President Donald Trump returns to the White House in Washington, March 1, 2026. President Trump has prevented Venezuela from sending oil to Cuba, a major trading partner. Many Cubans are wondering if the Trump administration plans to target their country’s Communist government next. (Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times) By ED AUGUSTIN, FRANCES ROBLES and DAVID C. ADAMS Plainclothes counterintelligence agents from Cuba’s Interior Ministry knocked on the doors of Communist Part

People mourn the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a rally in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, March 1, 2026, a day after he was killed in coordinated U.S. and Israeli airstrikes. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By AARON BOXERMAN, FARNAZ FASSIHI, HELENE COOPER, ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS and TYLER PAGER A day after a joint U.S.-Israeli military operation unleashed a bombing wave across Iran and killed Iran’s supreme leader, the attacks intensified Sunday by land

People carrying their belongings in luggage in Tehran, Iran, where large explosions shook the city and people reported seeing smoke rising from the district that includes the presidential palace on Saturday morning, Feb. 28, 2026. Questions remain about how much effort the Trump administration will put into changing the Iranian government.(Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By JULIAN E. BARNES and TYLER PAGER U.S. intelligence agencies produced multiple scenarios in recent w

Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens as President Donald Trump speaks at an event with renderings labeled as a “Trump Class” ship for the Navy at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Dec. 22, 2025. (Eric Lee/The New York Times) By EDWARD WONG & MICHAEL CROWLEY The Trump administration’s diplomacy with Iran to avert a war appeared to be on a near-certain path to failure even before it reached a critical point last week. The giveaway came in a fiery phrase that Secretary of State

President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, as Vice President JD Vance, left, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) look on. (Kenny Holston/TheNew York Times) By JULIAN E. BARNES and HELENE COOPER The targeted strikes on Iran being considered by the Trump administration would probably be aimed at nuclear and missile sites in the country. But the president has yet to spe

A DJ plays at Dos Puntos, a trendy listening bar in Caracas, Venezuela, on Feb. 12, 2026. Much of the budding optimism in Caracas is grounded in hopes that Venezuela’s moribund oil industry could show growth this year. (Adriana Loureiro Fernández/The New York Times) By MATINA STEVIS-GRIDNEFF and VJOSA ISAI At the 360 rooftop bar, in the heart of Caracas, Venezuela, all the tables were taken, even though drinks can cost more than several months of base wages for many. Sitting

A burned car sits beside a damaged business, one day after the Mexican military killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, the leader of one of the world’s largest drug cartels, in Guadalajara, Mexico, Feb. 23, 2026. President Donald Trump has demanded President Claudia Sheinbaum confront the cartels. The killing of “El Mencho” suggests it might be working — but could come at a cost.(Cesar Rodríguez/The New York Times) By JACK NICAS El Mencho was the biggest kingp

By FRANCES ROBLES The Cuban government said it exchanged gunfire with a Florida-based speedboat that had entered its territorial waters Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding six others. The vessel approached within one nautical mile northeast of the El Pino channel north of Corralillo, a town in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, according to a statement on the Facebook page of Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior. Cuban border-guard troops on a government b