Cuba's government says US is in no position to indict Raúl Castro after 'extrajudicial executions' of nearly 200 alleged drug smugglers
In a statement posted on the website of Cuba’s state-controlled newspaper, Granma, the Cuban government rejected the US indictment of Raúl Castro for killing four Cuban American activists in the 1996 downing of two civilian planes.
The statement, which was also posted on the Cuban ministry of foreign affairs website in Spanish but not in English, went on to accuse the US government of hypocrisy, given that the indictment was sought after the Trump administration has carried out nearly 200 “extrajudicial executions” of suspected drug smugglers, in 58 airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since last September.
Instead of the government statement, the English-language version of Granma currently features a call, from the National Bureau of the Young Communists League, for Cubans take part in a national “day of celebration for Raúl’s 95th birthday” on 3 June.
Updated
Here's a recap of what has happened so far today
-
US indicts former Cuban president Raúl Castro as it intensifies pressure. The US has issued a federal criminal indictment against Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president, on Wednesday, and five others in a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to oust the country’s six-decade-old communist regime.
-
Alongside his usual boastful claims that Iran’s navy and air force are “gone”, Trump said the only question now is whether the United States goes back to finish the job or if Iran will sign a document. He also said there would be no escalation with Cuba.
-
Netanyahu “will do whatever I want him to do”, says Trump when asked about Israel holding off on striking Iran. Trump also cited a poll that gave him 99% approval in Israel. The Guardian US has not yet verified this poll. “I could run for prime minister, so maybe after I do this, I’ll go to Israel and run for prime minister,” he said.
-
January 6 police officers sue Trump over $1.8bn fund, alleging “presidential corruption”. Two police officers who clashed with rioters at the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection in 2021 have sued Donald Trump over plans to create a $1.776bn “anti-weaponization” fund.
-
Barney Frank, one of first out gay members of Congress, dies aged 86. The former US representative died on Tuesday night.
Updated
Trump remarked on the IRS settlement, saying that he was suing the agency for a lot of reasons.
“One of the reasons is they released my tax returns, which you’re not allowed to do,” he said. “Now they show I pay a lot of tax. I may even release my current returns because they show I pay a lot of money, but they’re not supposed to do that.”
Raúl Castro’s indictment comes at a time when tensions between Cuba and the US are already high.
Castro is facing the type of indictment that led to the abduction of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January by US forces.
Although Castro is officially retired, he remains the most potent figure in Cuban politics after the death of his brother, Fidel, in 2016, and by targeting him Washington appears to be heaping pressure on Cuba’s communist leadership at the end of an already extraordinarily intense week.
The indictment has come days after the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, flew into Havana for a meeting with the Cuban ex-president’s grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro and senior government figures.
Ratcliffe’s arrival in turn occurred after a night in which protests spread across the island’s capital, as people struggled with 22-hour blackouts. Vicente de la O Levy, Cuba’s energy minister, had earlier admitted the island was out of fuel oil. “We have absolutely nothing,” he told state television.
For the last four months the US has imposed a strict oil blockade on Cuba, allowing only one Russian crude carrier, the Anatoly Kolodkin, in for what Trump claimed were humanitarian reasons.
Updated
Trump says 'there won't be an escalation' with Cuba
Speaking to reporters Wednesday afternoon, after the indictment against Raúl Castro was announced in Miami, Trump said there would be no escalation with Cuba.
“There won’t be an escalation. I don’t think there needs to be,” said Trump. “Look, the place is falling apart. They’ve really lost control of Cuba.”
When asked if there would be a Maduro-style arrest, he said: “I don’t want to say that.”
Updated
Progressive Chris Rabb wins closely watched Democratic primary in Pennsylvania: ‘We are indomitable’
Chris Rabb, an unflinching progressive state representative, declared his campaign for Pennsylvania’s third congressional district was “indomitable” after winning the Democratic primary in a race that became a proxy battle over the direction of the Democratic party.
In a significant victory for the party’s left wing, Rabb took roughly 45% of the vote in Tuesday’s contest, comfortably ahead of the early frontrunner, state senator Sharif Street, who garnered under 30%, and surgeon Ala Stanford.
Rabb addressed supporters, in an emotional victory speech, who had powered a grassroots campaign backed by the Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families party. “I have been critiqued along this campaign for being too radical, being too bold,” he told the crowd. “They ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Framing his win as a populist breakthrough, Rabb called the result “a triumph of the many over the money” before issuing a warning to those who might seek to undermine the movement his campaign had built. “They’re going to try and tear us apart. We’re not going to let that happen,” he said. “We are indomitable.”
