The United States on Wednesday eased an oil embargo on Cuba but Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for the island to change “dramatically,” saying the communist government had only itself to blame for a historic economic crisis.Rubio, a Cuban-American and lifelong critic of Havana’s government, heard concerns that the island’s tumult could destabilize the whole region as he attended a Caribbean Community summit.Attending the talks on the tiny island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Rubio staunchly defended the January 3 US attack that deposed Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.The United States swiftly then blocked Venezuela from exporting oil to Cuba, which had relied on its ally for nearly half its needs, triggering fuel shortages and rolling blackouts on the island.The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that the United States would allow Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba if sent to the private sector — a small presence in the communist nation.Rubio warned that the sanctions would be snapped back if the oil winds up going to the government or military.”But Cuba needs to change. It needs to change dramatically because it is the only chance that it has to improve the quality of life for its people,” Rubio told reporters.It is “a system that’s in collapse, and they need to make dramatic reforms,” he said.”If they want to make those dramatic reforms that open the space for both economic and eventually political freedom for the people of Cuba, obviously the United States would love to see that,” he said.Rubio blamed economic mismanagement and the lack of a vibrant private sector for the dire situation in Cuba, under communist rule since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.”This is the worst economic climate Cuba has faced. And it is the authorities there, and that government who are responsible for that,” Rubio said.- Warnings of instability -Rubio spoke as Cuba announced that it had killed four people on a speedboat registered in Florida.Cuba said that the gunmen had intended to infiltrate from the United States.Rubio said that the United States was still studying the “unusual” incident and would respond but said little information was verified.Caribbean leaders warned that any further deterioration in Cuba would impact the region and trigger migration — President Donald Trump’s top political concern.”Humanitarian suffering serves no one,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. “A prolonged crisis in Cuba will not remain confined to Cuba.”Canada, which has long broken with its southern neighbor by maintaining warm relations with Havana, announced Can$8 million ($5.8 million) in aid for Cuba.The Caribbean summit’s host, Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew, studied in Cuba to be a doctor and said friends have told him of food scarcity and garbage strewn in the streets.”A destabilized Cuba will destabilize all of us,” Drew said.- ‘Without apology’ on Venezuela -Addressing the summit, Rubio staunchly defended the deadly operation that seized Maduro, saying that Venezuela has made “substantial” progress since then.”I will tell you this without any apology or without any apprehension: Venezuela is better off today than it was eight weeks ago,” Rubio said.Rubio said he believed Venezuela had moved to a new phase and that there was a need for “fair, democratic elections,” although he did not lay out a timetable.The United States once championed Venezuela’s democratic opposition but since removing Maduro it has worked with interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro’s deputy.Trump has voiced satisfaction with Rodriguez, including her welcome to US oil companies, and has threatened her with violence if she does not do his bidding.Rubio also met at the summit with beleaguered Haiti’s prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aime. Rubio said he was upbeat about progress in setting up a new UN-blessed force to suppress Haiti’s powerful gangs and voiced hope that the country will finally hold elections this year for the first time in a decade.Rubio is the highest-ranking sitting US official ever to visit Saint Kitts and Nevis, a tiny former British colony reliant on beach tourism that was the birthplace of a US founding father, Alexander Hamilton.

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is to testify behind closed doors Thursday before a congressional committee investigating the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to answer questions the following day from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee about his relations with Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify in the panel’s probe, but the Democratic power couple eventually agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress.Democrats say the investigation is being weaponized to attack political opponents of Republican President Donald Trump — himself a former Epstein associate who has not been called to testify — rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.Trump and Bill Clinton, both 79, feature prominently in the recently released trove of government documents related to Epstein, but have each said they broke ties with the financier before his 2008 conviction in Florida as a sex offender. Mere mention in the files is not proof of having committed a crime.The Clintons called for their depositions to be public but the committee insisted on questioning them behind closed doors, a move Bill Clinton denounced as “pure politics” and akin to a “kangaroo court.””If they want answers, let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about,” the former Democratic president said on X.Hillary Clinton, 78, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump, said in an interview with the BBC last week that she and her husband “have nothing to hide.”She met Maxwell “on a few occasions,” she said, but never had any meaningful interactions with Epstein.Republicans are trying to deflect attention away from Trump by having them testify, she said.”Look at this shiny object. We’re going to have the Clintons, even Hillary Clinton, who never met the guy,” she said.The depositions are being held in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons reside.- Clemency -Bill Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, but said he never visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island.Ghislaine Maxwell, 64, is the only person who has been convicted of a crime in connection with late financier.The former socialite is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.She appeared via video-link before the House Oversight Committee earlier this month but refused to answer any questions, invoking her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.Her attorney, David Markus, said Maxwell would be prepared to speak publicly if granted clemency by Trump.Markus also said that Trump and Bill Clinton are “innocent of any wrongdoing.””Ms Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation,” he said.Epstein cultivated a network of powerful business executives, politicians, celebrities and academics and the release of the Epstein files has had repercussions around the globe including the arrests in Britain of former prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson, the ex-ambassador to the United States. A number of prominent Americans have had their reputations damaged by their friendships with Epstein and have resigned their positions, but no one other than Maxwell has faced legal consequences.

