Mexico president says Trump tariffs on Cuba’s oil suppliers could trigger humanitarian crisis
Thomas Graham in Tijuana and Ruaridh Nicoll in Havana
Fri 30 Jan 2026 13.08 EST
Sheinbaum’s comments came after a week of increasing threats from Washington. US officials briefed that gunboats could be deployed off Cuba, and said efforts were under way to find Cuban ministers prepared to collaborate with the US.Speaking on Wednesday, Mike Hammer, the US chargé d’affaires in Havana, said: “The Cubans have complained for years about a ‘blockade’, but now there is going to be a real blockade.”
Mexico’s president says Trump’s tariffs on Cuba’s oil suppliers could trigger humanitarian crisis
Island country only has oil enough to last 15-20 days, and 12-hour blackouts have become commonplaceThomas Graham (The Guardian)
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Writing Club - January 2026
Welcome to the 19th writing club update, and first update of the new year! Continuing with my numerical tie-ins that no one asked for and which I refuse to give up, XIX is the number of The Sun card in the tarot deck. It's currently a blistering winter here, so a kiss of sunshine sounds lovely.
Anyway, according to Wikipedia, this card is "often seen as a sign of achievement and authentic self-expression" which sounds great for writing, so whether you put any truck in tarot, you could do worse than to head into the rest of the year with that thought.
I hope you've all had a brilliant year so far, but even if you haven't (maybe especially so) I want to hear from you. That goes for any passersby: feel free to chime in with your thoughts or writerly projects.
Clojure on Wasm
GitHub - chaploud/ClojureWasmBeta
Contribute to chaploud/ClojureWasmBeta development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
The job losses are real — but the AI excuse is fake
The job losses are real — but the AI excuse is fake
Both of these statements are true: Across the whole US economy, there’s not really a visible effect of AI on hiring and job mix; Some sectors are absolutely devastated directly by AI. But als…Pivot to AI
Map: Here are the S.F. businesses closed Friday for ‘ICE Out’ national strike
Map: Here’s who’s closed Friday for ‘ICE Out’ national strike
Some S.F. businesses will close for national strike; some will provide, free coffee and other aid to strikers.Junyao Yang (Mission Local)
Here is the User Guide for ELITE, the Tool Palantir Made for ICE
Here is the User Guide for ELITE, the Tool Palantir Made for ICE
404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for ELITE, which lets ICE bring up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address.Joseph Cox (404 Media)
What happens to the human body in 49C heat? Australians are finding out
What happens to the human body in 49C heat? Australians are finding out
Doctors warn there are biological limits to temperatures we can survive, and exposure to extreme heat can provoke a heart attackDonna Lu (The Guardian)
Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native
Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native
Opinion: Just because you're paranoid about digital sovereignty doesn't mean they're not after youSteven J. Vaughan-Nichols (The Register)
AI agents now have their own Reddit-style social network, and it's getting weird fast
AI agents now have their own Reddit-style social network, and it's getting weird fast
Moltbook lets 32,000 AI bots trade jokes, tips, and complaints about humans.Benj Edwards (Ars Technica)
Weydemeyer
in reply to Peter Link • • •Sanctions and blockades have always been sold as an attack against the government and not the people. That’s of course a complete lie - sanctions are meant to make the people suffer enough that they rise up against their government (or so the aggressor hopes).
But this is much more blatant. The ghouls in the Trump admin are openly stating they want to harm the people. They want to create a humanitarian crisis, create suffering, and kill people, all so the Cuban government sees this suffering and decides that capitulating is better than seeing their people die. Truly evil stuff.
LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name]
in reply to Weydemeyer • • •bunchberry
in reply to Weydemeyer • • •Historically they often actually have the reverse effect.
Sanctions aren't subtle, they aren't some sneaky way of hurting a country and so the people blame the government and try to overthrow it. They are about as subtle as bombing a country then blaming the government. Everyone who lives there sees directly the impacts of the sanctions and knows the cause is the foreign power. When a foreign power is laying siege on a country, then it often has the effect of strengthening people's support for the government. Even the government's flaws can be overlooked because they can point to the foreign country's actions to blame.
Indeed, North Korea is probably the most sanctioned country in history yet is also one of the most stable countries on the planet.
I thought it was a bit amusing when Russia seized Crimea and the western world's brilliant response was to sanction Crimea as well as to shut down the water supply going to Crimea, which Russia responded by building one of the largest bridges in Europe to facilitate trade between Russia and Crimea as well as investing h
... show moreHistorically they often actually have the reverse effect.
Sanctions aren't subtle, they aren't some sneaky way of hurting a country and so the people blame the government and try to overthrow it. They are about as subtle as bombing a country then blaming the government. Everyone who lives there sees directly the impacts of the sanctions and knows the cause is the foreign power. When a foreign power is laying siege on a country, then it often has the effect of strengthening people's support for the government. Even the government's flaws can be overlooked because they can point to the foreign country's actions to blame.
Indeed, North Korea is probably the most sanctioned country in history yet is also one of the most stable countries on the planet.
I thought it was a bit amusing when Russia seized Crimea and the western world's brilliant response was to sanction Crimea as well as to shut down the water supply going to Crimea, which Russia responded by building one of the largest bridges in Europe to facilitate trade between Russia and Crimea as well as investing heavily into building out new water infrastructure.
If a foreign country is trying to starve you, and the other country is clearly investing a lot of money into trying to help you... who do you think you are winning the favor of with such a policy?
For some reason the western mind cannot comprehend this. They constantly insist that the western world needs to lay economic siege on all the countries not aligned with it and when someone points out that this is just making people of those countries hate the western world and want nothing to do with them and strengthening the resolve of their own governments, they just deflect by calling you some sort of "apologist" or whatever.
Indeed, during the Cuban Thaw when Obama lifted some sanctions, Obama became rather popular in Cuba, to the point that his approval ratings at times even surpassed that of Fidel, and Cuba started to implement reforms to allow for further economic cooperation with US government and US businesses. They were very happy to become an ally of the US, but then suddenly Democrats and Republicans decided to collectively do a 180 u-turn and abandon all of that and destroy all the good will that have built up.
But the people of Cuba are not going to capitulate because the government is actually popular, as US internal documents constantly admits to, and that popularity will only be furthered by the increased blockade. US is just going to create a North Korean style scenario off the coast of the US.
LeviReid
in reply to Peter Link • • •cornishon
in reply to Peter Link • • •Yeah, that's the point of the blockade.
redlemace
in reply to Peter Link • • •humanspiral
in reply to Peter Link • • •