Mexico is weighing whether to halt or scale back oil shipments to Cuba as concerns grow within President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government that continuing the policy could trigger retaliation from the United States, according to sources familiar with internal discussions.
The review comes at a sensitive moment. Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba have stopped following U.S. intervention in Venezuela and the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro, leaving Mexico as Cuba’s most important remaining oil supplier. That shift has pulled Mexico directly into Washington’s crosshairs as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Havana.
Publicly, Sheinbaum has said Mexico will continue shipping oil to Cuba under long-standing contracts under the guise of humanitarian aid. Behind closed doors, however, officials are increasingly uneasy. President Donald Trump has warned that there will be “no more oil or money” flowing to Cuba, and U.S. officials have made clear that countries facilitating Havana’s fuel supply are being closely watched.
Mexico’s dilemma is geopolitical as much as it is economic. The country is seeking a favorable review of the USMCA trade agreement while also trying to convince Washington it is doing enough to combat drug cartels. Mexican officials fear that oil shipments to Cuba could complicate both efforts at a time when Trump has openly floated unilateral U.S. action in the region.
The stakes are high for Cuba. The island is in the throes of a deep energy crisis that has manifested in the form of chronic blackouts, fuel shortages, and grid failures driven by years of underinvestment and dependence on imported oil. Venezuelan supplies once covered a large share of Cuba’s fuel needs. In their absence, Mexico’s crude and refined products have attempted to fill the void.
Between January and September last year, Mexico shipped roughly 17,200 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and 2,000 bpd of refined products to Cuba, according to Pemex filings. This may be modest by global standards, but it is what keeps Cuba’s power plants and transportation running.
Within Sheinbaum’s government, some officials argue that cutting off Cuba entirely could trigger a humanitarian crisis and migration toward Mexico. But some are concerned that defying Washington could come with far greater costs.
A Yemeni civilian was wounded on Friday after coming under fire from the Saudi enemy opposite the Al Thabit area in the border district of Qatabir, Sa’adah province, in a new crime added to the ongoing record of attacks against border areas and civilians.
A local correspondent reported that Saudi gunfire targeted residential areas, leaving the civilian injured and transferred for medical treatment, amid continued threats posed by Saudi forces to border villages.
The incident comes as part of repeated Saudi enemy attacks on Sa’adah’s border districts, constituting a blatant violation of international laws and conventions and underscoring the continued targeting of civilians and their property, despite claims of de-escalation promoted by the aggression.
Sa’adah’s border districts have faced sustained Saudi attacks for years, including shelling and small-arms fire on populated areas, resulting in civilian casualties and damage to homes and infrastructure, in ongoing breach of international humanitarian law.
An air strike carried out by the Saudi-led coalition on Sa’ada City Remand Prison in the early hours of 21 January has killed at least 82 people and injured 266, according to the Ministry of Health, with the death toll likely to increase as researchers still comb the rubble – MSF report. US make bomb fragments were discovered on site of the airstrikes.
The medical charity organization Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) has said the defamation campaign launched against it is a propaganda offensive funded and sponsored by Israel.
Declassified UK, a British investigative journalism and media organisation, revealed that the zionist regime’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, launched an anti-MSF defamation campaign in the UK in an effort to stop the medical charity from providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, ravaged by the Israeli regime’s genocidal war.
Declassified UK reported on Friday that as part of the defamation campaign, the Tel Aviv regime is paying for an advertisement to appear as the top result on Google search when users search for information about MSF.
The zionist-paid advertisement shows a report released by Tel Aviv, which accuses the MSF of alleged “grave misconduct” in Gaza.
The report — which is titled the “Systematic Conduct of Médecins Sans Frontières” and is authored by an “Inter-Ministerial Team” in Israel and dated December 2025 — claims the conduct of MAF, including the behavior of its international and local staff in hospitals, “contradicts the fundamental ethics of international humanitarian action.”
Tel Aviv claims the MSF is authoring the release of “official publications … that far exceed the bounds of legitimate criticism.”
