By Max Saltman, Mauricio Torres, CNN

(CNN) — Cuba’s Ministry of Energy announced Saturday evening that entire island has suffered another electrical blackout, leaving more than 10 million people without power.

“A total disconnection of the National Electric System has occurred,” the ministry said in a post on X. “Protocols for restoration are already beginning to be implemented.”

It comes days after Cuba endured its first nationwide power grid collapse on Monday, since the US began blocking fuel supplies from Venezuela earlier this year.

Yesterday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a speech to international activists bringing humanitarian aid to the island that his government recognizes that “there could be an attack on Cuba,” and is preparing accordingly.

US President Donald Trump has spoken frequently in recent weeks about Cuba, predicting an imminent collapse of the ruling communist government there. On Monday, he wondered aloud whether he would have the “honor of taking” the island.

“You know, all my life I’ve been hearing about United States and Cuba, when will the United States having the honor of taking Cuba? That’s a big honor,” Trump said from the White House. “Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba — I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.”

The president refused to say when asked whether an operation to “take” Cuba would involve the same level of force as the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.

Last week, Díaz-Canel confirmed in a national address that Cuba was speaking with its US counterparts about negotiations to end the fuel embargo. Since then, Cuba’s government has clarified that it does not intend to negotiate about its political system.

Since Cuban revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, the country has been under a strict economic embargo from the United States. Cuba has weathered through previous stretches of severe economic uncertainty, such as the “Special Period,” when the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union cut the communist government’s main source of outside assistance.

This latest crisis is similarly bleak. The lack of fuel from Mexico and Venezuela has stopped virtually all tourism to the island, disrupted education, cut services at hospitals and has prevented farmers from bringing their produce to market.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Uriel Blanco, Patrick Oppmann and Anabella González contributed.

The post Cuba announces second nationwide blackout in less than a week appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Kaanita Iyer, Gianluca Mezzofiore, CNN

(CNN) — Iran’s attempt to strike a US-UK base over 2,000 miles (over 3,000 kilometers) off its coast has renewed questions about Tehran’s military capabilities and how far its missiles can reach.

On Friday morning local time, Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, a joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, a US official told CNN, adding that neither of them struck the base. This marks what appears to be the first known attempt to target the base, which was deliberately built in a remote location beyond the reach of many adversaries.

While the attack was unsuccessful, it shows that Iran may not be adhering its self-imposed missile range limit of 2,000 kilometers, raising concerns about whether Tehran could hit US and European interests farther away than previously thought.

Jeffrey Lewis, distinguished scholar of global security at Middlebury College, told CNN that Iran was developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that was “reoriented to space launch” after then-Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei “imposed a 2,000-kilometer range limit” in 2017.

“They were waiting for Khamenei to change his mind or, well, die,” Lewis said. “Now he’s dead.”

Trita Parsi, the co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, believes the US homeland is safe from Iranian strikes, but he told CNN that the attempted attack “suggests that other bases that the US thought is outside of the range of Iran may actually be within the range,” along with American ships “that have been kept 3,000 kilometers away.”

Parsi also wonders whether this incident could cause some European countries that have allowed the US to use its military bases to reconsider.

Earlier this month, the UK agreed to a US request to allow American forces to use its military bases for operations against Iranian missile sites. Meanwhile, Romania has allowed US refueling planes, as well as US surveillance and satellite equipment, to be at its bases, according to Reuters.

“It does put certain European bases in within their range,” Parsi said, adding, “I don’t know if that’s going to cause a rethink on the European side but it definitely increases the risk for them.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, including in his first comments after the US struck Iran late last month, that Tehran has been building missiles that “could soon reach the American homeland.”

However, an unclassified assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2025 said that Iran could develop a “militarily-viable” intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.”

Sources also told CNN late last month that there was no intelligence to suggest that Iran is pursuing an intercontinental ballistic missile program to hit the US at this time.

Parsi said the unsuccessful strike on Diego Garcia raises “question marks whether (Iran) may also have other types of weapons that we did not believe that they have that they might be using.”

Iran has several missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers, including the Sejjil and Khorramshahr weapons, along with the long-range Soumar cruise missile that has a r

Análisis por Brian Stelter, CNN

El secretario de Defensa, Pete Hegseth, ha tomado medidas para obstaculizar la cobertura informativa del Pentágono durante más de un año. Ahora, por fin, ha encontrado cierta resistencia.

El fallo del viernes de un juez federal que anuló las restricciones de prensa del Pentágono fue celebrado por la organización de noticias que demandó la política, The New York Times, y por una amplia gama de defensores de la Primera Enmienda.

