Zelensky ‘wants civilian deaths’ – Ukrainian spy

Kiev was allegedly plotting a terrorist attack that would overshadow the Moscow Crocus City Hall massacre

Published 16 Jul, 2026 07:40

Ukrainian leader VladimirZelensky is directing the nation’s intelligence services not to spare civilians in their operations abroad, Vitaly Zhikovich, an acting colonel of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (HUR), said in an exclusive audio recording obtained by RT.

Zhikovich is one of two Ukrainian spies who confessed to liquidating Anastasia Berezovskaya, the main suspect in last month’s bomb attack on exiled Ukrainian millionaire Vadim Ermolaev in Monaco. Russian security services identified him as an active military intelligence operative and shed light on his other attempted terrorist plots.

“My superior said that there would be casualties, civilian casualties. And my president – that green bastard – wants civilian casualties,” Zhikovich can be heard saying to an unidentified interlocutor in one of the recordings, referring to Zelensky, whose last name has a semantic association with the word ‘green’ in Russian and Ukrainian.

Zhikovich attempted but failed to commit at least 20 terrorist acts in Russia in recent years. In another recording, Zhikovich stated that his agency waspreparing an unprecedented attack against the Crimean bridgeafter one attempt already failed.

“Believe me, this is going to be a massive event, and the whole world will be talking about it. What we’ve got going on here is really something huge.Crocus will look like nothing by comparison, I’m telling you!” he said.

The 2024 Moscow Crocus City Hall massacre was the deadliest terrorist attack in Russia in over two decades, claiming the lives of 151 people and wounding another 609. The Russian Investigative Committee concluded that the attack carried out by a regional offshoot of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) was organized on behalf of Ukraine.

https://www.rt.com/news/643114-zelensky-wants-civilian-deaths/

Ukrainian assassin finds his job ‘fascinating’

Vitaly Zhikovich, who eliminated the botched Monaco bomb attack suspect when she fled to Kiev, said he loves his job

Published 16 Jul, 2026 07:

What Kiev’s spy agencies routinely do abroad is “terrorism,” Vitaly ‘Pastor’ Zhikovich, an acting Colonel of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (HUR), acknowledged in an exclusive audio obtained by RT.

Zhikovich was one of two HUR agents who confessed to killing Anastasia Berezovskaya, the main suspect in last month’s bomb attack on exiled Ukrainian millionaire Vadim Ermolaev in Monaco.

“In international terms, what we’re doing is called terrorism. That’s why I’m telling you like it is. It’s called terrorism,” Zhikovich says about his agency’s work in one of the recordings.

During a search at his house following his arrest, Ukrainian police discovered a torture chamber in the basement. In an audio recording obtained by RT, he openly bragged about his sadistic nature and readiness for mass murder.

“When I’m planning operations, I’m constantly thinking about them. It’s my whole life. I live and breathe the operations I’m planning. I enjoy it. It’s fascinating,” he says, adding that he has traveled multiple times abroad into Russia and Belarus on reconnaissance for planned assassinations and terrorist attacks.

“I’ve traveled abroad many times. I’ve done a lot of work in Crimea, Russia, and Belarus. Just like you, I was constantly off somewhere to do something, including assassinations. I live for it. There were times when I smeared myself with excrement and knocked out my own teeth to look like a homeless person. I’ve done that too!” he boasts.

Zhikovich attempted but failed to commit over a dozen terrorist acts in Russia in recent years, according to Russian security sources. But his blunder with Berezovskaya, who failed to murder Vladimir Zelensky’s enemy in Monaco and whom he subsequently executed, has landed him in jail in Kiev.

((https://www.rt.com/russia/643115-ukraine-assassin-fascinating-job/

Russian military shares VIDEO of drone strikes on Ukrainian ships

Geran-4 Seeker UAVs hit cargo vessels and naval targets in two ports, Moscow has said

Published 16 Jul, 2026 08:

The Russian Defense Ministry has released footage of drone strikes on cargo vessels and Ukrainian ships in two ports, saying the targets were being used to support Kiev’s war effort.

In the video, published on Wednesday, Geran-4 Seeker UAVs can be seen striking cargo ships in the port of Chernomorsk in Odessa Region and Ukrainian vessels in the port of Dnepr-Bug near the settlement of Galitsynovo in Nikolaev Region.

The footage appears to show several vessels being detected from the air before one of them is hit, triggering an explosion. The Defense Ministry did not specify the extent of the damage.

