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☆ Cuba's losses in case of Castro-era debt opens it up to more lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Michelle Caruso-Cabrera | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The judge ruled mostly in favor of CRF1, originally called the Cuba Recovery Fund. She said the High Court has jurisdiction, the debt was properly assigned to CRF, and that the former central bank is responsible. Yet she ruled that Cuba itself is not a guarantor of the debt, a win for the communist nation. "BNC was the Central Bank of Cuba and remains responsible for managing these unpaid Cuban debts," he said. Lawyers for CRF said the fund can now proceed to a trial to determine whether it can recover "the sovereign debt that in unequivocally owns.

BRASILIA, March 30 (Reuters) - Brazil's far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, who never conceded defeat in last year's election, returns from self-imposed exile in Florida on Thursday to lead the opposition to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro left for the United States two days before he was due to hand over the presidential sash to Lula on Jan. 1. His return to Brazil is eagerly awaited by the party's leader Valdemar Costa Neto, who wants Bolsonaro to become the leader of the opposition to the Lula administration and lead the PL into municipal elections next year. "Bolsonaro will lead the opposition and travel around Brazil preaching the party's liberal values and helping the PL grow," he told Reuters, outlining a plan for a right-wing comeback in the 2026 presidential elections. Barreto said her ambitions may provide an outlet for the ex-president's supporters if legal probes lead electoral authorities bar him from seeking office.

☆ As Cuba election day nears, some voters ask, 'why bother?'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Dave Sherwood | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

HAVANA, March 22 (Reuters) - Like a growing number of Cubans, 77-year-old Havana resident Humberto Avila says he will likely sit out Sunday's legislative elections. The retired university professor says he's done the math - 470 candidates, 470 open seats - and sees no point in voting. Abstention has spiked in recent elections, rising to a four-decade high of 31% of eligible voters in municipal elections in November. "This vote is for the Revolution ... and to continue to defend our socialist system," Diaz-Canel told textile workers in Santa Clara. Rey Lazaro Blanco, a 19-year old geography student at the University of Havana, told Reuters he will vote on Sunday.

☆ Cuba's president meets CEO of Russia's Rosneft amid fuel shortage
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HAVANA, March 5 (Reuters) - Russian oil firm Rosneft's CEO Igor Sechin met with Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel late on Saturday, the island's leader said, amid an acute fuel shortage that has service stations temporarily shuttered and hours-long gasoline queues. Several tweets on Cuba's Presidency account emphasized the good relations between the two countries, but did not specify the reason for the visit by the state-run oil firm's boss. Cuba's former leader Raul Castro has also flown to Caracas for the occasion, Cuban state-run media said. Russia, hit by Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine, is looking to strengthen political and economic ties with other countries opposed to what it calls U.S. hegemony. Cuba has been under a U.S. economic embargo since 1962 after a Communist revolution led by former leader Fidel Castro.

[1/5] Maylin Amador, 42, poses for a photo with Gucci, her bichon habanero, the national dog of Cuba, in Havana, Cuba, February 7, 2023. REUTERS/Alexandre MeneghiniHAVANA, March 1 (Reuters) - Maylin Amador breeds and styles one of Cuba's most attractive dogs - the Havanese bichon, a small but lively lapdog with abundant waves of tobacco-colored hair, and the Caribbean island's only native breed. "It is difficult to raise this animal because it bathes every four days," she said, as she prepares her dog Gucci for a national competition. The dog - considered the island's national breed - was popular among Cuban aristocrats before the Fidel Castro-led 1959 revolution. Evelio Fernandez, president of the Cuban "Bichon Havanese" club, told Reuters the association currently counts over 1,400 Havanese, and that the dog was officially recognized as Cuban in 2016.

