Justice For The Cuban People On The Fourth Anniversary Of The July 11 Protests
Four years ago, thousands of Cubans peacefully took to the streets to demand a future free from tyranny. The Cuban regime responded with violence and repression, unjustly detaining thousands, including over 700 who are still imprisoned and subjected to torture or abuse.
Today, the Department of State is taking steps to implement President Trump's strengthened Cuba policy outlined in National Security Presidential Memorandum-5 from June 30, 2025. In solidarity with the Cuban people and the island's political prisoners, the United States is designating key regime leaders under Section 7031(c) for their involvement in gross violations of human rights. We are also taking steps to impose visa restrictions on numerous Cuban judicial and prison officials responsible for, or complicit in, the unjust detention and torture of July 2021 protestors.
In addition, the Department is updating the Cuba Restricted List and the Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List to include 11 regime-linked properties, including the new 42-story 'Torre K' hotel, to prevent U.S. funds from reaching the island's corrupt repressors.
The U.S. will continue to stand for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Cuba, and make clear no illegitimate, dictatorial regimes are welcome in our hemisphere.
The designations of Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, López Miera, Álvarez Casas, and their immediate family members are made under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2024 (Div. F, P.L. 118-47), as carried forward by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2025 (Div. A, P.L. 119-4). The steps to impose visa restrictions on Cuban officials are taken under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
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1News
6 hours ago
- 1News
Senate passes Trump's $15b spending cuts to broadcasting, foreign aid
The Senate has passed about NZ$15 billion (US$9 billion) in federal spending cuts requested by President Donald Trump, including deep reductions to public broadcasting and foreign aid, moving forward on one of the president's top priorities despite concerns from several Republican senators. The legislation, which now moves to the House, would have a tiny impact on the nation's rising debt but could have major ramifications for the targeted spending, from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to US food aid programmes abroad. It also could complicate efforts to pass additional spending bills this year, as Democrats and even some Republicans have argued they are ceding congressional spending powers to Trump with little idea of how the White House Office of Management and Budget would apply the cuts. The 51-48 vote came after 2am Thursday after Democrats sought to remove many of the proposed rescissions during 12 hours of amendment votes. None of the Democratic amendments were adopted. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Republicans were using the president's rescissions request to target wasteful spending. He said it is a 'small but important step for fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue.' ADVERTISEMENT But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the bill 'has a big problem — nobody really knows what programme reductions are in it.' Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Democrats in voting against the legislation. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican leader, had voted against moving forward with the bill in a Tuesday procedural vote, saying he was concerned the Trump White House wanted a 'blank check," but he ultimately voted for final passage. The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending comes after Republicans also muscled Trump's big tax and spending cut bill to approval without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase future federal deficits by about NZ$5.5 trillion (US$3.3 trillion) over the coming decade. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including a Wellington house fire, the UK lowers the voting age, and the Obamas joke about divorce rumours. (Source: 1News) Lawmakers clash over cuts to public radio and TV stations Along with Democrats, Collins and Murkowski both expressed concerns about the cuts to public broadcasting, saying they could affect important rural stations in their states. Murkowski said in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday that the stations are "not just your news — it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.' ADVERTISEMENT Less than a day later, as the Senate debated the bill, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher ground. The situation is 'a reminder that when we hear people rant about how public broadcasting is nothing more than this radical, liberal effort to pollute people's minds, I think they need to look at what some of the basic services are to communities," Murkowski said. The legislation would claw back nearly NZ$1.8 billion (US$1.1 billion) from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which represents the full amount it's due to receive during the next two budget years. The corporation distributes more than 70% of the money to more than 1500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming. Senator Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some funding administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to