The Department of Justice plans to indict Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba, as tensions escalate between the United States and the communist country. The indictment is expected to charge Castro over a 1996 incident when Cuba shot down American-operated humanitarian planes, sources told CBS News. Castro, the brother of the late Cuban communist revolutionary Fidel Castro, stepped down as the leader of Cuba in 2021, but he remains one of the most powerful figures in the country. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.  In February 1996, two small planes operated by Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue, were shot down by a Cuban fighter jet. The planes, which carried four people searching for Cubans attempting to flee the communist country, were reportedly shot down outside of Cuban airspace. Four people were killed. On Thursday, the CIA also released images of Director John Ratcliffe during what appear to be face-to-face negotiations with leadership in Havana on Thursday. Havana, Cuba pic.twitter.com/7S7TtJPyf5 — CIA (@CIA) May 14, 2026 The Trump administration is pressuring Cuba as the communist nation experiences energy shortages after oil shipments were cut off from Venezuela. Cuba’s already bleak energy crisis worsened after the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early January and took control of Venezuelan oil sales. Venezuela, which shipped oil to American adversaries around the globe, had previously been Cuba’s main oil importer.   Maduro was captured by U.S. forces in a midnight raid on his compound after he was hit with multiple charges in the United States, including narco-terrorism. CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Raúl Castro earlier this month that President Trump is “prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.” President Trump argues that Cuba has developed close relationships with United States adversaries including China, Russia, and Iran. Trump also says that Cuba has provide refuge for American enemies, creating a national security risk.  Trump has publicly floated regime change and other aggressive actions toward Cuba. In March, he suggested the United States could pursue what he described as a “friendly takeover.” “It may be a friendly takeover,” Trump said. “They’re really in, they’re down to, uh, as they say, fumes. They have no energy. They have no money. They’re in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis.” 

President Donald Trump ripped into “weird” Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico over his far-Left views, hammering him for his promotion of veganism and transgender ideology.  Trump made the comments when asked Friday if he would endorse Senator John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton before the Texas Senate GOP primary runoff election later this month. While he declined to say which way he was leaning, Trump said he thought either would easily defeat Talarico.  “I’ll tell you what I do think — I think the Democrats have a weird, a weird candidate. Six genders, a real hit on Jesus,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “I mean, this guy is bad news with his mask from relatively recently, and he’s a vegan. He’s a vegan. All of a sudden, he’s not a vegan. He was a vegan, now all of a sudden he’s not.” “Texas doesn’t like vegans. I do believe either one of them will easily win the race. I think the candidate the Democrats have in Texas is a very flawed, very weak, very — I think he’s a pathetic candidate, especially for Texas,” the president added.  Talarico was slammed over for his anti-meat views after a video circulated from 2022 when he said people should eat less meat to reduce “climate change” and said his state legislative campaign was “officially” a “non-meat campaign.”  “It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption, and that we try to respect animals in all aspects of society,” a masked Talarico said. “And so I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign. So we have, we are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.” In subsequent interviews, Talarico said that he denies “all accusations of veganism,” and claimed that his “campaign runs on barbecue.” Trump’s comments also highlighted Talarico’s promotion of transgender ideology. He once claimed during a committee hearing that there are more than two sexes. “The one thing I want us to all be aware of is that modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes,” he said, pointing to genetic abnormalities. “In fact, there are six.” Talarico has also claimed that Christianity is pro-abortion and that God is “non-binary.” 