It adds that the MSF is deliberately making an “effort to undermine and deny the legitimacy” of the Tel Aviv regime.
The Israeli regime’s defamation campaign against the MSF comes as Tel Aviv seeks to limit the scope of activities of the MSF and other international humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, carrying out life-saving operations there on a daily basis.
The move is seen as part of the regime’s wider efforts to dismantle the humanitarian organizations providing crucial life-saving services for Palestinians.
Under this pretext, the Tel Aviv regime has refused to renew MSF’s permit to operate in Gaza and the West Bank since the start of January.
Now, the medical aid organisation says it might be forced by March 1 to stop its humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories.
The hapless Palestinian patients who are dependent on the MSF for aid in Gaza have responded to the news with horror.
“If MSF stops working, people will lose their lives,” one Palestinian pointed out.
In the meantime, MSF has issued a statement giving assurance to the Palestinians that the medical charity group remains fully committed to its humanitarian obligations towards patients in need of relief.
“We remain committed to providing assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and call on the Israeli authorities to reverse their decision… and to put in place acceptable operating conditions,” MSF said in its statement.
MSF has provided crucial medical aid to Palestinians, caring for the defenseless Palestinians cut off from the rest of the world throughout the Gaza genocide by providing international and local staff working in hospitals across the besieged strip.
A displaced Palestinian woman heats a pot as children look on outside their tent-home as the region experiences rain and cold winter conditions, in Gaza City, the Gaza Strip, on December 28, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
zionist occupation¿enemy on Friday went ahead with violations of the 2024 ceasefire, carrying out a series of attacks in Bekaa and South Lebanon.
Al-Manar correspondent reported a drone strike that targeted a car in Baalbek’s Douris, but failed to hit its intended target.
“The Israeli drone which targeted a car in Baalbek missed the target, hitting the median barrier instead,” our correspondent in Bekaa reported.
“Another missile launched by the Israeli drone hit a nearby building, no casualties reported so far,” he added.
Elsewhere in south Lebanon, an Israeli tank at Al-Hamames post opened fire towards a Lebanese Army unit and a UNIFIL force operating in Al-Khiam, according to Al-Manar reporter in south Lebanon.
Our correspondent in the south also reported that Israeli gliders dropped stun grenades in the border towns of Blida and Markaba.
Later on Friday, Al-Manar reporter said taht Israeli occupation forces stationed in the newely established post of Jabal Al-Bat opened fire towards the border town of Aytaroun.
zionist enemy continues to bomb Lebanon, mainly the country’s south, almost daily and maintains occupation over five posts along the southern border, in violation of a ceasefire deal reached following the 2024 Israeli war.
At least 437 people have been martyred by Israeli attacks since November 2024, according to toll released by Lebanon’s Health Ministry and updated by Al-Manar.
Enemy forces also stage infiltrations into Lebanese territory on daily bases, blowing up houses in the border towns.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization has issued a statement, outlining the “scene of struggle” against a “foreign evil enemy” and detailing its countermeasures during recent riots.
The statement issued Friday coincided with the Islamic month of Sha’ban and the observance of Pasdar Day, which honors members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. It also expressed solidarity with the families of martyrs of the “recent American-Zionist sedition.”
“These terrorist incidents were designed in continuation of the 12-day war and influenced by the strategic failures of the ruling global powers, carried out hastily,” the statement said.
It added that part of the American-Zionist grand plan, which Iranian security agencies and the vigilance of the Iranian people thwarted, involved the creation of an “enemy command room” immediately following the 12-day war.
This command room, it said, consisted of ten hostile intelligence services tasked with executing terrorist actions in Iran.
The review of documents and information obtained from this command room showed that internal unrest, military intervention, and group movement activity were the three axes of operations designed to create a moment of existential threat against Great Iran, the statement said.
In response, the IRGC Intelligence Organization said it launched “cognitive intervention and a set of intelligence operations to prevent and manage the intensity, depth, and scope of potential threats and unrest.”