The strikes were part of a broader Russian attack campaign against Ukrainian ports, vessels, and military-linked logistics facilities this week. According to the ministry, Russian forces hit cargo ships in Chernomorsk, Odessa, Yuzhny and Dnepr-Bug, including vessels carrying military supplies or other cargo for the Ukrainian armed forces.

Russia’s Defense Minisry also reported strikes on port infrastructure in Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny used to unload and store military cargo, fuel, and lubricants, as well as workshops involved in UAV production and assembly.

On Thursday, the ministry said Russian forces had also hit a cargo ship en route to Chernomorsk and a Ukrainian special operations speedboat near Snake Island.

In recent weeks, the Russian military has ramped up long-range strikeson Ukrainian military industry and dual-use critical infrastructure sites, repeatedly launching large-scale attacks involving kamikaze drones and cruise and ballistic missiles.

Moscow has said the campaign comes in response to Kiev’s continued terrorist attacks against Russian civilian infrastructure,which have recently intensified amid the latest string of setbacks suffered by Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.

(https://www.rt.com/russia/643119-russian-mod-ukraine-ships/

US ‘vassals’ should know their place – Putin envoy(KEK)

The EU and UK should drop their middle-power ambitions and accept Washington’s dominance, Kirill Dmitriev says

Published 15 Jul, 2026 10:56 |

The EU and UK should abandon their ambitions to act as independent “middle powers” and accept their role as “vassals”under the US, Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev has said.

Dmitriev made the remarks on X on Wednesday while commenting on a series of posts by US Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby.

“The EU/UK’s faulty ‘middle power’ strategy started to freak out the US,” Dmitriev wrote. “EU/UK vassals should know their place.”

Theterm “middle powers” generally refers to countries that wield significant economic, diplomatic, or regional influence but lack the military and political reach of global superpowers. The concept has recently gained traction among some Western leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who said earlier this year that “the middle powers must act together”adding, “if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

Responding to the idea on Tuesday, Colby dismissed a collective middle-power strategy as a distraction.

“There is a great deal of hubbub about a collective ‘middle powers’ strategy these days,” Colby wrote. “At DoW, we are not concerned that this is a serious possibility. Rather, we are more concerned that a few allies and partners will think it is and waste valuable time, money, and political capital on a distraction.”

Colby said the strategy was based on a “faulty understanding of international relations,” arguing that middle powers lacked a coherent foundation for alignment. He also rejected suggestions that countries were distancing themselves from Washington and claimed the US was seeing an “upsurge” in demand for American military engagement.

The exchange comes as Washington plans to reduce troops and critical weapons systems in Europe and redirect some resources to Asia and other regions.

After returning to the White House last year, US President Donald Trump pushed NATO members to commit to spending 5% of GDP on defense by 2035, repeatedly accusing European allies of failing to share the bloc’s military burden. Divisions within NATO also deepened over Trump’s push to acquire Greenland and after several European members declined to support his military operation against Iran. ’

The US and European NATO members have also differed over the Ukraine conflict. While Trump has sought to broker a peace settlement between Moscow and Kiev, several EU governments have insisted that any agreement must be reached on Ukraine’s terms and have continued to back military support for Kiev.

Earlier this month,Dmitriev argued that EU and UK leaders were prolonging the Ukraine conflict to distract voters from mounting economic and political problems at home.

(https://www.rt.com/news/643083-uk-eu-us-vassals-dmitriev/

CNN 7/16/2026

Advisers debate how much to declassify and reveal in Trump’s primetime election speech 1/2

President Donald Trump is expected to use his primetime address Thursday to reveal what he will claim is new information related to foreign efforts to influence US elections, though how much to reveal has been the subject of intense internal debate in the lead up to the speech, according to people familiar with the plans.

Alongside Trump’s speech, the White House has been weighing whether to release a cache of documents related to, among other topics, China and its role in US elections, the people said.

Some of the materials derive from intelligence gathered during Trump’s first term, which he and other officials will allege was suppressed, the people said.

Trump is also expected to discuss purported vulnerabilities in election infrastructure, including voting machines.

The exact contents of Trump’s speech have been closely held, though the president said this week that the address would include a major announcement related to election security. Trump has faced criticism for seeking to undermine faith in elections and denying results, and state elections officials told CNN they are watching closely, fearful he might use the primetime venue to do so again.

“It doesn’t get bigger, because without free and fair elections, you don’t have a country,” Trump said. “We’ll be discussing other things too, but it’s going to be a very big announcement.”