“Este es un gran día para la libertad de prensa en Estados Unidos”, dijo la Asociación de Prensa del Pentágono, que representa a decenas de periodistas que cubren regularmente a las Fuerzas Armadas. “También esperamos que sea una oportunidad de aprendizaje para el liderazgo del Pentágono, que tomó medidas extremas para limitar el acceso de la prensa a la información en tiempos de guerra”.

Algunos reporteros que fueron expulsados del complejo del Pentágono el otoño pasado ahora buscan la manera de recuperar sus credenciales.

Sin embargo, la oficina de prensa de Hegseth dice: “No estamos de acuerdo con la decisión y presentaremos una apelación inmediata”, lo que indica que seguirá buscando confrontación con los medios de comunicación.

En recientes ruedas de prensa sobre la guerra en Irán, Hegseth ha reflejado el lenguaje hiperbólico del presidente Trump sobre los medios y ha hecho afirmaciones claramente falsas sobre la cobertura informativa.

De forma más alarmante, desde la perspectiva de los corresponsales del Pentágono, también ha obstaculizado el libre flujo de información sobre las Fuerzas Armadas de Estados Unidos, en parte mediante las restrictivas normas de acreditación de prensa que The Times impugnó ante los tribunales.

Las normas tuvieron el efecto de reemplazar a grandes medios de comunicación como The Times y CNN por un grupo seleccionado a dedo de medios relativamente pequeños y de marcada tendencia de derecha.

No obstante, las normas rozaron la inconstitucional, escribió el juez superior del Tribunal de Distrito de Estados Unidos Paul Friedman en el fallo del viernes.

La política es “discriminación por punto de vista”, escribió Friedman, “no basada en el punto de vista político, sino más bien basada en el punto de vista editorial, es decir, si el individuo u organización está dispuesto a publicar solo historias que sean favorables o servidas con cuchara por el liderazgo del departamento”.

Los gobiernos intentan de forma rutinaria fomentar una cobertura favorable, pero Hegseth ha ido mucho más lejos desde que dejó Fox News para unirse al Departamento de Defensa, al que rebautizó como el Departamento de Guerra.

Uno de sus primeros movimientos fue expulsar a algunos medios de comunicación, incluido CNN, de espacios de trabajo mediáticos de larga data dentro del complejo del Pentágono.

Se presentó como un “programa de rotación de medios” temporal, impulsando a medios pro-Trump que nunca habían tenido presencia en el Pentágono. Durante un año, Breitbart debía reemplazar a NPR, One America News Network a NBC News, y así sucesivamente.

Pero cualquier argumento a favor de la diversidad mediática se vio socavado por la inaccesibilidad del departamento.

Los portavoces de Hegseth se negaron a realizar conferencias de prensa regulares, cerraron la sala de ruedas de prensa del Pentágono e impusieron el acceso a zonas clave del complejo para los periodistas, sin una escolta oficial.

En mayo de 2025, la Asociación de Prensa del Pentágono calificó las restricciones como “un ataque directo a la libertad de prensa y al

By Dana O’Neil, CNN

Buffalo, New York (CNN) — It looked like something out of a Harlem Globetrotters routine, a fake-out so complete that it drew equal parts awe and chuckles from Michigan pep band members who were watching.

Standing on the baseline, the ball raised above his head, Aday Mara made like he was throwing a two-handed crosscourt pass. He did it with such authority and conviction that defender Robbie Avila actually turned his head. In that split second Mara peeled to his right, curling around Avila for the easy lay in.

Mara is not a cheat code like Zach Edey was for Purdue a few years ago, but he has the same ability to make defenders look silly, kind of like when your big brother would stiff arm you in the chest, and you flailed helplessly to hit him but couldn’t quite reach. That kind of silly.

Seven-foot-three can do that to you. It can also turn a very complicated basketball game into a simple one. Michigan would eventually turn on the Yaxel Lendeborg jets and romp to a 95-72 win against Saint Louis to reach the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive season.

But before the Wolverines found the second-half cruise control, the game was won in the paint where Avila, a delightful college basketball player, went head-to-head (or more like head to low neck) with Mara, a future NBA player.

“You know, we knew we had the size advantage,’’ Mara says, “so it was just a matter of playing, and not really overthinking. Just play the game as it comes to you.’’

It has come much more easily to Mara this past season at Michigan. Spied on his club team in Spain, he eventually settled at UCLA but couldn’t find his way into Mick Cronin’s rotation in his first season. Other people bolted Westwood, but Mara determined to stick it out. Until one season of riding the bench turned into two, and Mara needed out.

He made a short list of destinations, settling on Ann Arbor largely because he liked the work Dusty May had done with big men Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin but admits he wondered if he could do the same.

“After two years, you start to wonder, am I good enough? Can I play at this level? Can I do it?” he says.

