Top World News

A new report issued by the State Department lays out an alarming blueprint for criminalizing dissent against the Trump administration through a dubious link to Cuban foreign subversion, critics say.The July 20 release of the State Department report "Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism" comes on the heels of a global gathering of counterterrorism officials in Washington hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to enlist U.S. allies in cracking down on a perceived global left-wing terrorism threat.The Cuba report posits that “a sustained campaign of subversion against the United States” by the beleaguered communist nation through espionage and terrorism is responsible for sustaining and shaping the political left in the United States today, including “antifa” and a host of “leftist nonprofits, anti-ICE collectives, social groups and Marxist militant organizations.”In a chapter titled “Front Groups & Fellow Travelers,” the report spotlights an array of domestic leftist groups calling on the U.S. to lift the embargo against Cuba and opposing the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort through militarized surges by federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.While raising the specter of terrorism and espionage in two chapters dedicated to each subject, the report highlights a range of activities by U.S. activist groups, including registered charities.None of the activities are criminal. They include organizing initiatives, political advocacy, aid convoys, work stoppages, campaigns for political office, monitoring of law enforcement, and raising bail funds to support protesters. Rubio asserted a link between Cuba and domestic protest groups during his remarks at the opening of the July 16 Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Violence."The Cuban regime’s sprawling intelligence and ideological network helped to build the far left in our country and in our hemisphere,” he said. “And it remains inextricably linked to the far-left groups and movements across and beyond the West."Critics charge that the report, coupled with Rubio’s effort to mobilize a global counterterrorism coalition against the left, poses a threat to Americans’ constitutional rights. By tying domestic dissent to national security, critics say, the Trump administration could justify more robust surveillance measures, along with sanctions, that aren’t available under the constitutional safeguards that typically limit domestic law enforcement.“I think the concern is they’re hyping fears of a foreign threat to tie in actors here on domestic soil,” Tom Joscelyn, who served as a senior professional staff member on the House Jan. 6th Committee and helped write its final report on the attack on the U.S. Capitol, told Raw Story. “Whether they can do that with Cuban communists or a foreign antifa group, they can use counterterrorism tools on American people: surveillance, de-banking, and other strong counterterrorism tools.”Joscelyn added that there is no evidence of an actual “foreign nexus” to justify deploying counterterrorism measures against domestic opponents of the Trump administration, so “they’re inventing one because they don’t have one.”The State Department did not respond to requests for comment for this story.Among other U.S. organizations, the State Department report targets the National Network on Cuba, which it describes as “a key node for coordination between the Cuban regime and the American far left.” The report raises an alarm about a “National Rapid Response Plan” distributed by the network in June, which the State Department describes as “a detailed strategy for activating and launching ‘coordinated nationwide actions’ against federal institutions, U.S. military bases, and ICE detention centers and field offices in the United States within 24 hours of U.S. military action… against Cuba.”But the State Department report omits any mention of the types of actions that are outlined in the plan. Far from being terrorist strikes as the report insinuates, they are familiar protest activities, including rallies, meetings, art builds, flyering, and banner drops. Also belying any notion of a call for criminal violence, the document recommends: “Make your plan now and start publicizing it.”In another example, the report targets the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, a registered charity which has a history of sending humanitarian aid and solidarity delegations to Cuba. The report claims that the foundation “facilitates radical agitation within the United States” through a separate fiscal sponsorship program.The report lists five groups accused of “radical agitation” that receive donations through the fiscal sponsorship program. One, a Black women-led organization, advocates for Haitian refugees, currently facing deportation following the Supreme Court decision upholding the Trump administration’s decision to end temporary protected status. Another is described as advocating for the abolition of the police, ICE and prisons, and fighting “gentrification” and “police violence” in Brooklyn. Yet another group, described as a “Black Queer Feminist led, abolitionist organizing project,” is engaged in a mission of “reimagining and rebuilding our own systems towards liberation.”Nowhere in the short bullet points for each group, which appear to be drawn from their websites, does the State Department allege any specific criminal misconduct.The anti-ICE, police abolitionist and pro-LGBTQ+ positions of the targeted groups mirror the focus of National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-7, a directive issued by President Trump last September to “investigate and disrupt” leftist movements motivated by, among other things, “extremism on migration, race and gender.”The report assails the People’s Forum for partnering with the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America “to recruit up to 4,000 ‘rapid response’ activists to counter ICE enforcement operations in the city” and helping to organize a “nationwide anti-ICE school and business shutdown” in January.Following the State Department report, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), subpoenaed the People’s Forum to probe it for alleged foreign influence.The People’s Forum decried the State Department report as advancing “false and sweeping allegations that everyone opposing the criminal blockade of Cuba or supporting social justice movements are left-wing terrorists.” The organization went on to describe the State Department report and congressional probe as being “part of an escalating crusade against all progressive organizations and any group or person who expresses opposition to the ultra-right, racist, and pro-war policies of the Trump White House.”The National Lawyers Guild, itself a target of the State Department report, flagged the document as a signal that the administration is “consolidating its legal architecture of fascist repression,” part of an escalation that also includes stiff sentences handed down to anti-ICE activists in Texas who were present at a protest that turned violent and the ongoing prosecution of 15 anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis charged with conspiracy for blockading a federal facility and tracking immigration agents in the field.The Global Project Against Hate & Extremism, meanwhile, said the State Department’s recent moves appear to build on previous efforts by the Trump administration to punish perceived enemies by ordering investigations of former officials such as Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, and prosecuting former FBI Director James Comey. “None of these actions required the pretext of the ministerial or a report about Cuba,” the group said in a recent report. “Instead, those just serve as justification for the administration to dig deeper. The administration appears to be creating a framework that recasts constitutionally protected speech, protest, and association as foreign-directed extremism, making the next round of investigations and prosecutions easier to sell to the public.”Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the July 16 ministerial on leftist political violence that, following Trump’s direction in NSPM-7, the Treasury Department is “expanding its efforts to identify organizations that abuse charitable and nonprofit structures as vehicles for illicit finance.“We are examining where tax-exempt status has been exploited, where charitable entities have become financial conduits for foreign-influence activity and how those entrusted with stewardship of these organizations have instead enabled violence,” Bessent said. Code Pink, another registered charity and one of the groups named in the State Department report, received a “Request for Information” letter from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control seeking information about a humanitarian trip to Cuba in March to deliver medical supplies for children’s hospitals, the group confirmed to Raw Story.The State Department accused Code Pink of “brazen and overt propagandizing on behalf of several hostile regimes” while describing it as exemplifying “domestic American ‘anti-imperialist’ and Third Worldist organizations” serving as “vectors of subversive foreign influence.”Melissa Garriga, a spokesperson, told Raw Story, “Code Pink does not work on behalf of any foreign government; our actions and campaigns are influenced by deadly U.S. foreign policy funded by our tax dollars.”Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate & Extremism, told Raw Story the most troubling aspect of the State Department report is that it vilifies First Amendment-protected activities.“Solidarity trips, aid convoys, and anti-embargo advocacy are constitutionally protected speech and association, not evidence of foreign control,” she said. “By blurring compassion for Cubans into ‘being directed by Cuba,’ the report revives a familiar Cold War tactic, effectively demonizing dissent as foreign-directed subversion.”

Prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul calls for tighter gun controls and ‘decisive penalties’ after nine dead in school shooting Thailand has suspended firearms licences after the deadly Nonthaburi school shooting, as the bodies of the teenage attacker and the grandparents he killed were cremated.The prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, said he had ordered the interior ministry and police to stop issuing licences to possess, purchase and carry firearms, and called for “tighter controls and decisive penalties”. The measures are temporary until a new gun control law is in place, according to government operated news-channel NBT World. Continue reading...

The internet had a laugh as President Donald Trump appeared to struggle to walk down the stairs with an umbrella as wind and rain hit after Air Force One landed in Ohio on Tuesday.Trump stepped off his plane at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, where a crowd was waiting for him before he headed to Marine One, en route to the Patriot Games in Geneva, Ohio. It happened just a day after reports surfaced that Trump had used Air Force One as a decoy while returning from Turkey under a credible terror threat in July, fleeing in a catering cart and being taken to another aircraft while reporters and White House staff remained on the plane.The clip was shared by independent journalist Aaron Rupar on X."Trump still can't open an umbrella, struggles to get down stairs of Bribe Force One," Rupar commented, referencing the jet gifted to Trump by Qatar.Others noticed the moment."Get this man a catering cart!" Nick Turse, senior reporter at The Intercept, wrote on X."This is the hardest thing he will do all day," strategist Vincent D. Monroy wrote on X."That’s 6,000% more wind than what a man Trump’s age can handle," liberal commentator Chris Robinson wrote on X."How long until he orders the umbrella be arrested?" progressive commentator Janice Hough wrote on X.Trump still can't open an umbrella, struggles to get down stairs of Bribe Force One pic.twitter.com/oY2yGC2xsK— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 11, 2026

Trump administration officials are slamming their colleagues in the Pentagon after a new report downplayed casualty counts from recent military strikes, per a new report.The Department of Defense turned over an annual report to Congress with a tally of civilian casualties from military strikes in 2025, and one anonymous Trump administration official called it "a f------ joke," according to reporting by The Intercept. The report addresses allegations of civilian harm during 2025 military attacks in Somalia and Yemen, as well as boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, where the Pentagon insists it's fighting drug trafficking, The Intercept reported.However, the report asserts that U.S. attacks killed no civilians during military boat strikes, despite reports that those strikes killed more than 120 civilians, according to The Intercept. A second Trump administration official called the report "a total whitewash" and "sickening," adding that the Pentagon has "absolutely no credibility."The Intercept noted that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gutted civilian harm mitigation and response programs in the Pentagon. Although the report, which has only been released to Congress but not to the public, denied civilian deaths from the boat strikes, it found that U.S. attacks in the Middle East likely killed or wounded hundreds of civilians, The Intercept reported.However, the second official said that the report offered "lowball numbers" for civilian casualties from U.S. attacks in Yemen. The report estimated U.S. air and naval strikes in Yemen killed 153 civilians and wounded almost 250, but the Yemen Data Project estimated that 238 civilians were killed and 467 were injured by U.S. attacks. Both anonymous officials also pointed out that the Pentagon is still reviewing 15 cases of attacks on civilians in Yemen and that the 10-person civilian harm mitigation team at CENTCOM has been reduced to one person. The first official said it "doesn't bode well for the war in Iran," adding, "How will they get through hundreds of cases for Iran if their one civilian harm person still hasn't finished in Yemen?"