From June 26 to the beginning of December, the organization said it implemented a targeted operational plan to address the two components it identified as central to the unrest: internal turmoil and group activity.
The organization said the operations resulted in the arrest and summons of hundreds of individuals linked to anti-security networks and the guidance of thousands more vulnerable persons.
It reported raising awareness among social groups, professional guilds, and populations at risk and confiscating hundreds of illegal firearms, including both military and hunting weapons.
The statement added that the IRGC had identified and utilized 46 members of a network collaborating with foreign intelligence services.
The IRGC described the recent unrest as a weak and redesigned form of combined operations by foreign enemies against the Islamic system and the unity of Iran’s identity and geography.
It said the field trajectory of the unrest, codenamed “Operation Lightning Strike,” included blending rioters with protesters, the direct support and involvement of foreign political and security figures, manipulation of social media algorithms and satellite network content to incite violent acts, and the use of criminal elements such as thugs, convicted armed robbers, and traffickers.
It said the unrest also involved the killing of civilians, security forces, law enforcement, and Basij members through violent and bloody encounters.
The statement outlined ongoing priorities within the IRGC Intelligence Organization.
These included tracking and infiltrating the communication infrastructure used by rioters to coordinate with foreign network leaders, operational surveillance over key elements of enemy networks along border areas, and the use of misguided individuals involved in the recent unrest within enemy networks.
The statement also described cognitive operations against the designers and executors of combined operations through infiltrated agents and the continued identification and decisive action against networks supplying street-level mobilization support, in cooperation with citizens and social groups.
The IRGC expressed confidence that, under the leadership of the Commander-in-Chief and with the cooperation of the country’s intelligence community and the people, Iran would prevail over the designs of foreign adversaries.
“We are confident that with the grace of Imam Mahdi (may God hasten His reappearance), under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and with the synergy of the country’s intelligence community and the tireless cooperation of the dear people, just as we disappointed the enemy from victory in the military battle, we will prevail over its malicious design in the terror and separatist war against Islam and dear Iran, God willing,” the statement said.
In a related announcement, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence said 16 individuals described as thugs and criminals active in the December terrorist incidents in Tehran were arrested.
The ministry said the arrests occurred within the past 24 hours in a joint operation by the Tehran Intelligence Organization and the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Eight of the individuals were detained in the Sattarkhan, Marzdaran, and Golestan Shahr districts, with one reportedly intoxicated with alcohol, clashing with security forces and being shot in the leg.
Authorities said the eight suspects were among the main perpetrators in attacks on security personnel and in setting fire to government and private vehicles.
They said security forces had confiscated more than 40 cold weapons, including blood-stained machetes, clothing stolen from police and Basij forces, ammunition for military weapons, narcotics, and a high volume of alcoholic beverages.
The ministry also reported that some of those arrested were financially well-off, including one factory owner.
Tehran’s intelligence forces detained eight additional individuals involved in manufacturing and deploying homemade bombs, setting vehicles on fire, and attacking security forces in eastern, southern, and southwestern Tehran, particularly in the Baharestan district.
The ministry said the arrests reinforced the IRGC Intelligence Organization’s message that operations against networks coordinating foreign-backed unrest remain ongoing.
Venezuela’s oil fund has Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a Qatari bank account.
Nearly two weeks after President Donald Trump kidnapped Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, his administration has already collected at least $500 million from oil sales, holding the money in a Qatari bank with the White House giving the secretary of state sweeping discretion over how it’s spent. There’s no independent auditor to track the money, no public accounting of how it will reach ordinary Venezuelans — and no timeline for when Venezuela might eventually regain control of its oil resources.
In the longer term, it is unclear whether proceeds can be used to pay off an estimated $140 billion in Venezuelan debt.
“What does ‘for the benefit of the Venezuelan people’ mean if we’re controlling the money? Is it just like U.S. government officials will sign off on, ‘This money can go to this person in Venezuela, or this business or this investment’?” said Edward Fishman, who worked on Iran oil sanctions at both State and Treasury during the Obama administration, now director of the Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “There’s all kinds of risk of corruption and misuse of these funds.”