The district, which includes most of Philadelphia’s urban core, is the bluest in the US: Kamala Harris won 88% of its votes in the 2024 presidential election, as the rest of the country re-elected Donald Trump.
Updated
When asked by an NBC reporter if the announcement of the indictment is partly a pretext to push for regime change in Cuba, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said: “We turned in an indictment and that’s what we are here to talk about. If people want to speculate, I don’t care.”
Updated
Ashley Moody, a senator from Florida, read out the penalty sheet for Raúl Castro, as advised by the southern district of Florida, US district court: one count of conspiracy to kill US nationals, two counts for destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder.
Updated
The FBI conducted 16 cases to bring this indictment together, said Christopher Raia, the FBI’s deputy director.
The investigators reopened many cold cases over 30 years.
“To anyone who spies on our country or who harms our citizens, remember the FBI has a long memory,” said Raia. “We will come after you.”
Updated
“According to the indictment, Raúl Castro, then minister of the Cuban revolutionary armed forces, authorized and oversaw a military command that ended with Cuban fighter jets firing air-to-air missiles at civilian aircraft over international waters,” said Jason Reding Quinones, the US attorney for the southern district of Florida.
Those missiles killed all onboard, and for 30 years those families have waited for accountability, he said.
“This is the first time in almost 70 years that a senior leader in the Cuban regime has been charged in the US for acts of violence resulting in the death of Americans,” he said.
Updated
Todd Blanche announces Raúl Castro indictment
The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, is speaking at a news conference about the indictment of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro.
“There’s a reason why myself and the leadership are here and not in New York to announce this indictment,” said Blanche from Miami, Florida. “The community here understands the Cuban regime better than anyone in America. Many families know the cost of oppression.”
Today’s indictment makes a statement that those who lost their lives 30 years ago have not been forgotten, he said.
Updated
US indicts former Cuban president Raúl Castro as it intensifies pressure
The United States has issued a federal criminal indictment against Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president, on Wednesday, and five others in a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to oust the country’s six-decade-old communist regime.
The 94-year-old political figurehead was charged in Miami, Florida, with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft, according to court filings obtained by CBS.
Other defendants are a fighter pilot who was initially charged in connection with a 1996 incident in which four men were killed by the Cuban military when their aircraft was shot down during a humanitarian mission in the Florida straits.
Castro is alleged to have given the order to open fire.
The indictment comes at a time of heightened tension between the US and Cuba, with Donald Trump threatening military action against the Cuban government, and an energy crisis created by a tight US oil embargo causing rolling blackouts and prompting protests in the capital.
Miami’s Freedom Tower, where more than half a million Cuban refugees were processed as immigrants between 1962 and 1974 after fleeing Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, provided a symbolic backdrop for the announcement.
Updated
Trump also again touted the US naval blockade of Iranian ports as “successful”.
They call it the wall of steel, nobody goes through it … We have ships that tried to go through it … and they say DO NOT PROCEED FURTHER OR WE WILL SHOOT.
After painting an image of “a young handsome captain” telling ships not to proceed via “the greatest loudspeaker system”, Trump then impersonated an Iranian man after his ship was hit by US forces, while mispronouncing “Iran”, and said the ship turned around. “Nobody violates it, nobody,” Trump went on.
It’s unclear what incident Trump was referring to in these surreal remarks.
While the US Central Command has successfully intercepted and redirected dozens of ships during the blockade, several Iranian-linked and dark fleet vessels have slipped through.
Updated
Trump says US 'may have to hit Iran harder – or maybe not'
In further remarks on Iran, Trump told cadets he thought Tehran “so badly” wanted to make a deal, but added:
We will not let Iran have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple. We will not let that happen.
We’ll see what happens. We hit them very hard. We may have to hit them even harder – but maybe not.
Updated
In the middle of remarks about the US’s purchase of icebreakers from Finland, Donald Trump once again joked about being president for an unconstitutional third term.
For context, Washington signed a $6bn agreement with Finland last year to purchase 11 new icebreakers, which can sail through seas covered with ice, reflective of Trump’s focus on the Arctic region – including his preoccupation with Greenland.
