Okay, let’s talk about something that actually feels like a big, long-overdue sigh of relief for a lot of people. After 47 years yes, you read that right, forty-seven the United States has formally taken Syria off its State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
The clock ran out on the mandatory 45-day congressional review period yesterday, August 22nd, 2026, with no moves to block it. Now, it’s just a matter of the State Department publishing the official notice in the Federal Register which, as of this morning (August 23rd), looks like it’s live. So, it’s official: Syria is no longer labeled a state sponsor of terror by Washington.
According to human rights activists, demonstrators were arbitrarily arrested during the mass protests in Cuba. The detainees are therefore denied access to lawyers.
After protests against the government in Cuba, the arrested demonstrators are denied legal assistance. As human rights activists report, lawyers are turned away in the police stations in the Caribbean state. The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) wrote that the courts in Cuba should also be closed for a week, so that no applications could be made during that time. Demonstrators are meanwhile arrested with arbitrariness and violence. Those who are released are forced to stay at home.
On Sunday, thousands of Cubans demonstrated in numerous cities in the country for freedom, against oppression and an economy of shortage. Such protests had not taken place there for decades. Cuba's economy is suffering heavily from the slump in tourism in the pandemic as well as from US sanctions. There is a lack of food and medicines. In addition, the corona numbers have recently increased significantly.
The corona pandemic and US sanctions have plunged Cuba's finances into crisis. The government is countering nationwide protests against the shortage economy with violence.
According to independent journalists, thousands of people have now been arrested three days after the anti-government demonstrations began in Cuba. Among the more than 5,000 arrested are more than 120 activists and journalists, according to the online portal, which had collected reports from the population. On Tuesday, protest movements had reported 144 arrests.
The missile crisis in Cuba was one of the main threats to world peace after World War II
"Good afternoon, fellow citizens, this government, as promised, has maintained a strict watch over the operations of the Soviet Army on the island of Cuba, " with these words US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was beginning a speech called will not change the course of history.
On Oct 22nd is the 55th anniversary of that crucial speech, which was broadcast both on radio and on a television still in black and white, and that paralyzed a nation that listened attentively to each of its 2,434 words, eleven of which coincided : "nuclear".
Some words that would change the world, even if in fact they were uttered precisely to the contrary, so that it would not change, to avoid a possible nuclear holocaust that would have made, the president said, "the fruit of any victory in ashes in our mouths"
At this point, the stage is well known by all. On October 14, 1962, photographs taken by U2 planes from the US intelligence service revealed the presence of eight shuttles and 16 medium-range missiles in the western region of the island.
"It was clear that these strategic weapons, which were reliable and modern, were destined to be managed by the Soviet Union and not to be transferred to Cuba," the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said in an unclassified report.
This information gave way to thirteen days of tension in which any error of calculation could have given rise to a conflict of consequences difficult to imagine.
Fundamental attitude
"The president's attitude was critical to defusing the crisis," Kennedy said. "It was the intention of President Kennedy to avoid any nuclear exchange, whether voluntary or accidental," said Defense Department Chief Erin Mahan.
One of the key measures taken by the leader was the creation of a working group of trusted advisers, most of whom belonged to the National Security Council.
It was this group of experts who called for deaf ears of those responsible for the General Staff, who were betting on an air attack on Cuba, and for opening a negotiation with the Kremlin through non-traditional channels, while blocking the island to avoid the arrival of new weapons.
This decision would be doubly successful, not only because in the end proved to be the correct way to settle the crisis, but also because the air attack would have followed the subsequent landing of US troops on the island and that would have been a serious action failure.
Despite numerous reports by the intelligence services, what US intelligence was unaware of at the time was that Russian troops deployed in Cuba were also equipped with nuclear weapons, which "could have ended" with the troops, Mahan said.
"Through initiatives by unofficial channels, the United States agreed not to invade Cuba and withdraw its missiles from Turkey." (Soviet Nikita) Khrushchev pledged to dismantle and remove Soviet missiles and light bombers from Cuba, "he said. the historian of the Pentagon.
The other key measure of this crisis also had the words as the protagonist and was none other than the historic presidential address. Since in informing the American people, with open hearts, Kennedy was legitimated to act with total freedom knowing that his honesty had gained the support of the whole country.
"The road we have chosen at the moment is full of dangers, like all roads, but it is the most coherent with our character and our value as a nation ... And a road we will never choose is the road to surrender and submission, "Kennedy concluded in his address.
And, in fact, that was the key. Find a way in which there were no losers, but no winners . Possibly the only way he could stop someone from ending that nasty ash taste in his mouth.
Cuban officials were quick to request that the vessel was released promising that there were no drugs, and made no mention of the weapons until two days later , when 220,000 found hidden under sacks of brown sugar, one official said the agency Panamanian Reuters." They said it was all a big misunderstanding", said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Cuba refused to comment on this testimony. There are still doubts about the cargo of sugar and what Cuba called "obsolete" Soviet-era weapons, which he said were sent to North Korea to be repaired. The discovery has put the Asian nation under increasing diplomatic pressure, because it is suspected that the cargo would be violating an arms embargo by the UN against Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The benefits to Cuba for smuggling weapons to North Korea does not appear to outweigh the potential risks, according to experts. "It is disconcerting. 's hard to believe that Cuba would risk so much for so little, "said Frank Mora, senior official at the Pentagon in Latin America during the first term of President Barack Obama. Panamanian officials say the shipment was probably part of an exchange of weapons for sugar. While Cuba needs to modernize its arsenal, experts say that the operation failedsmuggling was so clumsy and ill-conceived that seemed out of place for the Cuban armed forces, usually very disciplined. However, you may not have been the first attempt of this kind. Security experts say thatfive North Korean vessels have transited the Panama Canal in the last three years.One ship, the O A Chong Nyon Ho, passed through the channel and docked in Havana in May 2012. "This shows that both Cuba and North Korea are very isolated and are looking for some mutual comfort . they have few alternatives and do not have much cash, "said Bruce Bagley, an expert on Latin America at the University of Miami and former advisor Panama's intelligence service.
The North Korean-flagged ship held in Panama carrying 240 tons metric defensive armament " obsolete "belonging to Cuba" to be repaired and returned "to the island, according to a Cuban government official statement released Tuesday. The Cuban Foreign Ministry said that such weapons is " two complexes Volga and Pechora anti-aircraft missile Nine rockets in parts and pieces, two Mig-21 Bis aircraft and 15 engines of this type of aircraft, all manufactured in the mid past ". The government statement of Cuba, signed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was read on state television newscast. "The agreements signed by Cuba in this area are based on the need to maintain our defensive capabilities to preserve national sovereignty, "the Cuban official statement, released almost 24 hours after Panama reported the discovery of weapons in North Korean freighter. Panama continued to inspect the North Korean vessel from Cuba whose warehouses found until now, hidden under tons of sugar, a fire control system of Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles. In the North Korean ship had about 220,000 pounds of sugar , but when "we started to unload sugar found presume containers which have a sophisticated missile team and that's not allowed , "said Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli. Apparently, the ship passed through the Panama Canal on 1 June, bound for Cuba,but after that date will not be seen again until July 11 in Manzanillo, supposedly to reach North Korea. Due to various UN sanctions, North Korea has banned export and import any kind of weapons , measures were intensified after the last p regime's nuclear ROOF on 12 February.
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