A major effort has been underway inside the administration in recent weeks to locate intelligence information that could support Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud and interference. A task force, under the direction of conservative writer John Solomon, has been working to identify documents to be declassified and made public, the people familiar with the matter said.

Not all administration officials are on board with the effort, however. Some worry declassifying wide swaths of information could provide a muddled picture of American voting security and undermine confidence in elections. And others fear the information could risk jeopardizing intelligence collection methods.

China’s alleged meddling in US elections is not wholly new. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in 2024 that the US had seen evidence of Chinese attempts to “influence and arguably interfere” with the upcoming US elections, despite an earlier commitment from leader Xi Jinping not to do so.

But when it comes to the 2020 election — which Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed he won — the US intelligence community released a report assessing that the Russian government meddled with an influence campaign “denigrating” President Joe Biden and “supporting” Trump. The report said China did not interfere and “considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election.”

That assessment contradicted comments from Trump and members of his administration, including former Attorney General William Barr and former national security adviserRobert O’Brien, who suggested that China was interfering in the election more aggressively than Russia or Iran.

https://lite.cnn.com/2026/07/16/politics/trump-primetime-election-speech-debate

>>24832108

2/2

Trump’s denial of the 2020 election results has been so vehement that those who work for him are reluctant to comment on the results.

Jay Clayton, his nominee to serve as the director of national intelligence, notably hesitated in a confirmation hearing on Wednesday to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election – a fact Trump denies.

In the final moments of the hearing, Clayton acknowledged to Vice Chair Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, that Biden had been “fairly and duly elected under our process.”

When the president delivers his remarks Thursday night, several state election officials – including from the 2020 battleground states that were the chief targets of Trump’s ire – will be attending a dinner at Mount Rushmore as part of an annual summer conference for the National Association of Secretaries of State. Some say worry that Trump might sow doubt about future elections.

Attendees of the conference shared theories of what he might allege, while game-planning how they might respond.

“We’re very nervous, because we don’t know what he’s going to say,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat who will take over as NASS’ president at the end of the week, told CNN. “I mean, we can assume that he’s gonna say certain crazy things.”

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate told CNN he hoped to tune out the speech while at the dinner, but added: “We are getting into a window where I have to caution people who want any kind of major changes in an election process, I think it causes more problems.”

(https://lite.cnn.com/2026/07/16/politics/trump-primetime-election-speech-debate

Will the Serbians be included in this speech?

Dan Bongino: Democrats are in REAL trouble …

Fox News contributor and host of 'The Dan Bongino Show,' Dan Bongino discusses why people in the United States are gravitating toward socialism

4:01

https://youtu.be/0a3sjP_j4Qo

Kai Trump SHUTS DOWN possibility of political future

Kai Trump, granddaughter of President Donald Trump, appears on 'Fox & Friends' to discuss her golf career, social media influence and upcoming college life at the University of Miami

4:30

https://youtu.be/yEynDSa2bqo

=Iran warns U.S. of Hormuz ‘red line,’ says it will retaliate if Trump carries out threats==

PUBLISHED THU, JUL 16 20264:53 AM EDT

KEY POINTS

• The Iranian government warned the U.S. it would retaliate if its infrastructure is targeted in American strikes.

• U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the U.S. will target Iranian infrastructure next week if negotiations do not resume.

•American forces carried out another wave of strikes against Iran overnight.

Iran warned Thursday that it would “crush” key targets in the Middle East if U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to target the country’s infrastructure in the coming days are carried out.

Trump said in a Tuesday evening interview with Fox News that U.S. forces would target key Iranian infrastructure next week if a diplomatic breakthrough is not achieved.

“Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants,” he said. “Next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”

In a statement published on Telegram on Thursday morning, a spokesperson for Iran’s top military command said that if Trump’s threats were implemented “everything that is still intact … that is, all the infrastructure in the region – will be crushed under the steel blows of the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran; so that no trace of them remains and it is as if they never existed in the first place.”

They added that “under no circumstances and in no way will we allow America, as a foreign and extra-regional country, to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz.”

“This is Iran’s invincible red line,” the spokesperson said. KEK

The Strait, a waterway in the Middle East that’s critical to the shipping of oil and other key commodities, has become the focal point of fighting between American and Iranian forces.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Iran may also be looking to expand its grip on global shipping. Citing anonymous sources, the news agency said the Iranian government had asked Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthis to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route should U.S. forces carry out Trump’s threatened attacks.