subsidise Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states. But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America's Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was 'at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save, while leaving behind all other stations, including many that serve Native populations.' Slashing billions of dollars from foreign aid ADVERTISEMENT The legislation would also claw back about NZ$13.5 billion (US$8 billion) in foreign aid spending. Among the cuts are NZ$1.5 billion (US$800 million) for a programme that provides emergency shelter, water and sanitation and family reunification for those who flee their own countries and NZ$839 million (US$496 million) to provide food, water and health care for countries hit by natural disasters and conflicts. There also is a NZ$7 billion (US$4.15 billion) cut for programmes that aim to boost economies and democratic institutions in developing nations. Democrats argued the Trump administration's animus toward foreign aid programmes would hurt America's standing in the world and create a vacuum for China to fill. Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said the amount of money it takes to save a starving child or prevent the transmission of disease is miniscule, even as the investments secure cooperation with the US on other issues. The cuts being made to foreign aid programs through Trump's Department of Government Efficiency were having life-and-death consequences around the world, he said. 'People are dying right now, not in spite of us but because of us,' Schatz said. 'We are causing death.' After objections from several Republicans, GOP leaders took out a NZ$677 million (US$400 million) cut to PEPFAR, a politically popular program to combat HIV/AIDS that is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under then-President George W. Bush. Looking ahead to future spending fights ADVERTISEMENT Democrats say the bill upends a legislative process that typically requires lawmakers from both parties to work together to fund the nation's priorities. Triggered by the official recissions request from the White House, the legislation only needs a simple majority vote instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster, meaning Republicans can use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines. The Trump administration is promising more rescission packages to come if the first effort is successful. But some Republicans who supported the bill indicated they might be wary of doing so again. 'Let's not make a habit of this,' said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, who voted for the bill but said he was wary that the White House wasn't providing enough information on what exactly will be cut. Wicker said there are members 'who are very concerned, as I am, about this process.' North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis echoed similar concerns and said Republicans will need to work with Democrats to keep the government running later in the year. 'The only way to fund the government is to get at least seven Democrats to vote with us at the end of September or we could go into a shutdown,' Tillis said. Republicans face a Friday deadline Collins attempted to negotiate a last minute change to the package that would have reduced the cuts by about NZ$4.2 billion (US$2.5 billion) and restored some of the public broadcasting and global health dollars, but she abandoned the effort after she didn't have enough backing from her Republican colleagues in the Senate and the House. The House has already shown its support for the president's request with a mostly party line 214-212 vote, but since the Senate amended the bill, it will have to go back to the House for another vote. The bill must be signed into law by midnight Friday for the proposed rescissions to kick in. If Congress doesn't act by then, the spending stands.
NZ Herald
6 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Their relationship is under scrutiny after Trump Administration withheld parts of investigation files
'There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.' Trump has instructed Bondi to release only 'credible' information, and suggested he is concerned that innocent people could be unfairly smeared if the full files are released. He has condemned questions about his handling of the case as a 'hoax' perpetrated by Democrats and called Epstein a 'creep'. Epstein was convicted of paying teenage girls money to perform sex acts. He hanged himself in his cell in 2019, according to local and federal authorities. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein for nearly a decade to aid in his abuse. Here's what we know about Trump and Epstein: 1980s to early 2000s: Trump and Epstein are friendly According to Trump's telling, he and Epstein were friends for more than a decade, beginning in the 1980s. 'I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,' Trump told New York magazine in 2002. 'He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.' Throughout those years, they were spotted together at parties. In 1992, Trump threw a raucous party with NFL cheerleaders at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. NBC's footage of the party shows Trump socialising with Epstein. In 1997, Trump and Epstein attended a Victoria's Secret 'Angels' party together in New York. 1993 to 1997: Trump flies on Epstein's private jets seven times During the time they were friends, Trump's name appeared seven times in Epstein's flight logs. Trump flew on Epstein's private jets four times in 1993; once in 1994; once in 1995; and once in 1997, according to flight logs released as evidence in Maxwell's trial. The flights were between Palm Beach and New York, including a stop in Washington, DC. The President has acknowledged travelling on Epstein's plane but insisted he never accompanied him to his private island or engaged in any wrongdoing with the financier. In fact, Trump has accused other politicians of being more deeply associated with Epstein. Of former President Bill Clinton, Trump said: 'Got a lot of problems coming up in my opinion with the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein'. Trump's name and phone number were also included among the rich and powerful people written down in Epstein's 'little black book'. 