☆ Cuba suffers third major blackout in a week
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Cuba on Tuesday suffered its third major blackout in little more than a week, leaving a vast swath of the center and east of the island without power, energy officials said on state-run TV. The blackout Tuesday spanned 430 miles (700 km) from Cienfuegos province in south-central Cuba to Guantanamo, on the far southeastern tip, leaving more than half of the country´s population of 11 million without power. On Saturday, another blackout cut power for millions of people from Matanzas, east of Havana, to Guantanamo, an outage power officials attributed to a "human operation error." The Minister of Energy and Mines said last week that rolling blackouts would resume and last until May while the country overhauls decades-old oil-fired power plants ahead of the summer season. Cold War-era embargo on Cuba, which complicates financing and purchase of parts, fuel and capital investment.

☆ Judge could take months to decide case of Castro-era Cuban debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Michelle Caruso-Cabrera | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The trial ended last week, but it could be months before the judge, Sara Cockerill, renders judgement in the case of CRF vs Banco Nacional de Cuba & Cuba. Her decision is central to whether Cuba may finally be forced to pay back billions of dollars in unpaid debts. At one point the barrister for CRF cited a British property case regarding the lease of a fried fish shop. The question before the judge is of whether the fund has the right to sue Cuba. No matter how the judge rules, the Cuban government will still owe the money.

☆ Chaos and intrigue reign in UK court fight over Castro-era Cuban debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Michelle Caruso-Cabrera | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The Cuban government and an investment firm are battling in a British court over decades-old debts racked up by the communist-run island nation. Kin Cheung | APIllegally recorded videos, chaotic protests and testimony from an imprisoned Cuban bank official marked the first week of a high-stakes trial in the UK High Court between Cuba and an investment fund. Adding to the intrigue: a court attendee who's a dead ringer for Raul Castro's son and Fidel Castro's nephew, Alejandro. Cuban officials say the man is just a press officer for the Cuban Embassy in the UK. Debt in distressDefaulted sovereign debt, like that of Cuba, trades on the secondary market.

☆ Tucker Carlson bizarrely suggested that the US should send an armed force to 'liberate' Canada from Justin Trudeau
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tucker Carlson called for the US to send an armed force to "liberate" Canada from Justin Trudeau. He compared Trudeau to Fidel Castro and said he was "completely in favor of a Bay of Pigs operation." We're spending all this money to liberate Ukraine from the Russians, why are we not sending an armed force to liberate Canada from Trudeau? Carlson has previously said he was rooting for Russia in the conflict in Ukraine, which he later claimed was a joke following widespread condemnation. He has also previously suggested military action against another of the United States' neighbors when in 2019, he advocated for the US to "strike back" at Mexico.

Nash - one of the United States´ best-known contemporary jazz performers, will lead a project called Jazz X. He and several Cuban musicians will compose new works inspired by visual art in Cuba´s National Museum of Fine Arts, then present them together to the public in several sessions. Well-known Cuban musicians Alejandro Falcón, Arnulfo Guerra y Ruy López Nussa will perform alongside Nash. The project, Nash said, brings together musicians from the two countries, and art of different forms, in a fusion of creativity across cultures and mediums. The U.S. economic embargo on Cuba has for decades restricted most travel and official collaboration between the two countries.

☆ Cuba begins London court battle over unpaid Castro-era debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Students hold images of the late Cuban President Fidel Castro during an event commemorating the five year anniversary of his death, in Havana, Cuba, November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/File PhotoLONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Cuba began a high-stakes legal battle in London's High Court on Monday over unpaid Fidel Castro-era government debt now held by one of the communist-run country's creditors. CRF originally launched the claim almost three years ago after Havana refused a debt relief offer made by CRF and some other bond holders back in 2018. But having not dealt with its commercial creditors in the so-called London Club the country remains shut out of international capital markets. ($1 = 0.9210 euros)Reporting by Marc Jones and Sam Tobin; Editing by Frank Jack DanielOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Here's what you need to know about a blockbuster court fight over Cuba's debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Michelle Caruso-Cabrera | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The legal battle is over a portion of Cuba's unpaid commercial debt dating back to the 1980s. If they don't reach a deal, Cuba could then face yet another court fight over whether it finally has to pay. Because of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, American investors are prohibited from owning and trading Cuban debt, which frustrates some frontier-market hedge fund managers in the U.S. They argue that holding Cuban debt would better serve U.S. foreign policy interests because it would give Americans a seat at some future negotiating table. CRF, meanwhile, says in court filings that it first reached out to Cuba 10 years ago to settle the debt but were ignored.

