US indicts Raúl Castro, escalating tensions with Cuba

The United States issued a federal criminal indictment against Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president, and five others on Wednesday, marking a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign to oust the country’s six-decade-old communist regime.

The 94-year-old political figurehead was charged in Miami, Florida, with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft.

Other defendants include a fighter pilot initially charged in connection with a 1996 incident in which four men were killed by the Cuban military when their aircraft were shot down during a humanitarian mission in the Florida Straits. Castro, Cuba’s defense minister at the time, is alleged to have ordered the firing.

Speaking to reporters after the indictment was handed down, Trump said there “won’t be an escalation” with Cuba. “I don’t think there needs to be,” he said. “Look, the place is falling apart. They’ve really lost control of Cuba.”

But the president hinted at US military control of Cuba – among other sovereign nations and territories – during his commencement speech at the US Coast Guard Academy. “From the Gulf of America to the frozen waters of the Arctic, from the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment, just like we’ve been doing,” Trump said.

The indictment, filed in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, comes at a time of heightened tension between the US and Cuba. Donald Trump has threatened military action against the Cuban government, and an energy crisis created by a tight US oil embargo has caused rolling blackouts and prompted protests in the capital.

Thousands of Mississippians, along with allies from other southern states, gathered at the state’s War Memorial Building auditorium on Wednesday in support of voting rights. It was the latest in a series of actions protesting the Supreme Court’s recent decision gutting a provision of the Voting Rights Act that prevents racial discrimination, held on a site integral to the state’s history of Black disenfranchisement.

The US special envoy to Greenland has said it is time for Washington “to put its footprint back” on the Arctic island, as he concluded his first visit since his appointment in December.

Donald Trump has repeatedly argued that the US needs to control Greenland – a Danish autonomous territory – because of national security concerns, claiming that if it does not, the island risks falling into the hands of China or Russia.

Federal agents raided the homes of three southern California immigration activists in what the activists allege is the latest escalation in a Trump administration campaign to harass a volunteer-led advocacy group that organizes neighborhood ICE-watch patrols.

On Tuesday, the Open Society Foundations, the organization founded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros and headquartered in New York, announced a $300 million spend aimed at boosting economic security and defending civil liberties in the US.

US employers spend more than $1.5 billion a year on labor union opposition efforts, according to a report published Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute.

Britain’s second most senior diplomat in Washington, who stood in as interim ambassador after the sacking of Peter Mandelson, has abruptly left his post.

Tennessee officials will pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was jailed for more than a month over a Facebook post he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

An American doctor who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been flown to Germany for treatment, along with his wife and four children, as the World Health Organization warned of the “scale and speed” of the outbreak.

James Murdoch, second son of publishing giant Rupert Murdoch, has agreed to acquire some of Vox Media’s assets, including New York Magazine, in a deal believed to be worth about $300 million.

Barney Frank, the former US representative who made history as one of the first openly gay members of Congress, died on Tuesday night. He was 86.

Catching up? Here’s what happened Tuesday 19 May.