He told the crowd at the at the United States Coast Guard Academy:
I said, ‘When’s the first one coming?’, and they said, ‘2028.’ I said, ‘I’ll be here in 2028’ – maybe I’ll be here in ‘32 too, I don’t know.
There was some whooping from the crowd in response.
Trump has repeatedly joked about running for a third term despite it being prohibited under the US constitution.
Earlier this month, for example, he jested during a White House address to business leaders about leaving office “in eight or nine years from now”.
Updated
Trump on Iran: 'Do we finish it up or do they sign a document?'
Alongside his usual boastful claims that Iran’s navy and air force are “gone”, Donald Trump said the only question now is whether the United States goes back to finish the job or if Iran will sign a document.
Everything’s gone. Their navy’s gone. Their air force is gone. Just about everything. The only question is, do we go and finish it up? Are they going to be signing a document? Let’s see what happens.
Earlier, the president told reporters he was in no rush to bring his war on Iran to an end, and said achieving the mission’s objectives was more important than setting a timeline for its conclusion.
As my colleague Yohannes Lowe reports, Trump’s comments come as a durable peace deal seems increasingly elusive and amid warnings that the US is weighing up restarting military attacks.
Analysts say both Tehran and Washington want to avoid a new round of hostilities but neither are willing to pay the political price of the concessions necessary to secure a peace agreement.
The White House said in early April that Trump’s objectives in Iran were to “obliterate Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and production capability, annihilate its navy, sever its support for terrorist proxies, and ensure the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism never acquires a nuclear weapon.”
While there is little doubt that waves of US and Israeli airstrikes have heavily degraded Iran’s military capabilities, many of Trump’s core objectives remain unfulfilled and he is now essentially trying to get back to the status quo of the strait of Hormuz being freely open to international vessels.
A stockpile of highly enriched uranium is also still believed to remain buried following US-Israeli airstrikes last June, Iran still supports proxy militant groups such as Lebanon-based Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen, and Iran reportedly retains much of its prewar missile stockpile despite US-Israeli attacks.
You can follow all our coverage of the war over on the Middle East live blog:
Updated
President Trump has arrived at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, where he will be giving the commencement speech in a few minutes. He has spoken at the Academy at least once before.
Updated
Barney Frank, one of first openly gay members of Congress, dies aged 86
Barney Frank, the former US representative who made history as one of the first openly gay members of Congress, died on Tuesday night. He was 86.
Frank, a Democrat of Massachusetts who represented the state in the US House of Representatives from 1981 to 2013, entered hospice care at his home in Maine last month, Politico reported. He had been dealing with congestive heart failure.
Born in New Jersey in 1940, was a key figure behind the biggest shake-up of US financial regulations since the Great Depression, as chair of the House financial services committee from 2007 to 2011.
The sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which Frank co-sponsored, bolstered oversight of the financial sector in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. Signed into law by Barack Obama in 2010, the law cracked down on lending practices and expanded consumer protections.
The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement on his death and life’s work:
“During his 32 years in the House, Congress and the Country were well-served by Barney Frank’s passion, his persistence and his patriotism. In the wake of the financial crisis, he was a force for reining in an out-of-control financial system: crafting the landmark Dodd-Frank reforms, establishing a consumer financial protection agency and improving transparency in the markets. For many years, we fought side by side to bring down the cost of housing and expand housing opportunities for those living with HIV/AIDS.
As the first Member to come out as gay publicly, Chairman Frank was a pioneering and powerful voice for the LGBTQ community. All were moved by how he spoke about the discrimination he faced. He channeled that personal experience into passionate leadership to enact the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and to send the bigoted ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy to the dustbin of history.”
January 6 police officers sue Trump over $1.8bn fund, alleging ‘presidential corruption’
Two police officers who clashed with rioters at the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection in 2021 have sued Donald Trump over plans to create a $1.776bn “anti-weaponization” fund.
The fund, which critics have argued is essentially a slush fund, is set to compensate allies of the US president who he claims were victims of prosecutorial overreach.
It was created as part of an agreement in which Trump and his sons dropped a $10bn long-shot lawsuit against the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Harry Dunn, a retired US Capitol police officer, and Daniel Hodges, a Metropolitan police department officer, filed a complaint in US district court in Washington DC on Tuesday.
“In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” the lawsuit says.
Todd Blanche, acting attorney general, and Scott Bessent, treasury secretary, are also named as defendants.
When Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich asked the president a question, Trump’s response was to tell reporters that her husband Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican congressman, has voted against him.
“Her husband votes against me all the time. Can you imagine? I don’t know what’s with him,” said Trump. “You better ask what’s with him. He likes voting against Trump. You know what happens with that? It doesn’t work out well.”
Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican has built his career on a brand of bipartisanship, has served in the House since 2017 and won re‑election in 2024. He has broken with Trump and his party on several issue. Last year, he voted against the “one big, beautiful bill”.
Trump has a history of attacking the media and of dodging questions by distracting reporters and audiences.
Trump told reporters Wednesday that the proposed White House ballroom is also a “strong military position”.
“The ballroom is being built, I’m building the ballroom,” he said. “It’s a military complex. The roof is actually a drone port. It gives great safety to everything below it.”
Netanyahu 'will do whatever I want him to do', says Trump when asked about Israel holding off on striking Iran
In response to a question on Wednesday morning about how long Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, will hold on before re-starting strikes on Iran, Trump said: “He’s fine. He’ll do whatever I want him to do.”
Trump also cited a poll that gave him 99% approval in Israel. Guardian US has not yet verified this poll.
“I could run for prime minister, so maybe after I do this, I’ll go to Israel and run for prime minister,” he said.
Updated
Immigration activists whose homes were raided accuse federal agents of intimidation campaign
Federal agents have raided the homes of three southern California immigration activists in what the activists allege is the latest escalation in a Trump administration campaign to harass a volunteer-led advocacy group that organizes neighborhood ICE-watch patrols.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the main investigatory branch of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), executed a pre-dawn raid on 13 May at the home and business of Leonardo Martinez, whose group VC Defensa runs a rapid response hotline and supports immigrant families across Ventura county. The homes of two other current and former VC Defensa volunteers were also targeted. No arrests were made.
Members of the group were previously arrested in an HSI operation last October in connection with protests over massive immigration raids at cannabis greenhouses last July. VC Defensa alerted the community to the July raids after a government convoy headed to the greenhouses was spotted, rallying large numbers of protesters to the scene.
The July raids led to the death of a farm worker and hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests, while immigration agents, flanked by the national guard, deployed less-lethal ammunition at demonstrators.
Cuban American lawmakers push for indictment of Raul Castro
Cuban American lawmakers hosted a news conference to push for the indictment of Raul Castro, a 94-year-old former Cuban leader and brother of Fidel Castro, ahead of an expected announcement of his indictment from Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general.
Florida congressman Mario Diaz-Balart said there was a big announcement coming from Miami.
“We have a president now who won’t look the other way,” he said. “The day of justice is finally arriving.”
Cuban American leaders, including Florida congressman Carlos Gimenez, Nicole Malliotakis, a representative from New York, and Florida congresswoman Maria Salazar, praised the Trump administration for bringing Castro to justice.
The move towards indictment is a further step in the Trump administration’s campaign against the country. Economic sanctions on the island nation are already tight, additional political and military officials were sanctioned this week and Trump has repeatedly threatened to topple the country’s regime if diplomacy fails.
“Finally the Trump administration has taken notice,” said Gimenez Wednesday morning. “Justice come a little late but justice will be served.”
Raul Castro could be indicted for his role in shooting down civilian aircraft 30 years ago that killed three Americans who were carrying out humanitarian missions in the Florida strait, said Diaz-Balart.
The event precipitated the longstanding embargo on Cuba that is in place today.
Salazar said she represents South Florida, the heart of the Cuban exile community, who have been waiting for this moment for three decades and that Cubans want to feel safe.
Updated
Georgia mayor who fired town’s entire police force resigns, citing family ‘health concerns’
The mayor of Georgia has resigned shortly after firing his community’s entire police department, a step that the local governing council ultimately reversed – but that he nonetheless took amid a political spat pitting him and his wife against members of the force.
In a 15 May resignation letter that the Guardian reviewed, Ron Shinnick avoided mentioning his attempted termination of the Cohutta police department, word of which gained international media attention. The letter instead said Shinnick had opted to vacate the mayoral post he had held since 2014 due to “health concerns” faced by family members outside Cohutta.
“This decision was not made lightly,” Shinnick wrote in his resignation letter, to which he assigned immediate effect. “But I believe it is in the best interest of both the town and myself at this time.”
Shinnick, 70, had dismissed Cohutta’s police chief and 10 officers by 6 May. A sign posted in the town of roughly 930 people announced the dissolution of its police department and advised anyone in need of help to call a non-emergency county government telephone number.
