousands of Ukrainians remain in Russian captivity. Others have returned carrying memories they struggle to put into words.

One of them is Oleksii, a Ukrainian serviceman of the 13th Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard, Khartiia, who spent nearly two years in Russian detention.

Speaking exclusively to Kyiv Post, he described torture, psychological pressure, and what he says was a systematic attempt to erase prisoners as individuals – while clinging to a single reason to survive: his newborn daughter.

“I’m not hiding,” Oleksii said. “You can use my name.”

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The confirmed count of Russian soldiers, officers, sailors and airmen confirmed killed in action or dead of combat injuries in Ukraine has passed 200,000, the research group Mediazona announced on Tuesday, citing new survey findings.

The group, working alongside BBC Russian Service and volunteers in and outside Russia, confirmed all of the Russian military losses, by name, using cross-referenced data from individual obituaries, civil death certificates, geo-located graves, unit rosters, social media updates, funeral announcements, cemetery records and obituaries.

A leak of confidential government data on some 23,000 security checks of individuals found to have been dead by police investigators was a key “breakthrough” for the group’s tracking work, a Mediazona statement said.

As of midday Wednesday, the total count of verified Russian dead in Ukraine stood at 200,186 men. The figure “remains a conservative floor, not a ceiling,” the statement said in part.

Mapping by the group identified 26,600 cities, towns or villages across all thirteen of Russia’s time zones as the homes of men losing their lives in Ukraine. All Russian cities, without exception, have received remains of soldiers sent to Ukraine who then died there, the report said.

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Casualty counts: Over the past 24 hours, seven Palestinians were injured in Israeli attacks in Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 stands at 72,073 killed, with 171,756 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 615 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,658, while 726 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Israeli strikes continue across Gaza, killing one: One Palestinian was killed and several others injured in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahiya on Tuesday, in northern Gaza. Two Palestinians were injured by Israeli gunfire in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. Israeli forces launched airstrikes on areas east of Khan Younis, while Israeli artillery targeted western Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and east of the Bureij refugee camp in the central part of the Strip.

Flooding hits displacement camps in Gaza: Overnight, heavy rains flooded hundreds of displacement tents across the Gaza Strip, with submerged roads in areas like Al-Mawasi prompting urgent rescue calls, according to Civil Defense officials. Israel’s siege is blocking heavy machinery and rescue equipment needed to respond, municipal officials report. UNRWA has warned that shortages of shelter materials have left more than a million displaced people exposed to the rain and cold.

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New York City offers a contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Border Patrol, and the Israeli Defense Forces millions of dollars in rent and construction subsidies, according to leases obtained by Drop Site through a Freedom of Information Law request.

The company, Crye Precision, designs and manufactures “combat proven” tactical gear and clothing for military applications and has been a tenant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard since 2002, according to the website of the city-owned complex.

Incentives offered by the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Crye Precision contrast with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s policy positions. Earlier this month, Mamdani issued an executive order reaffirming the city’s “sanctuary” status and restricting local agencies from collaborating with federal immigration enforcement. The mayor also campaigned extensively against the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The Mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Publicly available federal contracts indicate that Crye Precision received its latest contract from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol and ICE, on January 19. The $40,000 contract for cold weather apparel for the Border Patrol’s Maine sector coincided with ICE’s “surge” in the state, which resulted in the warrantless arrests of more than 200 people, according to the office of Gov. Janet Mills (D).

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Overnight, Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck Russian command posts, ammunition depots, logistics hubs and a repair base in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, including with US-supplied ATACMS missiles, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Tuesday, Feb. 24.

The strikes are part of ongoing efforts to reduce Russia’s offensive capabilities by targeting critical command and supply infrastructure.
Command posts and logistics hit.

Early Tuesday, units of Ukraine’s Rocket Forces and Artillery struck an auxiliary command post of Russia’s 5th Army near Novopetrykivka in the occupied part of the Donetsk region, according to the General Staff

Additional strikes targeted an ammunition and logistics depot near Pryazovske in occupied Donetsk Oblast, as well as another ammunition warehouse near occupied Oleksandrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.

In Yakymivka, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian repair base.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces also hit Russian command infrastructure in the occupied Donetsk region, including a command-and-observation post and a drone control center near Udachne, as well as another drone command post near Pokrovsk.

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