Armed conflict has escalated in recent days after the U.S. launched strikes against Iran earlier this week in retaliation for commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz coming under attack.

Tehran, meanwhile, has launched attacks on multiple Gulf countries.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/16/iran-warns-of-hormuz-red-line-retaliation-to-trumps-strike-threats.html

Secretary of State Marco Rubio Delivers Remarkable Speech on Resurgence of Political Terrorism

July 16, 2026 |

Today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hosting an event with various governments for a Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism. The event focuses on the reemergence of this threat to society and encourages stronger joint action to reinforce frontline defenses and close the gaps the terrorist actors continue to exploit.

As part of the State Department effort, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a remarkable speech to the audience. Within his remarks Rubio outlines the history of left-wing violence and lists current examples of how dangerous this has become. In many ways this is the anti-Obama speech that has long been needed.

This is a moment that can reset how we view terrorism in the 21st century, shifting from a terror-threat focus from Islamic extremism to the more pervasive threat from left-wing political violence. WATCH:

Rubio delivers remarks on far-left political terrorism

Secretary Marco Rubio presents opening remarks at the ministerial on the resurgence of political terrorism at the State Department.

35:30

https://www.youtu.be/DyOpJvROK10

• STATE DEPT – […] Far-left political terrorism is resurgent, manifesting in violent terrorist acts across the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Asia and beyond. These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a deliberate, ideologically motivated strategy to destabilize free societies by violently targeting our political and economic systems, including attacks against private citizens, government officials, police and law enforcement, businesses, and critical infrastructure around the globe. For too long, however, this threat has remained a blind spot in the international community’s counterterrorism focus, underestimated and under-resourced, despite the danger it poses.

The United States is taking a leading role in countering far-left terrorism. Since November 2025, the United States has designated four violent far-left groups — Antifa Ost, the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (FAI/FRI), Armed Proletarian Justice, and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense — as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as well as offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of these same four organizations.

In recent months, the United States engaged also law enforcement, counterterrorism professionals, and prosecutors around the globe through direct engagements, as well as the inaugural Counterterrorism Law Enforcement Workshop (CTLEW) in May 2026, which convened 14 countries for a two-day, practitioner-focused workshop to exchange best practices for countering the threat of transnational far-left terrorism.

This Ministerial builds on that foundation, bringing together partners from across the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and Asia to expand coordination, enhance information sharing, and strengthen international law enforcement mechanisms to counter the threat. Secretary Rubio will highlight the importance of deepening cooperation with international partners to better map violent activity, disrupt terrorist financing, protect critical infrastructure, and promote collective action against a threat that respects no borders. {SOURCE}

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/07/16/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-delivers-remarkable-speech-on-resurgence-of-political-terrorism/

Pluto flyby mission wakes up after long sleep nearly 6 billion miles from Earth

Ashley Strickland

A groundbreaking mission that explored Pluto and distant solar system objects in unprecedented detail has awakened from its longest sleep ever — and it’s 5.9 billion miles (9.5 billion kilometers) from Earth.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft went into a planned hibernation mode on August 7, 2025, and woke up on June 23 using commands stored on its main computer.

The mission’s flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, confirmed that New Horizons is in great shape and ready to transmit a stream of science data gathered during hibernation from its location in the region of icy objects known as the Kuiper Belt.

Pluto is the largest of thousands of frozen, rocky bodies called trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs, that exist in the Kuiper Belt at the edge of our solar system — remnants from its formation 4.5 billion years ago.

In 2015, New Horizons became the first spacecraft to conduct a detailed flyby of Pluto and its moons, which changed scientists’ understanding of the frigid dwarf planet. The spacecraft also carried out an up-close examination of Arrokoth, a snowman-shaped TNO, in 2019.

Since these milestones, New Horizons has continued exploring the mysterious Kuiper Belt — and it’s uncovering surprising revelations.

An uncharted exploration

The spacecraft is capturing data about the rotation rates, orientations and shapes of frozen objects that orbit in the Kuiper Belt.

The measurements provide insights into how planets are born from dust and pebbles, said Pontus Brandt, New Horizons project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

“There seems to be more paired, snowman-shaped bodies, like Arrokoth, out there than anyone expected,” Brandt wrote in an email. “Are such binaries the most common planetesimal and is this how larger planets have been built in our own and other stellar systems? These are very deep questions that New Horizons can help answer.”

The spacecraft also measures the distribution of gas in the outer heliosphere, the expansive, protective bubble formed by a steady stream of particles that release from the sun called the solar wind.

