By Max Saltman, Carolina Peguero, Abel Alvarado, CNN

Miami (CNN) — As with many other Cubans in their 70s, Alina Fernández’s first memory of Fidel Castro was watching his interminable speeches on television.

“My generation used to pray in front of the TV for him to finish, so we would be able to watch our cartoons,” she recalled in a CNN interview Monday. “That’s the way I grew up.”

Yet few other members of her generation share the second part of her memory, when Castro — whom she later learned was her father — would swing by the family home in the evening to visit his former mistress, her mother.

Now, Castro’s daughter — a longtime anti-communist who lives in exile in Miami — fears that her adoptive country may be underestimating the government on the island she fled, as the Trump administration pushes for regime change in Cuba. US military action to topple the government, she warns, would bring enormous pain.

“This is not the first time (Cubans have been) told that an invasion is coming immediately,” she told CNN. “We’ve been under invasion for the last 67 years, or the state of an invasion. I’m sure they are prepared. I don’t know how they are going to respond.”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has warned that any US military assault on Cuba will result in a “bloodbath.” Fernández agrees.

“We know that these regimes put civilians on the front line,” she said. “When there’s a situation involving military or political violence, so to speak, that is very worrying. That’s the feeling I have — that my joy will not be matched by the way the solution comes about. It’s going to be very painful.”

Growing up Castro

Fernández said she “officially” found out her true parentage when she was 10. Yet when her mother informed her that the frequent, nocturnal guest in their Havana home was her father, “it wasn’t a big surprise.”

“He was an assiduous visitor,” she recalled.

What did surprise Fernández was that everyone seemed to know before she did.

“I told my best friend, and she told me that she already knew,” Fernández said. “Then, along with that news came a sense of betrayal — a feeling of having been lied to.”

She said she doesn’t see what her mother saw in her absentee dad, whom she doesn’t believe liked her mother nearly as much as her mother loved him. The two met during the revolution in the 1950s and began an affair. Fernández was born in 1956, three years before her father descended from the Sierra Maestra mountains and toppled the Fulgencio Batista regime.

“She passed speaking about him,” she said of her mother, who died in 2015, a year before Fidel Castro’s death. “She lasted in love for as long as she lived, which for me is very difficult to understand.”

As she sat in her tiny kitchen in Miami, Fernández insisted that she doesn’t feel special. She said she doesn’t even really feel like Fidel Castro’s daughter. It may be ironic, but she has found Miami, among the anti-Castro milieu, to be the “only comfortable place” she has ever known. She lives in a small duplex decorated with colorful wallpaper and eye-popping folk art.

“I feel like every other Cuban,” Fernández said. “Like a woman, an exile, also a victim.”

Fernández does not share her late father’s politics. She said she grew fully disillusioned with the Cuban government in the late 1980s and began criticizing the regime publicly. She fled the country in 1993 after deciding that it may not be easy for her daughter to grow up raised by an enemy of th

Por Hannah Rabinowitz, Tierney Sneed, Holmes Lybrand, Devan Cole y Paula Reid, CNN

Todd Blanche defendió enérgicamente el recién creado fondo del Departamento de Justicia contra la “instrumentalización” y aseguró que no está limitado a los aliados del presidente Donald Trump, en la primera comparecencia del secretario de Justicia interino ante el Congreso desde que asumió el cargo.

Aunque el acuerdo es “inusual”, admitió Blanche este martes, cualquiera puede solicitar una disculpa oficial o una parte del fondo de casi US$ 1.800 millones, anunciado el lunes junto con la retirada por parte de Trump de una demanda de US$ 10.000 millones contra el Servicio de Impuestos Internos (IRS, por sus siglas en inglés) por la filtración de su información fiscal.

Las preguntas sobre los detalles del fondo dominaron la audiencia ante la Comisión de Asignaciones del Senado, y el testimonio de Blanche se desvió significativamente de su objetivo de promover los temas centrales del departamento bajo el Gobierno de Trump.

Aun así, Blanche dio pocos detalles sobre cómo se repartirá el fondo. Ninguno de los cinco comisionados que lo supervisarán ha sido elegido todavía, dijo, al señalar que esos comisionados establecerán las directrices para distribuir los pagos.

Entre los principales asuntos que Blanche eludió está si quienes agredieron a agentes del orden el 6 de enero de 2021 serían elegibles para recibir una compensación.

