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"Brief Exchange": Top U.S., Cuban Military Leaders Meet At Edge Of Guantanamo Base

Three weeks after CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with officials in Havana, reopening a political backchannel between Washington and the Cuban government, a rare military-to-military meeting unfolded at the edge of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

U.S. Southern Command wrote on X that Marine Gen. Francis Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, met with Cuban Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo and other officers at the perimeter of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay for what SOUTHCOM described as a "brief exchange on operational security matters."

#SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan met with Army Corps General, Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo, First Deputy Minister of the Chief of the General Staff, and other senior leaders from the Cuban military today at the perimeter of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for a… pic.twitter.com/V4Fau3HxSo

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) May 29, 2026

SOUTHCOM did not elaborate on the brief exchange between top U.S. military brass in the region and Cuban generals. No statement was issued by the U.S. Embassy in Havana, leaving the meeting framed as yet another signal that U.S.-Cuba talks are strengthening.  

In mid-May, CIA Director John Ratcliffe held high-level talks with Cuba's Interior Minister, the head of Cuban intelligence, and Raúl Castro's grandson, Raulito Rodríguez Castro.

Havana, Cuba pic.twitter.com/7S7TtJPyf5

— CIA (@CIA) May 14, 2026

Havana's communist government released a statement noting that the meeting "took place Thursday, May 14, against a backdrop of complex bilateral relations."

AP noted that Cuban officials presented a report to Ratcliffe and his team, claiming to demonstrate that the communist-run island poses no threat to U.S. national security.

Meanwhile…

• Axios Warns Cuba Stockpiled 300 Attack Drones With Crosshairs On U.S. Homeland

Increased back channeling has come amid a sharp escalation in U.S.-Cuba tensions. The Trump administration has been pressing Havana for sweeping economic and political reforms, while the U.S. naval blockade on fuel shipments remains in place.

President Trump has repeatedly warned Havana about military intervention. The Justice Department last week unsealed an indictment against former Cuban President Raúl Castro and five others of the communist regime.

Also, the Treasury Department subpoenaed far-left influencer Hasan Piker over his trip to Cuba. He and CCP-aligned NGOs that went to Cuba are being investigated by officials to determine if they violated U.S. sanctions and laws.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 09:55

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted a daring video on social media on May 28 to show off his snake-wrangling skills. The secretary posted the video after he received a slew of comments on another snake video he posted on May 26 where he captured a pair of nonvenomous “Black Racers” from Dr. Oz’s...

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“That’s got to hurt,” Maher joked after several performers backed away from the event.

Leftist German Party Leader Forced To Correct Lies About AfD Leader, Pay Her Legal Fees

Via Remix News,

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has successfully sued the Left Party leader and won a retraction after she spread falsehoods about Weidel on live television.

In mid-May, Ines Schwerdtner, the federal chairwoman of the Left Party, claimed during an interview on Welt TV that Wediel neither resides in Germany nor pays taxes. 

“Alice Weidel doesn’t even live in Germany, she doesn’t pay taxes here,” she told viewers.

This statement is false.

While Weidel spends much of her time with her family in Switzerland, she has her primary residence in Germany and pays taxes in the Federal Republic of Germany. Weidel has been very guarded about the issue over the years, as she faces a high threat level and avoids appearing in public due to the security threat she lives under.

AfD leader has family taken to safe house and cancels rally due to attack threat

Weidel’s lawyers explained in a warning letter, cited by Junge Freiheit, that this claim was false, as their client both lived in Germany and paid taxes. 

The law firm Höcker filed a lawsuit on the AfD’s behalf seeking an injunction. Weidel’s lawyers also demanded that Schwerdtner ensure the relevant passage was deleted from Welt TV’s programming.

Furthermore, the lawsuit calls on the Left Party leader to acknowledge the “claim for damages.”

Following this, Schwerdtner’s lawyer sent a letter to the Höcker law firm stating that their client had “indeed made a mistake.” The Left Party leader additionally undertook to “refrain” from making the false statement that Weidel does not pay taxes in Germany. 

