by Jake Johnson | Mar 30, 2026 | Article, cuba, Oil, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Russia, Trump
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 30, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that his administration would let a Russia-owned tanker carrying an estimated 730,000 barrels of oil to reach Cuba, loosening the illegal fuel blockade that has intensified the island’s already-grave humanitarian crisis.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said that “if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem,” backing off his previous threat to tariff any nation that supplied the besieged island with fuel. Cuba has not received any oil imports since January 9, sparking nationwide blackouts and food shortages and leaving hospitals without critical supplies—with deadly consequences for patients.
Trump insisted that the oil on the Russian tanker—which experts say is enough to buy Cuba at least several weeks of energy—is “not going to have an impact,” declaring, “Cuba is finished.”
“They have a bad regime, and they have very bad and corrupt leadership,” added Trump, who presides over what analysts have deemed the most corrupt administration in US history. “Whether or not they get a boat of oil is not going to matter.”
Reporter: There’s a report that the US is going to let a Russian oil tanker go to Cuba? Trump: If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba, I have no problem with that.Reporter: Do you worry that that helps Putin?Trump: It doesn’t help him. He loses one boatload of oil.… pic.twitter.com/8Vh6gHwaxs— Acyn (@Acyn) March 30, 2026
Trump’s comments came after The New York Times reported that, “barring orders instructing it otherwise,” the US Coast Guard would not intercept the Russian tanker as it approached Cuba.
The Russian vessel, known
by Kenny Bruno | Mar 21, 2026 | Donald Trump, elections, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Iran, iran war, Israel, Liquified Natural Gas, LNG, Oil, Op-Ed, Russia, Trump Administration, War, war in Iran
Operation Epic Fury makes perfect sense. To understand it, you simply have to ignore previous political and military norms. The simplest explanation is that the war fits Donald Trump’s two primary principles: enrichment and domination. The consensus on the left is that the U.S. war on Iran is impulsive, senseless, incomprehensible, illogical, not strategic, and not in the U.S. national interest.
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by Jon Letman | Feb 24, 2026 | Europe, France, Germany, Greenland, New START Treaty, News, Nuclear Weapons, Russia, Ukraine
For more than 70 years, the United States has practiced what it calls extended deterrence, which includes the so-called “nuclear umbrella” for its NATO allies in Europe. Countries under the umbrella agree not to develop their own nuclear weapons with the understanding that the U.S. could use its nuclear weapons on their behalf in certain circumstances. In addition to some 80,000 U.S.
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by Brett Wilkins | Feb 5, 2026 | Article, China, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Russia
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 04, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday implicitly confirmed that New START—a key arms control treaty between the United States and Russia—will expire Thursday, prompting renewed demands for what one group called “a more coherent approach from the Trump administration” toward nuclear nonproliferation.
Asked about the impending expiration of New START during a Wednesday press conference, Rubio said he didn’t “have any announcement” on the matter, and that President Donald Trump “will opine on it later.”
“Obviously, the president’s been clear in the past that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it’s impossible to do something that doesn’t include China because of their vast and rapidly growing stockpile,” Rubio said.
🇺🇸🇷🇺🇨🇳 Secretary of State Marco Rubio:I don’t have any announcement on New START right now. I think the President will opine on it later. The President has been clear in the past that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it’s impossible to do something that… pic.twitter.com/8pxi3bfdsy— Visioner (@visionergeo) February 4, 2026
New START, signed in 2010, committed the United States and Russia to halving the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers in their arsenals. While the treaty did not limit the size of the countries’ actual nuclear arsenals, proponents pointed to its robust verification regime and other transparency features as mutually beneficial highlights of the agreement.
“We have known that New START would end for 15 years, but no one has shown the necessary leadership to be prepared for its expiration,” said John Erath, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and former longtime