☆ Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida dies at age 95
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

ROME (AP) — Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. Lollobrigida also was an accomplished sculptor, painter and photographer, and eventually essentially dropped film for the other arts. Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, a picturesque hill town near Rome, where her father was a furniture maker. Lollobrigida began her career in beauty contests, posing for the covers of magazines and making brief appearances in minor films. On her website, Lollobrigida recalled how her family lost its house during the bombings of World War II and went to live in Rome.

☆ Gina Lollobrigida, post WWII Italian film diva, dies at 95
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ROME, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, a sultry Mediterranean diva who came to represent Italy's vibrant rebirth after World War Two, has died aged 95, her former lawyer said on Monday. "Farewell to a diva of the big screen, protagonist of more than half a century of the Italian film history. Ciao Lollo," Italian culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano wrote on Twitter. One of her last appearances was a cameo in an Italian film in 2011. In an interview with Reuters in the Rome villa in 2006, she complained about intrusive photographers, saying they were still trying to invade her privacy.

☆ Cuba says vulture fund seeking 72 mln euros never a creditor as UK court begins proceedings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Such firms, described as "vulture funds" by the Cuban Central Bank, typically purchase distressed or defaulted debt then sue in international courts to get paid in full. Cuba's Central Bank (BNC) said in a statement on Friday it does not recognize CRF as a creditor. "CRF is not a creditor of the BNC or of Cuba and never has been," the Central Bank superintendent said. The firm claims Cuba owes it 72 million euros in debt in proceedings currently under way in the London court, according to the Central Bank statement. The case will be closely watched by Cuba's creditors, some of whom have struggled to recoup loans as the country wrestles with a dire economic crisis made worse by the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions put in place by former U.S. president President Donald Trump.

☆ 'Deadly' double agent Ana Montes who was a US spy for communist Cuba freed from prison after 20 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ana Montes, seen as "one of the most damaging spies" in US history, has been released from prison. When she was working a clerical job at the Department of Justice, Cuban authorities identified her as someone who would be sympathetic to their cause. She was able to pass highly sensitive information over to Cuban authorities through memory alone. "She compromised everything — virtually everything — that we knew about Cuba and how we operated in Cuba and against Cuba," Van Cleave said. Chris Simmons, a former investigator with the DIA, described Montes as "a very deadly woman, a very dangerous woman," NBC reported.

☆ Cruise lines to appeal U.S court's big award to owner of Havana dock
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Royal Caribbean logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken, May 3, 2022. U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami ruled last week to award a total of $440 million to the plaintiff, Delaware-registered Havana Docks Corp; registered to two U.S. citizens who claim to be descendants of the original owners of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal. It comes after Bloom ruled in March that the use of the port constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by Havana Docks Corp. Royal Caribbean in a comment to Reuters said it "disagree(d) with the ruling and will appeal. Havana Docks sued the cruise lines under the Helms-Burton Act, which allows U.S. nationals to sue over use of property seized in Cuba after 1959.

☆ Priests from Cuba’s Santeria religion see hard year ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Marc Frank | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HAVANA, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Priests from Cuba’s Afro-Cuban Santeria religion on Monday warned of a difficult year ahead and called on followers to guard against calamities and mounting social ills after a tough year in 2022 in which a record number of Cubans left the Communist-run island. "Do not delay pending religious works and consecrations,” the priests, known as babalawos and grouped together in the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, advised in their Letter of the Year published Sunday. “Natural disasters are forecast due to hurricanes, sea turmoil and river flooding with economic and human losses,” their Letter said. A record number of Cubans left, with some 250,000 entering the United States according to U.S. government statistics, the majority crossing over the Mexican border. "I am very hopeful that Cuba and the United States will reach an agreement."