This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** Welcome to Maycember. If you’re a parent, you get this reference. In case you’re unaware of the social media term, it’s a reference to a whirlwind of deadlines and holidays: all the plays, recitals, field trips, projects due, tests and quizzes, student council elections, teacher’s appreciation week (ironically the same week as Mother’s Day weekend), Memorial Day weekend, and finally the end of the school year. It’s a lot. I was recently a chaperone for our school choir’s annual competition, including over 50 fourth through eighth graders. We leave the school before 7 a.m., they compete, enjoy a Jersey Mike’s sandwich picnic, and spend half a day at Universal Studios Hollywood for junk food and rides.  It’s controlled chaos, but our school enforces a few things that make it easier on chaperones. First, no phones except to text mom and dad. Second, dress code; it’s a parochial school, so even though the kids can be in “street clothes,” they have a guideline of allowable attire. Third, the moms (and some brave dads) chaperoning have the authority to discipline, to an extent. Like, “if you do that again, you will miss this next ride,” or “put your phone away or I will tell the principal.” Ignoring these threats actually has consequences.  These rules are possible because of the tight-knit community we have of 150 families who have chosen a school with basic rules derived from biblical beliefs and a concept of human dignity. These principles used to be more common throughout society. But now, they’re often lacking in our leaders and teachers. Thankfully, I was encouraged throughout the day as my chaperone buddy and our assigned group of eight middle schoolers made our way through the park, maneuvering around crowds, waiting in lines, going on rides, and buying and eating lunch. Instead of passersby being oblivious to our existence, they were aware and engaging. Many times, I got a thumbs up, admiring smile, or verbal affirmation from total strangers at how we were communicating with and to the students.  I’m pretty strict too.  You will often hear me telling my children and others, “Be aware of your surroundings.”  “Say excuse me!”  “Move to the right! The escalator is like the road.” “Keep your hands to yourself.” “Hold the door for that mama!” Once, when waiting in line for the kids to order some hyper-sugary boba drink, I told them to all have their orders ready to go, told them to have card or cash in hand, and explained sales tax so they’d have the right amount. A couple behind us said, “Whoa, if only more adults had the same level of preparedness. This is so nice to see!” We were a walking advertisement for decency, and maybe even our school.  Social awareness has gotten worse, especially since the pandemic. Humans, particularly children, weren’t spending time in public. What used to be socially normal interactions became so rare that almost everyone we came across was either afraid to see us, or us to see them — as if their presence outside of their homes was going to be judged. We started judging instead of engaging. We should go back to a culture of encouraging people to be considerate, socially aware human beings. Hold the door open for someone, walk down the street without looking down at your phone, chat with strangers, help a mom, and, heck, shame a kid for cutting in line, talking back to an adult, or acting dumb.  Bring back thoughtful kids, and bring back adults who aren’t afraid to guide them in the right direction. *** Elisha Krauss is a conservative commentator, writer, and speaker who resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and their four children. She is an advocate for women’s rights, school choice, and smaller government.

This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** Welcome to the Bright Side, a weekly roundup of all the good news and ideas you might have missed from the past week. Piano-playing mini horses are everything we need right now You guys. I’m not even joking, I nearly fell out of my chair listening to these miniature horses “play piano.” If you’re wondering how an animal with hooves plays an instrument with little keys, please go here to be awesomely amused. Growing up, my grandma played Vince Guaraldi-style jazz piano and my mom composed choir anthems and musicals on the ivories. But lil Liberty Belle’s lippy glissando instantly struck my funny bone. Maybe it’s also the freeflow mane adding to the magic, along with the fact that it’s all for a good cause.      