The Latest Breaking News from Cuba

Congressional Democrats want to restart a federal program that reunites Cuban families in the United States, years after application processing for the program ceased after U.S. government personnel in Havana became mysteriously ill.

MIAMI — The Biden administration is expected to announce a partial staffing increase in the U.S. Embassy in Havana that will help address a yearslong visa backlog affecting thousands of Cuban American families, a source familiar with the plan said.

A bipartisan group of Florida members of Congress filed a bill that would rename the street in front of the Cuban Embassy in Washington as “Oswaldo Payá Way,” in honor of the late Cuban activist.

Analysis: Economic penalties have been meted out since Napoleon’s day but there’s little proof they achieve the desired outcome

MIAMI — A group of 13 migrants from Cuba arrived in Key West early Sunday evening on a wooden fishing vessel.

The Biden administration is expected to announce as soon as this week a plan to beef up its skeletal staffing in the U.S. embassy in Havana to restore visa processing for Cubans that had been largely suspended since the Trump era, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Cuban artist didn’t sell her first piece until 2004, aged 89, when she was propelled into international renown

This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear the answer to the question about the Nobel Peace Prize-winning NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières. There’s news about the Baha’i festival Ayyam-i-Ha, information on palindromes and ambigrams (!), and contemporary music from Cuba on Music from Erwan. All that and the new quiz…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world, but in many ways Vladimir Putin has been building up to this for some time.

In a carefully worded statement, the Cuban government is blaming the United States for the crisis in Ukraine and backed Russia’s right to “self-defense,” but said the conflict should be resolved diplomatically.

By Dave Sherwood