The White House did not respond to questions about how the fund will be overseen, how Qatar was chosen to hold the funds or how the administration will ensure the oil revenues are used to benefit the Venezuelan people. Instead, an administration official focused on what the fund will do to help energy prices.
“We now have leverage — oil is on the market again, most of which will be sold to the United States, so this is another measure that will drive down domestic energy prices. We now have the leverage to stop narcoterrorism and the trafficking of deadly drugs,” said one administration official, granted anonymity to discuss strategy. “The president and his team are carefully crafting each deal to stabilize Venezuela and re-route oil profits back to the Venezuelan people to help their country recover from decades of mismanagement.”
The Treasury Department declined to comment, while the State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The lack of clarity around the current arrangement underscores the risks Trump has taken in seizing control of Venezuela’s oil industry at a moment when his administration is trying to focus its midterm messaging on the economy. Any hint of waste, corruption or mismanagement of the Venezuelan oil could undercut that pitch — hurting Venezuelans, damaging Republicans’ electoral hopes and tarnishing Trump’s legacy.
Turkey’s anti-Kurd lobby is celebrating the latest developments in Syria, where Jolani’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham has effectively defeated a major Kurdish-led force with an abrupt offensive.
Ankara has long viewed armed groups led by Kurds — an ethnic minority with large populations in eastern Turkey, Iraq and northern Syria — as a threat as Turkey as fought to quell the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Coming just a few months after a Kurdish militant group in Turkey agreed to lay down its arms, the collapse of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces is a major step toward Ankara’s regional goals.
In just two weeks, Syria’s Kurdish‑led Syrian Democratic Forces — once the United States’ main partner against the Islamic State group in Syria — lost most of its territory in northern Syria to an offensive launched by Jolani’s HTS terrorists.
The SDF was then forced to accept a deal under which it would dissolve and merge its tens of thousands with Syrian government’s military as individuals rather than in a bloc, after the failure of months-long negotiations on the integration of its troops into the new Syrian army.
The SDF was established a decade ago with U.S. support as a coalition of militias to fight IS. Its backbone was made up of a Syrian Kurdish armed group affiliated with the PKK.
Jolani took power after the ouster of the Assad government in December 2024, and has been consolidating authority while dealing with challenges from the remnants of pro-Assad groups as well as some former opposition groups that want to maintain autonomy from the state. In particular, minority religious and ethnic groups have viewed the Sunni Arab-led government with suspicion. Turkey has been a key backer of al‑Sharaa, providing political and military support to strengthen his government.
Washington declined to intervene on behalf of the Kurdish group, shifting its support to the nascent government and focusing on brokering a ceasefire.Turkey played behind-the-scenes role in offensive “The fact that the PKK-linked SDF has essentially lost its influence and territorial hold is certainly a very favorable outcome for Turkey,” said Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based EDAM research center. “The extension of the capabilities of the new Syrian government is also another favorable outcome.”
Ulgen cautioned, however, that the Syrian government’s recent gains could prove temporary if al-Sharaa fails to stabilize the northeast of the country.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan extended congratulations to the Syrian government in remarks to his ruling party’s legislators on Wednesday.
“From the very beginning, Turkey has strongly defended the existence of a single Syrian state,” he said. “We have repeatedly declared that we will not consent to any separatist structure along our southern borders that poses a threat to our country’s security.”
Turkey not only benefited from the developments but played a supportive role, advising the Syrian government during operations that led to the withdrawal of SDF forces from Aleppo, Turkish security officials said.
Turkey’s intelligence agency remained in contact with the Syrian administration to prevent harm to civilians and the safe evacuation of SDF members and their families, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Turkey also kept in touch with the United States, the international coalition against the Islamic State group, and other regional countries during the offensive, they said.