When Khalid, Julia and Benjamin won their immigration cases last year, they were all given a similar message by the judge: You can now “can live freely.” “Congratulations.””Welcome to America.”The three are now being held by armed guards in Equatorial Guinea, a small, authoritarian petro-state in Central Africa, after being secretly deported by the United States as President Donald Trump pursues an unprecedented immigration crackdown.The three East Africans — who did not want to disclose their real names or nationality, for fear of repercussions — described their cases in interviews with AFP. They are part of a group of 20 deportees sent to Equatorial Guinea last month. Twenty-nine people in total have been sent there as part of an opaque $7.5 million deal with the Trump administration, according to a report by Senate Democrats.All 29 had deportation protections, according to Meredyth Yoon, a US-based attorney familiar with their cases.Equatorial Guinea has already sent most of the deportees back to their home countries or onto yet another country, and is pressuring the three deportees to do the same, the East Africans told AFP.Khalid, Julia and Benjamin don’t have passports, and they’ve had to pay for things like toothbrushes out of pocket while detained in a hotel in Malabo, the economic capital.”We can’t leave the hotel,” Khalid said.- Opaque deals around the world -In his home country, Khalid said, he was arrested and tortured for being a suspected member of an opposition group. A US judge granted him a status called “withholding of removal” last year, he said, because it was likely he “would face the same situation” if he were sent home. Benjamin and Julia also won withholding of removal, the two of them said. Benjamin was also granted deportation protection under the Convention Against Torture, a legally binding international treaty that has been ratified by Washington.The Trump administration deported them anyway, as part of a sweeping expansion to deportations where the government has argued it can send people to a country that isn’t their home nation.In Africa, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea have become key transit points — even as authorities there quickly send people onward to their home counties.The Senate report tracked at least 25 countries that have received or made deals to take third country nationals as deportees, including remote Uzbekistan and impoverished South Sudan.- ‘They will kill me’ -In Equatorial Guinea, only 11 of the 29 deportees remain in the country, with most having been sent back to their home nations, a lawyer representing those still held in Malabo told AFP. The deportees were mostly African nationals.The lawyer requested anonymity to speak about the issue due to its sensitivity in Equatorial Guinea, which has been ruled by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo since 1979 and is regularly criticized for rights abuses.”They will kill me,” Julia told AFP of her home country’s government. She has already been beaten, jailed and raped by security forces because of her family’s alleged ties to opposition groups.Benjamin said when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents came to his cell to deport him — all three had been held by ICE for months despite immigration judges ruling in their favor — they didn’t give him time to call his lawyers. They initially told him they were deporting him to his home country, which he thinks was done “to terrorize us.”Benjamin’s account echoes those of deportees sent to Ghana and interviewed by AFP last year, who said ICE agents misled them about the flight destination and beat people who resisted boarding.ICE did not respond to a request for comment.Khalid, Benjamin and Julia all had applied for asylum. They were instead granted withholding of removal, which comes with less rights but in the past has been treated as a “win” in court, said the US-based attorney, Yoon. Those with withholding of removal can’t be sent back to their home country, and are allowed to live in the United States and seek work authorization.The lawyer representing the detainees in Malabo said that it has been difficult to speak with his clients, because “authorization from the Ministry of Security is required to visit them.”Equatorial Guinean authorities have told the East Africans that “we can’t seek asylum here,” Khalid said.According to the UN refugee agency, “there are no formal procedures for asylum seekers to apply for refugee status” in the country.The deportees told AFP they are being pressured to return home — or, once they’re given passports, to go somewhere with visa-free access.”We came to America,” Khalid said. “But America has abandoned us.”