View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Mini Therapy Horses (@minitherapyhorses) The California-based Mini Therapy Horses outreach serves children in hospitals and court systems. An animal’s calming presence can decrease stress, and they’ve helped motivate a child to take their first steps after surgery or even wake from a coma. But when that animal is a musical mini horse, each patient gets the added benefit of a warm forehead to nuzzle, a four-legged trot alongside a ride in a wheelchair, and a perfectly timed musical interlude to lighten the mood. (Imagine waking up from anesthesia to “Panasonic Panic” by Mister Snickerdoodles.) No matter who you are, if you’re suffering from seriousness, the best remedy is horse piano. The ’90s fitness sensation TikTok just brought back Does anyone remember Tae Bo? Even if you didn’t throw punches and kicks with martial arts icon Billy Blanks back in the day (to what sounded like a manic club version of “What Is Love”), TikTok is bringing Tae Bo back. Just like Pilates, SoulCycle, and the Jane Fonda Workout wormed their ways into the hearts of generations of cardio queens, Tae Bo served the ultimate fitness mashup of taekwondo-ish karate-boxing-dance-erobics. It was a cultural phenomenon. Beyond that, it was hard. (I’m sorry, but only a 1990s fitness guru could repeatedly kick at 11 o’clock in the air for a whole minute.) I’m guilty of moving coffee tables, rugs, and lamps to the corners of the living room so my roommate and I could try not to knock each other out while following Billy’s moves on VHS. Tae Bo’s biggest draw may be nostalgia, moving for mental health, and (of course) comedy, but it warms my heart to see that Billy returned to the spotlight at 70 years old for a new generation of fans. After launching his own Tae Bo TikTok once the craze returned, he said, “Now I’m getting a second chance.”  Celebrating the tell-tale signs of a happy life With the constant buzz about the latest banana peel, salmon sperm, and sculpting facial every celebrity esthetician is selling, it’s easy to feel a little frowny-face about our laugh lines. But what if, instead of desperately trying to erase our history of smiling, we appreciated those lines a little more? A new therapy for depression, called Positive Affect Treatment, prioritizes joy. Basically, instead of just minimizing negative feelings like traditional therapy, it amplifies positive emotions by training the brain to look for the good stuff. Be kind, see the glass half full, have something to look forward to, and notice the little things. Having dinner with a friend? Think about how comforting the conversation might be, how good the food tastes, or what the cool breeze feels like. Those little details aren’t for nothing. Life is tough. Our smiles are extraordinarily hard-earned.  As writer Sarah Bourloukas suggests, “I hope you remember what a privilege it is to have a body that carries the burden of your happiness; what a privilege it is to have lines that show your laughter.”  Get into strawberry season with summer’s most iconic dessert I just discovered an ancient Greek word that summarizes my thoughts when the “feels like” temperature hits triple digits: κακοθερής (kakotherēs), which means “unfit to endure summer heat.” But blast me with A/C because nothing’s stopping me from living my best life during strawberry season.  They’re only ripe for about three weeks sometime between February and June depending where you live, so if you spot those bright red berries at the farmer’s market (they are lighting up Nashville right now), snatch them up immediately. Eat them straight off the truck or whip up this nostalgic five-star strawberry shortcake in 45 minutes.    Gather two pints of hulled strawberries, 1/2 cup sugar (plus three tablespoons), four cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, five teaspoons baking powder, 1 1/4 cups butter, three cups whipping cream, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Gently crush 1/4 of the berries, then mix with the rest of the berries and ½ cup sugar. In a separate bowl, mix together three tablespoons sugar, salt, and baking powder. Add ⅓ cup softened butter and rub into the mixture. Add 1 1/4 cups cream to form a soft dough. Roll out to a half-inch thick, then cut into four rounds with a three-inch biscuit cutter. Brush with melted butter and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.  Beat the cream with vanilla. Layer one half of a shortcake round with whipped cream and strawberries. Top with the remaining shortcake, and bedazzle with whipped cream and berries as you please. If you’re my dad, you have to pour milk on it. And if you’re from Pennsylvania (like me), this dessert is your dinner because strawberry season only comes around once a year. I love hearing about what you’ve loved this week, too! (I can confirm the breakfast cookie recipe from last week is a total crowd-pleaser.) Dish all the delightful details in the comments (you can email me too) to amplify the joy. Thanks for stopping by! — Lauren