Decline of Kurdish group removes of a source of tension between Turkey and US Also key to the Syrian government’s success was the willingness of the U.S. to see a former ally dismantled. Experts say the SDF counted on Washington’s support when it rejected an earlier deal proposed by al-Sharaa.
Erdogan’s warm personal ties with U.S. President Donald Trump likely helped win the U.S. President over, Ulgen said. But he added that the shift in U.S. policy was based on the White House’s assessment that its “interlocutor in Syria should be the new government and not a non-state entity.”
zionist occupation refrains from intervening The development also came despite tensions between Turkey and zionist colony over Syria.
Some SDF representatives openly called for Israeli intervention during the recent clashes, citing Israel’s past support for the Druze community during violence in Sweida province in southern Syria, but Israel also chose to stand aside.
Ulgen said a key turning point was a recent meeting between Syrian and Israeli officials in Paris, during which Syria effectively recognized Israel’s zone of influence along its southern border.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, an expert on Turkey at the German Marshall Fund, also said Syria and Israel reached a “tacit agreement” on the SDF during the meeting in Paris but added that the United States’ support to the Syrian government played a key role.
Since Jolani’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham terrorists overthrew the Assad government, thousands of Alevis, Druze, and Kurds have been systematicly murdered, incarcerated or forced to seek refugee in neighbouring countries or in Russian millitary bases by HTS terrorists.
The HTS are pro-zionist-american. Hence, corporate Western media refrains from mentioning these significant details.
Furthermore, under international law, the Kurds have the right to take up arms, to have their own borders, and to establish their own governance.
This particular article is massively fascist, pro-West and lacking substance.
How can APNEWS dismiss a people’s right to existence by putting an extremist pro-West Sunni genocidal militant group in the foreground?
The Kurdish file, like the Palestinian one, has been open since the fall of the Ottomans.
Residents topple a statue of a female Kurdish fighter after the takeover of the town by Syrian government forces from U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Tabqa, eastern Syria, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
With an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo that allows officers to enter homes without a judicial warrant, the Trump administration is seeking to usurp guardrails that are enshrined in the Fourth Amendment and have protected Americans’ civil liberties for centuries, experts in constitutional law and immigration policy told CNN.
The internal memo, which was issued in May 2025 but revealed by a whistleblower complaint and first reported by the Associated Press on Wednesday, authorizes ICE officers to forcefully enter homes using only administrative warrants, essentially bypassing the neutral, third-party arbiters who would have reviewed evidence before signing a judicial warrant.
Administrative warrants are signed by ICE officers after an immigration judge orders the removal of an undocumented immigrant. But these immigration judges work for the Department of Justice at the pleasure of the attorney general, and the Trump administration refers to them as “deportation judges.”
“It would essentially be the same as if you were at the local police department, and the police officer that is both collecting the evidence and arresting you then goes and types up his own warrant to search your house because he thinks he has probable cause,” said Emmanuel Mauleón, an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota.
“It’s deeply concerning, because there’s absolutely no safeguards and no accountability built into the system,” he said.
The history of the Fourth Amendment is rife with examples of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies seeking to challenge or whittle away its protections.
“This administration’s general stance is that immigrants are ‘invaders’ and immigration officials should be allowed to expedite their arrest, detention and deportation,” said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an attorney and analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. In doing so, she said, “they are pushing so many legal boundaries and doing things that have not been tried before in this way.”
A man arrested by federal agents moments prior escapes in handcuffs after tear gas went off, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File, File)
The real burden on Lebanon is the continuation of aggression and the state’s failure to fulfil its responsibilities, abandoning its people.
The Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc held its periodic session on January 22, 2026, and discussed several political and parliamentary issues and affairs, stressing that “our people’s choice to resist occupation has proven effective in liberating the land and thwarting aggression.”
“Storms are blowing across our region and the world, driven by American policies that threaten international security and peace by exploiting brute force to impose dominance and tyranny. The US administration does not hesitate to threaten the sovereignty of nations, their independence, and their people’s right to choose their own systems. Meanwhile, the US president threatens countries with annihilation and vows to change regimes, intimidating even its closest allies in Europe and the West.”
