State Department head Rubio said he had sanctioned several senior officials and their ‘cronies’ for their ‘brutality toward the Cuban people’.

The US State Department has imposed sanctions on senior Cuban officials, including President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced as he marked the fourth anniversary of a brutal crackdown on historic antigovernment protests.

In a post on X, Rubio said the State Department would be “restricting visas for Cuban regime figureheads”, including President Diaz-Canel, Defence Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera, Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, and their “cronies” for their “role in the Cuban regime’s brutality toward the Cuban people”.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also announced that the State Department has added the Torre K hotel to its restricted list of entities in order to “prevent US dollars from funding the Cuban regime’s repression”.

The Cuban government has promoted the luxury high-rise Torre K in central Havana as a symbol of modernisation. But the government has faced criticism for its large investment in luxury hotels amid a severe economic crisis in the nominally socialist one-party state.

“While the Cuban people suffer shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity, the regime lavishes money on its insiders,” Rubio said.

Ten other “regime-linked properties” were also added to the State Department’s List of Prohibited Accommodations, it said in a statement.

The statement said the sanctions were being enacted in “solidarity with the Cuban people and the island’s political prisoners”, citing the Cuban government’s brutal crackdown on the July 2021 demonstrations – the largest since the Cuban revolution in the 1950s.

The police crackdown resulted in one death and dozens of wounded protesters.

“Four years ago, thousands of Cubans peacefully took to the streets to demand a future free from tyranny. The Cuban regime responded with violence and repression, unjustly detaining thousands, including over 700 who are still imprisoned and subjected to torture or abuse,” the State Department said.

Rubio also accused Cuba of torturing pro-democracy activist Jose Daniel Ferrer, whose bail was revoked as he was taken into custody alongside fellow dissident Felix Navarro in April.

“The United States demands immediate proof of life and the release of all political prisoners,” Rubio said.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez slammed the latest measures as part of a “ruthless economic war” being waged by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

“The USA is capable of imposing migratory sanctions against revolutionary leaders and maintaining a prolonged and ruthless economic war against Cuba, but it lacks the ability to break the will of these people or their leaders,” he said on X.

In January, then-US President Joe Biden had removed Cuba from the blacklist of countries sponsoring terrorism.

But Trump returned the country to the blacklist immediately after returning to the White House as he resumed his “maximum pressure” campaign against Cuba that typified his foreign policy during his first term.

US President Donald Trump has reassured Kerrville, Texas, residents that the government would help rebuild after floods hit the central part of the state last week, killing 120 people.

The president and First Lady Melania Trump met on Friday with local officials on the ground – at one point standing in front of an upended tractor trailer – and surveyed the damage.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said, after taking a tour of the devastation.

More than 12,300 volunteers have gathered to help search for the 161 people still missing statewide. Officials said volunteers have been working 10 hours a day.

While storms damaged homes and killed residents throughout central Texas, Kerr County faced the brunt of the floodwaters.

Trump told officials gathered for an afternoon roundtable at a Kerrville youth center that he and the first lady were in town to “express the love and support, and the anguish of our entire nation”.

The first lady, who ordinarily keeps a low profile, also toured the devastation. She said she hugged and prayed with families of the victims during her visit.

“My deepest sympathy to all of the parents who lost beautiful young souls,” she said. “We are grieving with you. Our nation is grieving with you.”

She also promised to visit again.

Among those killed in the storms were 27 young girls who were attending Camp Mystic – one of 18 summer camps located on that stretch of the Guadalupe River.

In the wake of the deadly tragedy, questions have been raised about whether adequate warnings were provided and why camps weren’t evacuated ahead of the deluge.

Experts have said a number of factor led to the deadly impact of the flash flood, including the pre-dawn timing, the location of some homes, the patchwork of cell service and its overall speed and severity.

Trump dismissed a media question on what more could have been done to warn residents, saying: “Only an evil person would ask a question like that.”

The Guadalupe River levels, which rose to flood homes, roads and cars, caught many by surprise.

The catastrophe unfolded before daybreak a week ago. The river rose 26ft (8m) in the span of just 45 minutes. Young children and staff at summer camps along the river were asleep as weather alerts went off.

Search crews in Texas are still sifting through debris for scores of missing people. Authorities have said they will not relent until everyone is accounted for.

Experts say that National Weather Service (NWS) alerts were timely in Texas last weekend.

But some have warned that cuts to federal agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organisation (NOAA) and its NWS subsidiary could affect the response to future sudden floods.

A civilian court of appeals says ex-Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin ‘had full legal authority’ to withdraw the plea agreement.

Washington, DC – An appeals court in the United States has validated the decision of former Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin to withdraw a plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001.

A panel of judges at the Washington, DC-based federal court of appeals ruled on Friday that Austin “had full legal authority” to revoke the plea agreement for Mohammed and two other defendants.

That deal would have spared Mohammed the possibility of the death penalty in exchange for a plea of guilty.