For most high-ranking diplomats, a misprinted nameplate would be a minor annoyance or a subtle dig. For Marco Rubio, it’s a victory. When the Secretary of State joined President Donald Trump for Thursday’s bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, his last name was slightly misspelled. The reason? Beijing has twice sanctioned Rubio and effectively barred him from entering the country. But Rubio is America’s top diplomat, and Trump would not have undertaken such a high-stakes state visit without him. So, the Chinese Communist Party devised a linguistic workaround to allow Rubio entry without formally lifting the sanctions. Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said this week that the sanctions targeted Rubio’s “words and deeds when he served as a U.S. senator concerning China.” According to Garrett Exner, those words and deeds comprise a “remarkably clear-eyed” assessment of the CCP’s faults. “Likely because of his Cuban background, Rubio sees communism for the evil it is and has no issue calling it out,” Exner, a fellow at the Hudson Institute, told The Daily Wire. “It is a win for President Trump that he forced China’s hand in changing their own rules to bring his Secretary of State.” As a senator, Rubio was a leading critic of Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region and an outspoken supporter of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. For that and more, China brought the hammer down on Rubio in 2020 — something the then-Florida senator met with humor. “Last month China banned me,” Rubio wrote at the time. “Today they sanctioned me. I don’t want to be paranoid but I am starting to think they don’t like me.” Rubio’s joking tone in no way belies an unserious approach to China. While traveling to China aboard Air Force One, Rubio described Beijing as America’s top geopolitical rival and warned that it seeks to displace the United States as the world’s dominant power. “It’s both our top political challenge geopolitically and it’s also the most important relationship for us to manage,” Rubio said. “It’s a big powerful country and it’s going to continue to grow.” Rubio added that the United States and China will inevitably have conflicting interests but argued the relationship must still be managed carefully to avoid military conflict. “We’re going to have interests of ours that are going to be in conflict with interests of theirs; to avoid wars and maintain peace and stability in the world, we’re gonna have to manage those,” Rubio said. Years earlier, Rubio contrasted China with Russia, arguing that Chinese ambitions posed the more serious long-term threat. “Under Putin, Russia is trying to undermine the U.S.,” Rubio wrote in 2019. “But Xi aims for China to displace us. Putin efforts must be addressed. But in the big picture Xi challenge is a far bigger threat.” In another 2019 X post, Rubio wrote: “Problem isn’t people of China — it’s Xi govt economic cheating & stealing & human rights abuses.” Rubio has also repeatedly singled out Chinese President Xi Jinping personally, arguing that Xi’s leadership has damaged China’s global standing through aggressive foreign policy, human rights abuses, and COVID-era secrecy. In a 2020 post, Rubio wrote that “history will say Xi’s aggressiveness backfired & inflicted tremendous damage on China globally,” citing the mass detention of Uyghurs, “Coronavirus coverups,” and the rise of China’s so-called “Wolf Warrior Diplomats.” Rubio’s Long Campaign For Uyghurs One of the primary reasons Beijing sanctioned Rubio was his outspoken criticism of China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, which has included accusations of mass surveillance, persecution, arbitrary arrests, torture, forced labor, sexual violence, forced sterilization, and genocide. China has denied such abuses have taken place. In 2020, Rubio declared that China’s actions amounted to “a systematic state sponsored crime against humanity.” He later pushed the State Department to formally determine whether Beijing’s actions constituted genocide. Rubio additionally introduced the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was signed into law in 2021. The law blocks goods made with forced labor in Xinjiang from entering American markets. Rubio also has a history of calling out American corporations he believed were benefiting from Chinese forced labor practices, criticizing Nike in 2021 for selling products made by “600 Uyghurs in forced labor at the factory in Qingdao.” But the treatment of Uyghurs is not the only venue for Rubio’s vehement criticism of China. Rubio Supported Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protesters Rubio emerged as one of the most vocal supporters of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020, which were met with a brutal crackdown from the Chinese government. At the time, Rubio repeatedly accused the Communist Party of violating its international commitments and dismantling the territory’s promised autonomy. In May 2020, Rubio blasted Chinese officials after they accused him of placing “unjustifiable pressure” on China. “Wrong,” Rubio responded. “China’s Communist Party is breaking its international commitments to respect Hong Kong’s autonomy & democracy.” Rubio also introduced the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, legislation authorizing sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for undermining freedoms in the territory. The bill received near-unanimous support in Congress. In 2019, Rubio wrote that Hong Kong was “a cautionary lesson for anyone thinking about any deal with them.” “They signed a treaty promising autonomy & democracy for Hong Kong,” Rubio said. “They will agree to anything to get a deal. But they have no intention of keeping those promises.” In 2020, Rubio warned that the Chinese Communist Party “should never be trusted to keep any international agreement they enter into,” arguing