“In the face of American arrogance, nations and free peoples have no choice but to defend their sovereignty and rights, and reject submission to tyranny and domination,” the bloc said in a statement.
“One example of a people’s ability to defend its sovereignty is the Iranian people’s courageous and united million-strong demonstrations against American and Israeli attempts to target their state, sovereignty, security, and stability. This people has proven once again that they are unbreakable and that no force can crush their will or undermine their independence. The Islamic Republic is today a model for oppressed peoples rejecting American domination.”
The bloc discussed developments in Lebanon and the region and highlighted the following stances:
American aggression against nations and peoples in our region has reached a level of arrogance, threatening the life of the supreme religious leader of millions of Muslims, Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This threatens to ignite the entire region, adding to threats against the Iranian people, who have stood firm against American and Zionist attempts to undermine their security and stability. We stand with the Islamic Republic, its people, state, and leadership. The wise and brave leadership of Ayatollah Khamenei gives hope to oppressed peoples to liberate themselves and confront spreading injustice worldwide. Confronting the colony aggression against Lebanese sovereignty remains the primary national priority. There can be no stability, prosperity, or development in Lebanon while the enemy kills civilians, destroys property, occupies land, and holds captives, targeting the entire country, not just the south. Yesterday’s attacks on residential buildings in Qanarit, Kharayb, Ansar, Jargou, and previously in Kafrhatta, Msilih, Yanouh, and Bazouriyeh are clear evidence. The real burden on Lebanon is the continuation of aggression and the state’s failure to fulfill its responsibilities, abandoning its people. The government must confront any zionist violation of Lebanese sovereignty, especially south of the Litani River.
The resistance remains a source of strength for Lebanon. Its equations have kept our country intact. Our people, who have sacrificed their leaders and sons, will not abandon their resistance or the achievements of their martyrs. The resistance was, is, and will remain a symbol of pride, victory, and goodness for this people, present on the ground and ready to defend their existence and land. We call on responsible politicians and forces concerned with Lebanon to reflect on the consequences of inflammatory rhetoric, denial, hatred, and division among Lebanese. The state must fulfill its responsibilities. Statements contradicting the government’s program and rejection of basic national belonging widen the gap between the state and its people. The government’s responsibilities include stopping the ongoing aggression and adhering to its ministerial statement regarding reconstruction. This national issue should be taken out of political calculations, as our people are still waiting for practical steps from this government. For our part, we are doing our utmost to put this file on the path to resolution, while local and international forces are trying to prevent reconstruction and block any aid to Lebanon. Despite this, we will continue working and won’t leave our people in suffering. We will provide everything we can to our patient and sacrificing people. In this context, the bloc values the discussions and efforts of the Parliamentary Finance Committee to finalize the general budget draft and submit it to the General Assembly after incorporating amendments contributed by the bloc’s MPs and some colleagues from other blocs. These amendments prioritize reconstruction and increase social services, especially in healthcare and education.
An African migrant was injured on Thursday by gunfire from the Saudi enemy in Yemen’s northern Sa’adah province.
Al-Masirah’s correspondent in Sa’adah reported that the migrant was wounded by Saudi enemy fire near the Al Thabit area in the border district of Qataber.
The incident comes a day after two Yemeni civilians were injured on Wednesday by Saudi enemy fire in the same province.
On Monday, four civilians were killed or wounded in separate Saudi attacks across border areas of Sa’adah.
Border districts in Sa’adah have for years been subjected to repeated Saudi attacks, including artillery shelling, missile strikes, and small-arms fire, resulting in civilian casualties and extensive damage to public and private property.
Yemeni authorities say these attacks have continued despite declared ceasefires and ongoing peace efforts, amid what they describe as persistent international silence and restraint by the national side in support of the peace process.
Rescuers stand near the bodies of those killed in a strike at a migrant detention centre in Saada. US strike on migrant detention centre in Yemen highlights the costs of impunity – EUROMED report.