Friday’s decision will prolong a decades-long legal saga for Mohammed, who has been imprisoned at a notorious detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since he was captured in Pakistan in 2003.

Austin revoked the deal in August of last year, saying that the US public and victims’ families “deserve the opportunity to see” the case brought to trial before a military commission — an alternative justice system established for Guantanamo detainees.

But any trial is likely to be fraught with challenges — including questions about evidence obtained by torture — and will take years, extending the legal limbo for the Guantanamo detainees.

A military judge reinstated the plea agreements in November, and a military appeals court affirmed the decision one month later.

The administration of former President Joe Biden then took the case to a federal civilian court of appeals.

Lawyers for defendants like Mohammed argued that Austin was too late to revoke the agreements, parts of which were already materialising.

But the court of appeals in Washington, DC, ultimately ruled that Austin was right to wait for the outcome of the plea negotiations before revoking the deals.

Writing on behalf of the court’s majority, Judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao said that preventing the withdrawal of the deal would have sent the message that plea agreements are “irrevocable upon signing”.

“The Secretary acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment,” the ruling read.

However, dissenting Judge Robert Wilkins decried the decision as revoking a contract that was already in effect.

He likened nixing the plea agreement to refusing to pay a painter who has already finished parts of the work stipulated in a home repairs contract.

For years, rights groups have called for shutting down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, known as Gitmo.

The prison opened in 2002 to house prisoners from the so-called “war on terror” following the attacks in the US on September 11, 2001.

Detainees were arrested in countries across the world on suspicions of ties to al-Qaeda and other groups. Many endured torture at secret detention facilities, known as black sites, before being transferred to Guantanamo.

At Gitmo, civil liberty advocates say detainees had few legal rights. Even those cleared for release through the military commissions remained imprisoned for years, with no recourse to challenge their detention.

The detention facility once housed nearly 800 Muslim men and teenage boys. Now only 15 prisoners remain at the prison; three are eligible for release.

US President Donald Trump has said he will impose a 35% tariff on Canadian goods starting on 1 August, even as the two countries were days away from a self-imposed deadline to reach a new trade deal.

The announcement came in the form of a letter published on Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, along with additional threats of blanket tariffs of 15% or 20% on most trade partners.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government would continue to protect his country’s workers and businesses as they head towards the new deadline.

Trump has sent more than 20 such letters to other US partners this week. He also says he will soon announce new tariffs on the European Union.

Like Canada’s letter, Trump has vowed to implement those tariffs by 1 August.

A blanket 25% tariff has already been imposed on some Canadian goods, with the nation also hit hard by Trump’s global steel, aluminium and auto tariffs – though there is a current exemption in place for goods that comply with a North American free trade agreement.

US media is reporting that, for now, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) exemption would still apply to this latest tariffs threat.

Trump has also imposed a global 50% tariff on aluminium and steel imports, and a 25% tariff on all cars and trucks not built in the US.

He also recently announced a 50% tariff on copper imports, scheduled to take effect next month.

Canada sells about three-quarters of its goods to the US, and is an auto manufacturing hub and a major supplier of metals, making the US tariffs especially damaging to those sectors.

Trump’s letter said the 35% tariffs were separate to those sector-specific levies.

“As you are aware, there will be no tariff if Canada, or companies within your country, decide to build or manufacture products within the United States,” Trump stated.

He also tied the tariffs to what he called “Canada’s failure” to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US, as well as Canada’s existing levies on US dairy farmers and the trade deficit between the two countries.

“If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter. These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with Your Country,” Trump said.

Trump has previously accused Canada – alongside Mexico – of allowing “vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in” to the US.

In his response on X, Carney said Canada had made essential progress to “stop the scourge of fentanyl” in North America, and that his government was committed to continuing to work alongside the US to protect communities in both countries.

According to data from the US Customs and Border Patrol, only about 0.2% of all seizures of fentanyl entering the US are made at the Canadian border. Almost all of the rest is confiscated at the US border with Mexico.

Earlier this year, Canada also announced more funding towards border security and had appointed a fentanyl tsar in response to Trump’s complaints.

Canada has been engaged in intense talks with the US in recent months to reach a new trade and security deal.

At the G7 Summit in June, Carney and Trump said they were committed to reaching a new deal within 30 days, setting a deadline of 21 July.

Trump threatened in the letter to increase levies on Canada if it retaliated. Canada has already imposed counter-tariffs on the US, and has vowed more if they failed to reach a deal by the deadline.

In late June, Carney removed a tax on big US technology firms after Trump labelled it a “blatant attack” and threatened to call off trade talks.

Carney said the tax was dropped as “part of a bigger negotiation” on trade between the two countries.

On Friday, Canada’s industry minister Melanie Joly dismissed media questions about whether Ottawa was doing enough to stand for Canadians, saying: ‘We’re not going to negotiate in public.”