☆ Final farewell: From Sidney Poitier to Pope Emeritus Benedict a look back at the influential figures who died in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +55 min

Other world leaders who died in 2022 include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in August. The final days of 2022 saw the loss of some exceptionally notable figures, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2022 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___Dan Reeves, 77. A Cuban-born artist whose radiant color palette and geometric paintings were overlooked for decades before the art world took notice. A prolific character actor best known for playing villains and tough guys in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and other films.

Jailed for graft in 2018 - the year right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro was elected - Lula's convictions were overturned in 2019, allowing him to oust Bolsonaro in October's election. The more ideological Lula who emerged from jail in 2019 should not be a cause for concern, friends and allies said. Lula's spokesman Jose Chrispiniano said the president supported fiscal responsibility and believes that strengthening the economy is the best way to combat poverty. "Good morning, President Lula," his devotees would chant as the day began, followed by "Good night, President Lula," as he went to bed. From his 15-square-meter cell on the third floor of the Federal Police headquarters in Curitiba, Lula set about reorganizing the PT and managing his legal defense.

☆ Barbara Walters, pioneering TV journalist who began on ‘TODAY,’ dies at 93
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Ethan Sacks | Ethan Sacks Writes For Nbcnews.Com. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Barbara Walters, the pioneering TV broadcaster who blazed a trail for women in a male-dominated medium, died Friday. “Barbara Walters proved to be the evolutionary step between Edward R. Murrow and Oprah Winfrey.”Barbara Walters interviews Ronald Reagan in 1980 for ABC News. NBCMcGee, who died shortly after being partnered with Walters, demanded that he ask three questions to every one of Walter’s in studio interviews. So, Walters started fielding interviews outside the studio, quickly building a reputation as an incisive and probing questioner. After nearly 60 years in journalism, Walters announced she was retiring in 2014.

☆ Factbox: Key facts about pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The following are key facts about the life and career of pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, the first woman to anchor an American network evening newscast, who died on Friday:* Walters was born in Boston on Sept. 25, but she did not like to reveal the year, which reportedly was 1929, 1930 or 1931. * Walters started at NBC's "Today" show as a writer in 1961 and in 1976 became the first woman to co-anchor a network evening news broadcast on U.S. television. * Walters singled out her "Today" co-host Frank McGee and Reasoner on ABC News for making her life miserable. * Walters felt she was unfairly mocked for her asking actress Katharine Hepburn what kind of tree she would like to be. * Walters' marriages to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson all ended in divorce.

☆ Pioneering U.S. television journalist Barbara Walters dead at 93
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Bill Trott | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Television personality Barbara Walters arrives for the premiere of the film "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" in New York September 20, 2010. "I asked Yeltsin if he drank too much, and I asked Putin if he killed anybody," Walters told the New York Times in 2013. "These two men were really quite brutal to me and it was not pleasant," Walters told the San Francisco Examiner. The New York Times called her "arguably America's best-known television personality" but also observed that "what we remember most about a Barbara Walters interview is Barbara Walters." Walters' three marriages - to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson - ended in divorce.

☆ Cuba says U.S. greenlights MLB players for World Baseball Classic
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HAVANA, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Cuba said on Saturday the United States had granted permission for some of its top ballplayers to participate in the World Baseball Classic on the national team. The team will be the first since Fidel Castro's 1959 Revolution to include Cuban players from both countries. Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told Reuters earlier this month the United States was blocking some of Cuba's top players from participating in the Classic. Cuba has asked several players who in recent years had defected from the Caribbean island - long famed for its baseball talent - to represent their home country in the event. As a result, Cuba's baseball talent has fled the country in unprecedented numbers in the past decade, emptying dugouts and denting national pride.

“The magnitude of the flow is unprecedented and unheard of,” said Jorge Duany, director of Florida International University’s Cuba Research Institute. Over 6,000 Cuban migrants were interdicted at sea in 2021 while attempting to cross the Florida straits in makeshift boats. Recent migrants have been staying with relatives until they’re able to find work and a room or efficiency to rent. “It’s basically chaos,” said Angel Leal, an immigration attorney in Miami with a large volume of Cuban clients. But previous waves of Cuban migrants, like those who came in the 1990s during the rafter crisis, also leaned Democratic and then ultimately turned Republican.

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