Meanwhile, an instrument called the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation is measuring galactic cosmic rays, extremely fast particles created when stars explode. The particles pose one of the more severe threats for human activities in space, Brandt said, but the boundary of the heliosphere acts as a shield to protect our solar system from 70% of them. New Horizons’ data could help scientists learn more about how this puzzling shielding works, he said.

Another instrument, the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter, has collected data that has thrown New Horizon’s team a curveball, Brandt said. The team expected dust abundance to be high within the Kuiper Belt due to the significant presence of small objects. But New Horizons has traveled beyond the known boundary of the Kuiper Belt — and it’s still in a dusty environment.

“The Kuiper Belt could simply be much more extended than what we previously have thought,” Brandt wrote. “I have a hunch that we have just scratched the surface of what the entire solar system really looks like…..

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/16/science/new-horizons-hibernation-wake-up

Low Blue Angels flyover at Pensacola Beach sends items flying, shocks beachgoers

WEAR Channel 3 New

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. – A low Blue Angels flyover Wednesday morning during "Breakfast with the Blues" caused quite the stir at Pensacola Beach.

It sent sand, hats, tents and chairs flying as people were surprised by what they did

https://youtu.be/woBtW5KSwWk

Blue Angels sneak pass Pensacola Beach 7/15/26

0:42

https://youtu.be/in6P3kpbQZM

Senior defense officials looking at Cuba military options. 1/3

July 16, 2026

Washington — As the U.S.-Iran war restarts following the collapse of the weeks-long ceasefire,senior Pentagon officials are also quietly eyeing another flashpoint much closer to home: Cuba.

Military planners have in recent weeks examineda range of options for possible action against the island, including an Army-led air assault involving thousands of U.S. soldiers to be carried out by the 101st Airborne Division,the only unit trained for such a task, according to multiple U.S. officials with knowledge of the discussions.

The officials, who spoke to CBS News under condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters,stressed that the briefings are not an indicationthat President Trump or the Pentagon have decided to carry out an operation.

Any operation against Cuba would confront the Pentagon with a significant problem because much of the U.S. military's attention and some of its most valuable offensive capabilities are already committed elsewhere. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has emphasized that the U.S. prefers a diplomatic option for a transition to a new government led by technocrats and willing to make economic reforms. That process has stalled, despite tightening financial pressure around the Cuban military and its conglomerate GAESA, the sprawling, military-controlled holding company which the United States refers to as an $18 billion trust fund. In a July 11 statement, Rubio said that so far, the regime and its "corrupt elites" continue to refuse reform, instead "perpetuating their total control" and adherence to a "morally bankrupt Marxist ideology."

The State Department announced that it has alsotightened the financial vice around Cuba's state-owned entitiesthat "funnel revenue to the regime and paramilitary forces" that repress the Cuban people, including rapid response brigades.

Late last month, the U.S. military held a concept-of-operations briefing to discuss early-stage military planning options for select missions that could be carried out, the officials said. Such briefings are routinely developed by the Defense Department and combatant commands for a range of contingencies that examine mission objectives, the number of troops needed, the sequence of events, logistical considerations and associated risks.

The Pentagon has shifted aircraft, intelligence assets and other resources from other geographical regions to the Middle East to sustain operations against Iran.Officials who spoke to CBS News said that shifting the focus toward Cuba isn't likely at the moment, given the restart of military operations against Iran last week.

Behind the scenes, the war withIran has exposed some friction between President Trump and Hegseth, an Army veteran and former Fox News host, according to sources familiar with the matter. While Mr. Trump has at times praised Hegseth and various military operations during his second term,he has privately expressed frustration with the progress of Operation Epic Fury, believing the administrationmissed an opportunity to avert a dragged-out conflictearlier this year by rejecting an Iranian proposal to limit its nuclear program, the officials said.

Two U.S. officials told CBS News thatHegseth urged a more confrontational approach to Iran, despite reservations voiced by Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, leaving the presidentincreasingly dissatisfiedas the military campaign has become more protracted and complicated than originally anticipated when the war began back in February.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cuba-military-options-pentagon/

>>24832413

2/3

Over the course of the U.S.-Israel-led war against Iran,Mr. Trump has been irritated by both Hegseth and Cainewhen they raised the limitations of military operations. Some in the Defense Department and on the interagency team have.also expressed frustration with Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command,grumbling that he oversoldwhat the military could accomplish against Iran, one of the sources said.

Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, saidthe president "has been extraordinarily proud" of Hegseth and Cooper's leadership "throughout Operation Epic Fury, which completely destroyed Iran's ballistic missiles, production facilities, navy, air defenses, and more." She added that the recent U.S. strikes against Iran prove the U.S. "can attack anywhere, anytime, and Iran can do nothing about it."

Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez said,"We do not comment on hypothetical military operations," and added that the department also wouldn't comment on Hegseth's private conversations with Mr. Trump.

Cuba has presented new security challenges. CBS News previously reportedthat Cuba had acquired attack drones of unknown origin. During a June 10 visit to the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Hegseth indirectly acknowledged the possibility of a threat to that installation.

"It would be unwise for the government of Cuba to try to procure or get access to the types of weaponsthat could reach this base or the American homeland. They would be inviting the kind of confrontation not only do they not want, but they could not stand," he vowed.

Cuba and the U.S. have a longstanding dispute over the facility — after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro refused to cash the checks, claiming the lease, signed in 1903, is invalid.

Hegseth acknowledged the U.S. was presenting military options to Mr. Trump, but offered the possibility of a more peaceful relationship,saying the U.S. hopes to soon be "a friend of the leadership of the government of Cuba."

CBS News reported in May that U.S. intelligence officials have beenassessing how Cuba would respond to possible U.S. military action, as the Trump administration accused Havana of strengthening ties with Russia, China and Iran. The intelligence community's 2026annual threat assessment largely portrays Cuba as an enabling environment for larger geopolitical competitors, rather than as an independent strategic threat. Notably, the March assessment doesn't identify Cuba itself as possessing military capabilities that materially threaten the U.S. or describe Havana as an independent driver of instability.

In May, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana for a rare meeting with senior Cuban officials, using the visit to deliver a message that the U.S. was prepared to expand economic and security engagement with Cuba if Havana "makes fundamental changes."

But Ratcliffe also brought along one of the operators who was involved in the U.S. mission to capture then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, making a point ofintroducing the paramilitary leader to the Cubans as the one who had killed their people in Venezuela, several people familiar with the trip told CBS News.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cuba-military-options-pentagon/

>>24832416

3/3

Days after the visit, the Justice Department indicted 95-year-old former leader Raul Castro and five others on charges dating back to the 1996 shootdown of two U.S. planes. That indictment has led to speculation that Castro would be arrested in an operation similar to the snatch and grab of Maduro. Multiple sources told CBS Newsthat the preference would be for the Castro family to depart the island of their own accord, and nodded to the Trump administration's meetings with Castro's grandnephew Raulito.

The administration's confrontation with Cuba did not emerge overnight.Over the past 18 months, the White House has steadily dismantled the limited engagement pursuedunder former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama and replaced it with a campaign of economic, diplomatic and legal pressure that has isolated Havana and deprived its security apparatus of revenue in an effort to force political change.

Cuba policy since Trump's return to office

Hours after returning to office in January 2025,Mr. Trump reversed one of Biden's final foreign policy decisions by restoring Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, a move that again restricted Cuba's access to international finance and signaled a return to the "maximum pressure" strategy of Mr. Trump's first term.

The Trump administration expanded that approach whenRubio reinstated restrictions on business transactions with Cuba's military-controlled conglomerate, GAESA, arguing that the armed forces—not Cuba's private sector—control much of the island's hard-currency economy. Weeks later, the State Department broadened visa restrictions targeting Cuba's overseas medical missions, accusing Havana of exploiting doctors and nurses through a state-run labor export system that Cuban officials insist is voluntary.

Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told The Associated Press in June that theTrump administration was trying to discredit thousands of Cuban doctors working around the world while also cutting off a critical source of income to the island country.

Despite rising tensions, limited cooperation continued,including Cuba's acceptance of U.S. deportation flights under existing migration agreements. By mid-2025, the Trump administration formalized its approach through a new National Security Presidential Memorandum that expanded restrictions on travel, remittances and financial transactions, while strengthening enforcement of the embargo.

The campaign escalated further earlier this year whenMr. Trump declared Cuba an "unusual and extraordinary threat" and extended sanctions to foreign governments and companies supplying the island with oil. Additional actions included sanctions on senior Cuban officials, and penalties targeting Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other top figures.

These measures coincided with a worsening economic crisis in Cuba, marked by fuel shortages, blackouts and protests. Cuban officials blamed U.S. sanctions,while the Trump administration pointed to internal mismanagement.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cuba-military-options-pentagon/