May will be the first to admit that his recruiting investment in transfer players isn’t the same. There’s simply not time. A coach can spend years on a high school kid, indulging in sit-down conversations and home visits with the family. Transfer recruiting is more like speed dating. Identify a player that seems intriguing and go from there.

It’s hardly a wing and a prayer, but it there is a legit element of risk, especially when there’s as little game tape (he averaged just 11 minutes per game over his two seasons with the Bruins) as there was on Mara.

May watched Synergy – a video library coaches use to scout tape – and liked what he saw. He did as much due diligence as one could in a couple of weeks, but he didn’t really get to know Mara as a person until he was on campus.

What he found was a kid who’s sort of a fuzzy, warm goofball – as the final minutes ticked away against Saint Louis, Mara practiced a few dance moves on the bench – who is more people-pleasing gentle giant than tough guy.

“I fell in love with him as a person,’’ May says. “It was just the way he makes people feel when he’s around them. It’s impossible to not feel better about yourself because of how engaging he is, how warm he is. And he really, really cares about other people.’’

He also turned into a pretty good bet. Mara answered any of his own lingering questions about his ability to play at this level pretty quickly. In Michigan’s first four games, he posted three double-doubles and dropped 13 against Gonzaga’s Graham Ike in a rout.

Against Saint Louis, he got the Billikens off their game by hitting easy hooks and

Por Uriel Blanco, CNN en Español

El presidente de Brasil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, criticó este sábado las acciones de Estados Unidos sobre Venezuela y Cuba, países que han visto en los últimos meses ataques militares en su territorio y amenazas de tomas de control, respectivamente.

Durante el Foro de Alto Nivel de la Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (Celac) y África —evento que antecede a la X Cumbre de Jefas y Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno del organismo, a celebrarse también este sábado—, Lula da Silva cuestionó el accionar de EE.UU.

“No es posible, no podemos admitir que los demás piensen que son dueños de nosotros. Miren lo que hacen con Cuba en este momento, miren lo que hicieron con Venezuela. Eso no es democrático”, dijo en su intervención en el foro, en referencia a EE.UU. “¿En qué párrafo, en qué artículo de la carta de las Naciones Unidas se dice que un presidente de un país puede invadir a otro? ¿En qué documento del mundo está escrito? Ni siquiera en la Biblia”, añadió.

Lula da Silva dijo que, al conquistar la soberanía y la independencia, los países de la región “no somos más países colonizados”.

“No podemos permitir que alguien pueda entrar en los asuntos y en la integridad territorial de nuestros países”, enfatizó, al referirse al ataque de EE.UU. el 3 de enero en Venezuela, donde capturó al presidente derrocado Nicolás Maduro, y al endurecimiento del embargo a Cuba desde entonces.

Por la tensión actual en la región, Lula da Silva lamentó la capacidad de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) para ejercer un papel decisivo en los conflictos internacionales: “Lo que vemos en el mundo es la falta total y absoluta de funcionamiento de las Naciones Unidas”.

En su intervención el Foro Celac-África, el presidente de Colombia, Gustavo Petro —anfitrión del foro y la cumbre—, habló en el mismo sentido de su par brasileño y señaló que las Naciones Unidas “ya no sirven”.

“Las Naciones Unidas no pueden impedir las guerras (…) Perfectamente alguien puede decir que ya no sirven”, dijo Petro en el foro realizado en Bogotá.

Petro no estuvo presente en la apertura del foro, pero acudió posteriormente al inicio de las intervenciones de los jefes de Estado.

Según el presidente de Colombia, la ONU, creada en 1945, después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, para preservar la paz y la seguridad internacionales, podría “entrar en una parálisis” por su incapacidad para resolver problemas globales, sobre todo los conflictos armados.

Petro apoyó su argumento en las guerras en Medio Oriente y Ucrania, las cuales siguen su curso y los organismos internacionales no han podido hacer nada para detenerlas.

Por su parte, México llamó a fortalecer el sistema multilateral en un momento internacional “complejo”.

Juan Ramón de la Fuente, canciller de México, dijo en su participación que “el contexto internacional actual, como se ha dicho reiteradamente, es de los más complejos lejos que se recuerden”.

“Frente a estos desafíos, México reitera la importancia de fortalecer decididamente el multilateralismo”, señaló. Tanto América Latina y el Caribe como África “tienen mucho que aportar en la defensa justamente del derecho internacional y de los principios de no intervención, libre autodeterminación y solución pacífica de los conflictos”, agregó.

En su turno durante el foro, el canciller de Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez, recalcó la disposición de la isla para mantener un “diálogo serio” y “sin injerencias” con EE.UU.

“Estaremos