by Jake Johnson | Feb 27, 2026 | Article, cuba, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 26, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
The Cuban government said Wednesday that the men on a Florida-registered boat who opened fire on Cuban soldiers in the island’s territorial waters were bent on carrying out “an infiltration for terrorist purposes.”
In a statement following news that Cuban forces had killed four people on the boat, the besieged Caribbean nation’s Interior Ministry said the vessel was carrying 10 men, all “Cuban nationals residing in the United States.”
The ministry said it seized assault rifles, explosives, body armor, and other items from the boat and identified seven of its passengers, six of whom were detained. Four men on the boat—which, according to reports, was last purchased in 2022—were killed in the gunfight with Cuban soldiers, who had reportedly “approached the vessel for identification.”
Cuban authorities also said another individual, Duniel Hernández Santos, was arrested “within national territory.” The Interior Ministry said Santos “had allegedly been sent from the United States to facilitate the landing and reception of the armed group and has confessed to his role.”
“The investigation remains ongoing until all facts have been fully established,” the ministry said.
Participants in Foiled Armed Infiltration in Villa Clara IdentifiedAs part of the ongoing investigation into the armed attack against a patrol vessel of the Border Guard Troops of the Ministry of the Interior, in the northeastern area of the El Pino channel, at Cayo Falcones,… pic.twitter.com/s9IFmUkqvk— Cuban Embassy in US (@EmbaCubaUS) February 26, 2026
The deadly incident came as Cuba continued to reel from the Trump administration’s recent intensification of decades-long economic warfare against the island. The administration is “actively seeking regime change in Cuba,” according to Wall
by Adam Johnson | Feb 25, 2026 | Article, Democrats, Iran, Opinion, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Trump
Just as they did with the Venezuelan attack in early January, the ongoing starvation of Cuba, and the bombing of Iran last summer, Democratic leadership in Congress is once again throwing its de facto support behind Trump’s militarism with conspicuous silence and limp process criticisms, suppressing genuine pushback and working to prop up every premise of his bellicosity. As Democrats shrug in the face of a build up to war with Iran, it’s clear once again that, when it comes to matters of bombing, sanctions, genocide, and wars of aggression, the US functionally has no opposition party.Despite it being over a week since Trump began his massive military buildup targeting Iran, neither Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries has released a single press release or social media post about Iran or the threats Trump is leveling against it. And when they do discuss it, always after being forced to by reporters, they hand-wring in vague terms or make process criticisms about Trump not “making his case to the American people” or some other such shallow critique. Schumer, in particular, refuses to criticize a war on Iran in principle, only complaining about Trump filling out the right paperwork:
.@SenSchumer on potential Iran strikes, ahead of Congressional closed-door briefing: “The administration has to make its case to the American people as something as important as this.” pic.twitter.com/1qNKFCnyob— CSPAN (@cspan) February 24, 2026
Despite the fact that only 14% of Democrats support an attack on Iran and 75% explicitly oppose it, this anti-war sentiment is nowhere to be found in Democratic leadership who refuse to support, and are likely suppressing, a war powers resolution proposed by
by Glenn Diesen | Feb 25, 2026 | Article, Europe, NATO, Politics and Movements: International, Reprint, Russia, Ukraine
by Brett Wilkins | Feb 25, 2026 | Article, Epstein, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 24, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee announced Tuesday that an investigation will be opened into the US Department of Justice’s withholding of Epstein files related to an alleged sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl committed by President Donald Trump decades ago.
“For the last few weeks, Oversight Democrats have been investigating the FBI’s handling of allegations from 2019 of sexual assault on a minor made against President Donald Trump by a survivor,” Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
“Yesterday, I reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the Department of Justice. Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes,” he continued. “Oversight Democrats will open a parallel investigation into this.”
“Under the Oversight Committee’s subpoena and the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these records must immediately be shared with Congress and the American public,” Garcia added. “Covering up direct evidence of a potential assault by the president of the United States is the most serious possible crime in this White House cover-up.”
Oversight Dems have access to a list of documents, including interviews detailing serious allegations against President Trump, that are missing from the DOJ’s so-called “unredacted” files.Where are the missing files? What do they say? This all points to yet another cover up.— Rep. Robert Garcia (@robertgarcia.house.gov) 2026-02-24T22:21:35.629Z
The Trump administration is accused of continuously flouting the Epstein Files Transparency Act—which mandated that all materials related to convicted child sex criminal and longtime former Trump friend Jeffrey Epstein be released by December 19. But critically, the law gives Attorney General Pam Bondi wide discretion to redact
by Glenn Diesen | Feb 24, 2026 | Article, China, Opinion, Politics and Movements: International, Reprint, Russia
by Jake Johnson | Feb 24, 2026 | Article, Iran, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 24, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
President Donald Trump admitted Monday that a US assault on Iran would be disastrous for the Middle East nation’s people as he considers options for a military attack, reportedly drawing private warnings from the United States’ top general.
In a Truth Social post, Trump pushed back against reports that Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has voiced concerns about the potentially massive risks of attacking Iran, a country of more than 90 million people. Trump has previously claimed that Caine believed any military conflict with Iran would be “something easily won.”
“He has not spoken of not doing Iran, or even the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about, he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack,” Trump wrote of Caine in his Monday post.
The US president—who blew up a landmark diplomatic agreement with Iran during his first term—added that if a new deal with the Iranian government doesn’t materialize, “it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people, because they are great and wonderful, and something like this should never have happened to them.”
Trump’s acknowledgment that a US military assault would likely be devastating for ordinary Iranians runs counter to the narrative pushed by supporters of war, who claim conflict and regime change is necessary to aid Iran’s population.
“The stakes are clear,” the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy organization that has vocally opposed a US attack on Iran, wrote late Monday. “President