2000: Mar-a-Lago plays a role in Epstein's case Mar-a-Lago played a key role in allegations against Epstein and Maxwell. Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein's sex-trafficking ring who said she was 'passed around like a platter of fruit' as a teenager to rich and powerful predators, was recruited into Epstein's employment while at Mar-a-Lago, according to her account. Giuffre, who was 16 at the time, said she was reading a massage therapy manual when she was approached by Maxwell and invited to become Epstein's travelling masseuse. She said the two of them then groomed her to perform sexual services for wealthy men. Giuffre accused Epstein and Maxwell, a British socialite, of forcing her to have sex with Prince Andrew of Britain. He flatly denied the accusations, but he relinquished his royal duties in 2019. A widely published photograph showed Prince Andrew with his hand around her waist. He said he had no memory of the occasion. Giuffre died by suicide in April. 2004: Trump and Epstein have a 'falling out' over a property fight Two years after Trump called Epstein a 'terrific guy', the two men became rivals over an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion that had fallen into foreclosure. In a power struggle detailed by the Washington Post, Trump ultimately outbid Epstein for the property. There is little public record of the two men interacting after that real estate battle. Trump would later say in 2019 that he and Epstein had a 'falling out' and hadn't spoken in 15 years; the President declared himself 'not a fan' of his former friend. Not long after the property auction, police in Palm Beach fielded a tip that young women had been observed going in and out of Epstein's home. A few months later, in March 2005, police received a more substantive complaint, from a woman who said her teenage stepdaughter had been paid by Epstein to give him a massage while she was undressed, according to a police report. That led to an investigation that later identified at least a dozen potential victims. An FBI and Florida police investigation led to his indictment in 2006. Two years later, he pleaded guilty in state court to two criminal charges, including soliciting a minor, in a deal that avoided federal charges that could have meant far more serious prison time. 2019: Epstein is charged with sex trafficking The case against Epstein might have ended quietly there. But the Miami Herald in 2018 unearthed new allegations against him and exposed the widespread nature of Epstein's crimes. The Miami Herald detailed how he was able to manipulate the criminal justice system to shut down an FBI investigation and win immunity for any of his 'potential co-conspirators'. The Miami Herald identified about 80 women who say they were molested or otherwise sexually abused by Epstein from 2001 to 2006. In 2019, Epstein was arrested by federal agents in the New York area, accused of trafficking girls, some as young as 14, and engaging in sex acts with them. Facing decades in prison, local and federal authorities say he hanged himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial. 2019 and 2020: Trump urges an investigation but expresses sympathy for Maxwell Over the years, Trump at times seemed to promote the idea that rich and powerful people had engaged in nefarious behaviour with Epstein and might soon face justice. 'I want a full investigation, and that's what I absolutely am demanding,' Trump said of the Epstein case in 2019. But he also expressed sympathy for Maxwell, whom he knew socially. 'I do wish her well. I'm not looking for anything bad for her,' Trump said in interview with Jonathan Swan, then of Axios, on HBO in 2020. 2024: Trump expresses mixed feelings about releasing files While running for office in 2024, Trump expressed mixed feelings about whether he would release files in the Epstein case. 'I guess I would,' he told Fox News, before beginning to back off that claim. 'I think that less so because you don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would.' 2025: Trump lashes out at critics Upon taking office, Trump appointed leaders of the Justice Department and FBI who had promised his right-wing base they would be getting to the bottom of the Epstein investigation. But after leading-on Trump's base, the Justice Department and the FBI said that the Epstein files did not contain the kind of evidence that would justify investigating other people. The video recordings of child sexual abuse material found by investigators were not videos that Epstein recorded of crimes by himself or his friends, but material he downloaded, Bondi said. Still, with the backlash from the right continuing to fester, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at those who continue to question him. He rebuked his own supporters as 'weaklings' for continuing to talk about Epstein's case and accused them of falling for a 'scam' perpetrated by Democrats. 'I don't understand why they would be so interested,' Trump told reporters. 'He's dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don't understand what the interest or what the fascination is, I really don't.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Luke Broadwater Photographs by: Tierney L. Cross ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