Mohammad Akhtar, 50, from Peterborough killed during clashes between authorities and protestersA British national was shot dead in Pakistan-administered Kashmir during clashes between security forces and protesters, the Guardian can reveal.Another Briton has been held in a regional prison for more than two months despite his family’s efforts to secure his release through the Foreign Office. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump has been raging against possible leakers over information he gave away months ago.Trump has spent the week vowing to hunt down "treasonous" leakers over a missile shortage he was warned about and that he publicly acknowledged months before he launched his war with Iran, points out a Saturday piece by the legal blog emptywheel."Donald Trump told us on February 23, before he started this war, that he was reading the stories describing that he was warned, including about the missile shortage," emptywheel wrote. "And his response was to say that the decision was his, that if we went in spite of the warnings, the decision was his."The depletion of long-range missiles and interceptors was never a surprise, but despite that, Trump's recriminations have been building as he even turns on people within his own administration.Emptywheel noted a recent report by The Washington Post that revealed Trump laid into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Camp David meeting because of the shortages, but White House and Pentagon spokespeople have denied the report. Trump took to Truth Social to deny the missile shortage as well, writing, "The U.S. has massive amounts of 'munitions,'" but also went after "the 'leakers' of those treasonous statements" about a shortage. He said they were "being hunted down."According to emptywheel, "the especially weird part" of the White House and Pentagon denials is that they insist Trump isn't angry at Hegseth at all. "Shouldn't the President be angry with a Secretary of Defense who conducted the war in such a dumba— way, losing the war while blowing the missile reserves?" the blog asked.The blog also mentioned reporting that suggests that missile supplies are indeed dangerously low. A CNN report estimated about 80 percent of U.S. THAAD interceptors are gone, and Reuters reported, citing sources, that "virtually all" of the Army's surface-to-surface weapons have been used up.

Greenland clapped back at President Donald Trump amidst his overtures of an invasion — and they used a television talk show host to do it, according to a new report. The Guardian reported on Saturday that Greenland's government issued a "strong warning" to a Trump-linked company after it showed up on the island with oil drilling equipment. The company was preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland even though local authorities haven't given it permission, according to the report. Greenland's warning, written in Danish, reportedly demanded, "All future logistical matters must be advised and approved by the mineral resources authority before they are carried out."Trump this month posted a "menacing" Truth Social message — an image of himself looming over Greenland — and told Americans to "bet" Greenland would be under American control before the decade was out. The Texas-based company — Greenland Energy — has multiple ties to Trump.Trump mega-donor Kenneth Griffin, owns a 9 percent share and one of its appointed directors worked on the president's plan for a Golden Dome missile defense system — a plan for which Trump has said control of Greenland is "vital," the Guardian reported.Greenland Energy's chairman and biggest shareholder, Larry Swets, is also part of Trump's circle, The Guardian reported. Swets reportedly responded to the warning with a semi-apology, stating, "Our enthusiasm for the project led us to communicate in a way that created confusion."The company told shareholders that "high-level meetings" have taken place between the project leaders and Greenland's regulatory and oversight officials, saying the discussions have been "constructive" despite the warning from the government, according to the report."We continue to be encouraged by the progress being made toward the remaining approvals required for drilling," the company said in a message to shareholders. The company is also expected to ship 300 containers of drilling equipment to Greenland from Canada on September 12. Trump's Greenland envoy, hard-right Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R), said that pumping oil could begin next year, according to The Guardian.The company's roster includes another Trump ally, recently brought on to be its public face, according to the report. "Greenland Energy has retained Phil McGraw, better known as Dr Phil,' the report stated, "a prominent rightwing former chatshow host who served on Trump’s religious freedom commission, to make a documentary series that will 'capture the mission of these modern-day wildcatters."

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine has started to tell multiple top Trump advisers privately that he is "looking for an off-ramp" from the Iran war, CNN reported on Friday.Three sources have said that the existing military options could end up backfiring and the conflict has reached a crossroads where air power alone "is unlikely to achieve President Donald Trump’s stated objectives."Caine has expressed this to several key Cabinet members. Two sources revealed he has spoken directly about those concerns with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance."I think it is just his way of protecting the military," one source told CNN. Trump has repeatedly been reluctant to send ground troops into Iran, and has favored airstrikes instead, which he believes can pressure Tehran into a deal on his terms. But Caine and other cabinet officials privately doubt that strategy will work, according to multiple sources familiar with recent discussions, and have been quietly exploring alternative options that still fall within the president's stated red lines, according to CNN.