that Beijing “will lie to get any deal” before ultimately doing “whatever they want” once it serves their interests. Rubio Repeatedly Defended Taiwan Throughout his career, Rubio has never shied away from one of the most contentious issues between the United States and China: Taiwan. Rubio has consistently defended Taiwan and rejected Beijing’s territorial claims over the self-governing island. In 2020, Rubio warned that China would attempt to intimidate Taiwan through propaganda and psychological pressure. “But they will fail,” Rubio wrote. “Taiwan will not be scared into surrendering their liberty & America stands with them.” Rubio also pushed for stronger U.S. diplomatic engagement with Taiwan, including urging the Trump administration in 2019 to send a high-level American official to events marking the anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act. “Taiwan faces unprecedented threats from China,” Rubio wrote. “The U.S. must make our support clear.” After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Rubio also argued that the international community should support Taiwanese independence if China was willing to recognize Russian-backed separatist territories. “Since China supports recognizing the independence of Russian puppets in Ukraine maybe it’s time the world supports the independence of the legitimate government of Taiwan,” Rubio wrote days after the invasion. In October, Rubio reassured Taiwan supporters by saying the Trump administration would not negotiate away Taiwan’s future in exchange for a trade deal with Beijing. “I don’t think you’re going to see some trade deal where, if what people are worried about is we’re going to get some trade deal or we’re going to get favorable treatment on trade in exchange for walking away from Taiwan,” Rubio said. “No one is contemplating that.” Rubio Fought For Truth On COVID During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rubio emerged as one of the leading voices demanding accountability from Beijing and investigating the origins of the virus. In 2020, Rubio accused the Communist Party of politicizing the pandemic and exploiting the crisis “for publicity and profit.” “It proves how they politicize everything because everything, even public health, is subservient to the party,” Rubio wrote. In a lengthy report released in 2022, Rubio pointed to evidence suggesting Chinese authorities may have known about a dangerous outbreak well before publicly acknowledging it in December 2019. The report also argued there were signs of a possible “serious biocontainment failure or accident” involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the second half of 2019. In a 2023 Fox News interview, Rubio said that China does not want the world to know how COVID started. “This probably was a lab leak accident. Someone got infected, it has now spread across the world and the totalitarian Communist government in China doesn’t want the world to know about it.” In an op-ed the same year, Rubio argued that the COVID origins controversy was only one example of broader Chinese infiltration efforts targeting American institutions and corporations. “The Chinese Communist Party is dangerous, deceptive, and self-serving,” Rubio wrote. Rubio pointed to reports claiming CCP members were embedded inside major Western companies and called for legislation targeting Chinese influence operations, espionage efforts, and military cooperation loopholes. Rubio Warned About Chinese Espionage In America Rubio has repeatedly warned that the Chinese government was using students, researchers, and businesses to advance Beijing’s military and intelligence capabilities. In 2020, Rubio praised moves targeting Chinese students allegedly involved in stealing American research. “Good move to address China using some students at our universities to steal research & advance military capabilities,” Rubio wrote regarding Chinese graduate students being expelled if they have ties to China’s military schools. At the same time, Rubio warned Americans not to direct hostility toward ordinary Chinese citizens. “This must be addressed in a targeted way while rejecting xenophobia,” Rubio added. “Remember, China’s govt often entraps its own people into this.” Rubio also pushed legislation aimed at exposing Chinese influence operations inside American universities. In 2018, Marco Rubio introduced the Foreign Influence Transparency Act, which sought to require organizations such as Confucius Institutes to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act if they promoted the political agenda of a foreign government. “This legislation aims to bring greater transparency to the activities of foreign governments operating in the United States,” Rubio said at the time, arguing the bill would strengthen foreign funding disclosure requirements for colleges and universities while closing loopholes that allowed Chinese government-linked entities to operate on more than 100 American campuses. With even Trump stoking speculation as to whether his Secretary of State will run for president in 2028, it’s clear that Rubio isn’t going anywhere. No doubt Beijing is thinking a lot about that.