“Sin duda animaré a los comisionados a tenerlo todo en cuenta al determinar quién debe recibir una compensación”, dijo Blanche.

“Pero, ¿por qué no esta cuestión específica de [haber sido] condenado por actos violentos contra agentes de policía?”, preguntó el senador demócrata Jeff Merkley. “¿Cree usted que deberían recibir compensación después de ser condenados por actos violentos?”.

“Mis sentimientos no importan, senador”, dijo Blanche.

Estas son las conclusiones de sus más de dos horas de testimonio.

La audiencia ante la Comisión de Asignaciones del Senado estaba prevista para discutir la solicitud presupuestaria del Departamento de Justicia, y Blanche llegó preparado para destacar los esfuerzos de la agencia por combatir el crimen violento y el narcotráfico, dos de las prioridades del Gobierno de Trump.

Su testimonio llegó en un momento crucial tanto para el Departamento de Justicia como para el propio Blanche. Blanche, que representó a Trump en dos casos en tribunales federales, quedó al frente del Departamento de Justicia después de que el presidente despidiera a Pam Bondi en abril.

Desde entonces ha intentado demostrar a la Casa Blanca que debería ser designado de forma permanente para el puesto de secretario de Justicia. Ese esfuerzo ha dado lugar a una serie de anuncios llamativos del Departamento de Justicia, incluidas acusaciones contra el exdirector del FBI James Comey y el Southern Poverty Law Center, la revocación de medidas de control de armas y la emisión de citaciones a periodistas para que revelen sus fuentes.

Sin embargo, el interrogatorio rápidamente derivó en críticas de senadores demócratas, que afirmaron que el “fondo de uso discrecional” anunciado el lunes estaba destinado a enriquecer a los propios aliados y simpatizantes del presidente.

“Recompensar a personas que cometieron delitos es obsceno”, dijo al inicio de la audiencia el senador demócrata Chris Van Hollen. “Todos los estadounidenses pueden ver a través de este esquema ilegal, corrupto y de beneficio propio”.

Blanche dijo que el fondo “no está limitado a los republicanos, no está limitado a la supuesta instrumentalización durante el gobierno de Biden, no está limitado de ninguna forma al 6 de enero ni a Jack Smith”, el exfiscal especial. “No hay restricciones sobre quién puede presentar una solicitud”.

También intentó comparar el fondo contra la instrumentalización con uno de la era Obama creado en un

The post Environmentalists’ Lawsuit Challenging Restart of Pipeline at Center of Refugio Oil Spill Removed from Santa Barbara Court appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

By Daniel Wine, CNN

Welcome to 5 Things PM! Google is making its biggest change to the search bar in years. See what you can expect.

Here’s what else you might have missed during your busy day.

5 things

1⃣ Big day for primaries

People in several states — including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Kentucky — are voting today. The biggest subplot will be President Donald Trump’s revenge tour against his Republican antagonists. Follow live updates.

Trump upends Senate GOP plans by endorsing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

2⃣ Protect your money

There is no one-size-fits-all model to smart investing. Your age, spending needs, risk tolerance and life goals all factor into the equation. Experts offer tips on how to inflation-proof your portfolio.

3⃣ Embryo adoption

After IVF, one couple donated 11 frozen embryos to another couple facing infertility. Their children are now biological siblings. CNN visits the families to reveal the complex ethics, emotions and realities.

4⃣ The blame game

As one Major League Baseball executive put it, managers “are hired to be fired.” It’s early in the season, yet two skippers are already out — for reasons that may not have been their fault.

5⃣ Wet and wild

“Glass castle” worms, “ghost sharks” and “death ball” sponges: Scientists have discovered more than 1,100 unusual species deep in the ocean. Let’s dive in.

Watch this

Costume caper: Two Americans are in hot water after one jumped into a monkey enclosure at a zoo near Tokyo — home to Punch, the viral primate who befriended a plush toy.

Top headlines

• Trump says he’ll delay attack on Iran until ‘maybe early next week’
• WHO chief raises alarm over scale of Ebola outbreak after death toll climbs
• Victims of San Diego shooting tried to draw the suspects away from the mosque, police say

Check this out

Revealing portraits: Ron Howard’s new film about renowned photographer Richard Avedon just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. CNN Style asked the Oscar-winning director to pick Read more

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