Overview
- President Trump, speaking in Miami on Friday, said "Cuba is the next" while touting U.S. military strength in recent actions against Venezuela and Iran.
- After Friday's G7 foreign ministers meeting near Paris, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Cuba's economy cannot recover without changing its system and leaders and he blamed blackouts on aging, poorly maintained plants from the 1950s and 1960s.
- Cuba's state utility reported that 66% of the island lost power at one point the previous day and forecast a peak outage near 57% on Friday because available generation of about 1,285 megawatts fell far short of the roughly 2,980 megawatts in demand.
- Shipment data reported by Reuters show U.S. suppliers have delivered nearly 30,000 barrels of fuel this year to private Cuban companies under narrow exceptions even as broader measures restrict supplies to the state.
- Experts at an Americas Society event said U.S. policy appears aimed at an economic transition that boosts private firms and could change incentives without necessarily removing Cuba's top leadership.