NZ Herald
7 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Trump tells Justice Department to seek the release of Epstein grand jury testimony
The article said Trump contributed a drawing of a naked woman to Epstein's 50th birthday album in 2003, an account that undercut his recent efforts to blow past a politically vexing chapter in his presidency. It said Trump signed a hand-drawn outline of the woman, writing 'Donald' below her waist. The letter was included in the album for Epstein and concluded with, 'Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret,' according to the Journal report. 'President Trump will be suing the Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr Murdoch, shortly,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'The Press has to learn to be truthful and not rely on sources that probably don't even exist.' The Wall Street Journal declined to comment on Trump's lawsuit threat. The account comes days after the Trump Administration announced its decision not to release the files from the case against Epstein who was charged in 2019 in federal court with sex trafficking of minors. The choice not to release the files outraged parts of Trump's base, which believe the Government is hiding names of high-profile people involved in the criminal enterprise, and trusted the President to treat the case seriously in a broader fight against what they see as the corrupt elite. Attorney-General Pam Bondi said she would act: 'We are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts,' she wrote on X. The grand jury testimony would make up only a fraction of the evidence amassed by federal authorities in their investigation - the material broadly referred to by Bondi and others as the 'Epstein files'. Bondi said earlier this year that she was going to review a list of Epstein's clients. Her department later said there was 'no incriminating 'client list.'' The previous decision not to release the Epstein files has caused problems for Trump on Capitol Hill, as his efforts to slash US$9 billion in federal spending were delayed in the House by congressional Democrats preparing to force a preliminary vote on releasing the Epstein files. Trump, for years, has sued news outlets over what he has argued is unfair coverage. Many of his suits have been dismissed, including claims against CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post over columns and coverage that tied his 2016 campaign to Russian interference. In his second term, Trump has had more success, reaching hefty out-of-court settlements with ABC and Paramount over coverage he claimed was false or unfair. As the Wall Street Journal report circulated online, some prominent Trump allies who have been critical of the White House's handling of the Epstein case in recent days rushed to defend the President. 'This is not how Trump talks at all. I don't believe it,' Charlie Kirk wrote on X. Even Trump's ally-turned-critic Elon Musk, who previously posted that Trump was listed in the Epstein files and continued calling for the Administration to release the files, downplayed the Journal report. 'It really doesn't sound like something Trump would say,' Musk wrote in response to the reporting. The Washington Post has not independently verified the letter described by the Journal. The Journal's report said pages from the leather-bound birthday album were examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein associate who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping him sexually abuse girls. The Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigations declined to comment on the accuracy of that allegation. The fight over the Epstein files has presented a challenge for Trump in part because he and some of his closest allies have spent years inflaming public suspicions about the case. Epstein died before his case was adjudicated - leaving many in the public wondering if other powerful people in his orbit were guilty of similar crimes. His 2019 death was ruled a suicide. The court records released in 2024 showed that Florida prosecutors in 2006 heard testimony that he had assaulted multiple teenage girls. Trump spent decades socialising with Epstein starting in the late 1980s but has since distanced himself from the man and given a platform to his supporters who have theorised that prominent Democrats were involved in Epstein's death. Those suspicions have landed on fertile ground, with a large share of the American public primed to mistrust government institutions. Recent polling shows that a significant majority of Americans already believe the Government is keeping information about the case from them. The polling also shows, however, that not many voters have been following the issue closely, although search traffic shows attention has increased sharply in recent days. For nearly two decades, starting in the 1980s, Trump and Epstein, who were both wealthy businessmen, partied together at their homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, often surrounded by models, cheerleaders, and other beautiful women. In a New York magazine profile of Epstein in 2002, years before he was accused of criminal conduct, Trump said he had known Epstein for 15 years.