Later, Shinnick said he acted against the police department over some comments that officers made on social media. A police sergeant maintained the matter involved a complaint officers had raised about Shinnick’s wife, Pam, who had served as the town’s clerk before being fired in January.
This morning Trump continued to post on Truth Social about the congressmen, governor, lieutenant governor and senator he had endorsed who won their primaries on Tuesday.
In his 13 posts he named Republican winners from Idaho, Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky, and at the end had a summary post citing that 100% of candidates endorsed by him, 37 by his count, have won their races.
Trump is giving the commencement speech to the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut at 11am today, where he is likely to speak more about these wins.
Georgia’s Republican races for governor and US Senate head to June runoffs
The Republican primary campaign for Georgia governor will go to a June runoff, with the lieutenant governor Burt Jones facing off against healthcare billionaire and political newcomer Rick Jackson – and locking out Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state and longtime political enemy of Donald Trump who was on track to finish a distant third.
Jackson, a political newcomer who was relatively unknown in the state, upended the contest by pouring nearly $50mn of his own money into campaign advertising. Republican candidates spent more than $100m in total, according to tracking figures from AdImpact.
Jones, who has been endorsed by Trump, and Jackson will continue their showdown on 16 June, which has soaked up almost all of the available advertising inventory on Georgia television.
The Democratic primary was relatively genteel compared to dueling attack advertising among Republicans.
Despite predictions of a runoff, former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic primary for governor with a decisive margin, with support from former president Joe Biden. You can read the full story here:
The EU has finally agreed to implement a trade deal with the US after hours of talks between members of the European parliament and member states, likely averting a threat by Donald Trump to punish any more stalling with steep tariffs, including on cars and trucks imported from the bloc. You can read more in this story by my colleague Lisa O’Carroll:
Trump claims '100%' of his endorsements won in Republican primaries
Donald Trump has posted to Truth Social claiming that “100%” of his endorsements in the 19 May Republican primaries won in their races, citing clean sweeps in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Idaho, Oregon and Kentucky.
Republicans backed by Trump either won or were in first place in the primaries in Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky on Tuesday. Idaho’s three longtime congressional incumbents, all Republicans supported by Trump, easily won their party’s nominations in yesterday’s primary election. A small number of races, however, remain unsettled and are heading to runoffs.
Updated
Other election results poured in as polls closed in Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Idaho and Oregon.
Among the most notable: US senator Tommy Tuberville won the Republican nomination for Alabama governor, former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic nomination for governor in Georgia and state representative Chris Rabb won the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania’s third congressional district.
In Georgia, lieutenant governor Burt Jones and healthcare executive Rick Jackson will advance to a runoff in the Republican primary for the governor’s race, while congressmen Mike Collins and Derek Dooley will advance to a runoff for the Republican nomination to compete against Democrat Jon Ossoff for his senate seat this November.
Opening summary: Trump tightens grip on GOP after Thomas Massie defeated in Kentucky primary
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Donald Trump has tightened his grip on the Republican party after the independent-minded Congressman Thomas Massie was defeated in the Kentucky Republican House primary by the president’s hand-picked challenger.
Massie lost by a vote of 55% to 45%, in what became the most expensive House primary in US history, reportedly drawing over $32m in spending.
Trump repeatedly called for voters to back Ed Gallrein, a retired navy Seal and farmer, over the incumbent Massie who had drawn the president’s ire after breaking with him on several high-profile issues, including the war on Iran, the release of the Epstein files and his signature tax bill.
“There is a yearning in this country for somebody who will vote for principles over party,” Massie said in his concession speech.
“If the legislative branch always votes whichever way the wind is blowing, then we have mob rule,” he added.
Massie’s defeat was the latest in a series of successful proxy battles Trump has fought which have ousted dissenting Republican incumbents – in states like Indiana and Louisiana – by endorsing a more loyal challenger.
The election took place as voters in five other states – Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho – went to the polls on Tuesday, to decide their nominees for the November election in what was the biggest primary night of the year so far. We’ll bring you a round up of these results shortly.
The next major test of Trump’s influence is in Texas, where the state’s controversial attorney general, Ken Paxton, has just secured the president’s endorsement in his bid to unseat four-term incumbent Republican senator John Cornyn in next week’s Republican primary run-off race.
Updated