The letter also pointed out that the interview in question on Welt TV had since been deleted by the broadcaster. Furthermore, Schwerdtner stated that she would transfer the legal fees “within one week.”

Germany: Left Party wants voting rights for all foreigners who have lived in the country for 5 years

Weidel’s press spokesman, Daniel Tapp, told JF that in politics one “shouldn’t be too sensitive in principle.”

However, when “blatant falsehoods are being spread, one cannot let them stand unchallenged.” 

The AfD has been surging in the polls, with one survey last week showing it hitting a record 42 percent in Saxony, double the support of the second-place Christian Democrats (CDU).

Germany: Anti-immigration AfD soars to record high 42% in state of Saxony, nears absolute majority

A poll in May showed the AfD at 29 percent at the national level, while the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) fell to 22 percent.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 09:20

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"She knows the more public the relationship, the more complicated it becomes," a source close to Jenner told Page Six.

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UK's Ofcom Investigates Airing Of Trump Interview Calling Climate Change A "Hoax"

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom for years, including in my book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage. 

One of the most critical components of the British censorship system is Ofcom, the Office of Communications, which regulates the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications, and postal industries.

The most recent controversy is detailed in the Telegraph, with Ofcom investigating GB News over the simple replaying of a Trump interview in which he called climate change a “hoax.” 

Ofcom is investigating GB News for failing to challenge Trump’s characterization, even though many people share his views on climate change.

It is a breathtaking demonstration of the censorship culture in the United Kingdom. World leaders make controversial statements in every interview.

A free press allows the public to hear such viewpoints and reach their own conclusions on the merits of such arguments or policies.

The debate over the climate change data continues to rage.

The dates for dire predictions for massive environmental disasters, including those of Al Gore, have passed. Professor Guy McPherson received widespread press attention for his 2016 prediction that the entire human race would be wiped out by 2026. It appears that he is wrong.

Al Gore received the 2007 Peace Prize for his film The Inconvenient Truth as media, academic, and government censors attacked anyone questioning his data. His apocalyptic predictions have not borne out, and recent scientific papers have rejected the predictions found in the underlying studies.

Gore predicted more frequent and stronger hurricanes, but some insist that global data reveal a slight decline in both frequency and intensity. Others argue that the number may be decreasing but the intensity is increasing.  We have not seen the type of global hurricane disaster that Gore described in the movie.

Critics point to NASA data to argue that the areas burned by wildfires have fallen by more than 25 percent over the past quarter of a century.

While the global population quadrupled in the last century, deaths from climate-related disasters have plummeted from the 1920s, when an average of nearly half a million people died annually from such events.

Even the film’s famous use of polar bears has not panned out. Polar bear populations have more than doubled from around 12,000 in the 1960s to over 26,000 today.  While some have contested those figures, it has certainly not resulted in the wipeout predicted by Gore.

I believe that climate change is real, and there are other signs of more severe climate events, including flooding, that present real dangers for various countries. The point is not to say that it is all a hoax, but that reasonable people can disagree on this question.

That brings us back to the British censors.

In the last two decades, free speech protections in the U.K. have been eviscerated and the government is doubling down on the criminalization of speech. The criminalization of speech has expanded exponentially as individuals and groups call the police to silence those who criticize them or advocate opposing views.

Even silent prayer or “toxic ideologies” can lead to arrest. Expressing concerns over Western cultural values is now treated as an admission of “right-wing ideology,” warranting investigation. A few years ago, a neo-Nazi living with his mother was found to have a room filled with hateful symbols and material.

Judge Peter Lodder dismissed free speech concerns over the defendant’s possessions with a truly Orwellian flourish:

“I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”

Calling the defendant “a right-wing extremist,” Mr. Lodder said the contents of his room were evidence of “enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology.”

The British people have become conditioned to censorship as different groups seek to silence those who express opposing viewpoints. The result is one of the most speech-phobic nations on Earth as offices like Ofcom fuel the fear of free speech.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 08:10