-
+25 +1
Inside the crazy back-channel negotiations that revolutionized our relationship with Cuba
How wild did things get? Secret missives, the pope, and artificial insemination wild. By Peter Kornbluh and William H. Leogrande.
-
+26 +1
Cubans stunned by John Kerry speech
The sight was so unlikely that some Cubans could scarcely believe it: a US secretary of state lecturing their Communist government about democracy and human rights on state television.
-
+26 +1
Cuba's 'Peter Pans' Remember Childhood Exodus
A glass wall separated nine-year-old Mercedes Dash from her parents at Havana’s international airport. Clutching her new doll as she waved goodbye, Dash boarded a plane bound for Miami. For all she knew, she’d be back in Cuba in a few days. That was January 25, 1962. Mercedes Dash still hasn’t gone home.
-
+22 +1
Cuba Tourism: What Will It Cost You?
Understand the various costs involved with taking a trip to Cuba, including vaccination costs, airfare, tour costs and converting money to Cuban currency.
-
+49 +1
What It Looks Like to Use the Internet for the First Time
It’s easy to know when you’ve encountered a wifi hotspot in Cuba, if only because they’re the only places that feel even remotely like you’re walking through an American city. It’s here that Havana’s chaotic streets—full of neighbors chatting outside their homes, old men playing dominoes, young lovers enthralled with each others’ presence—turn into places where people stare at their screens, just like most of the world seems to do all day, every day.
-
+22 +1
Cuba welcomes back doctors who fled to work abroad
Cuba has said it will welcome back doctors who deserted while serving on government-backed programmes abroad. The health ministry said doctors who fled in those circumstances would be guaranteed a job in Cuba and would incur no punishment or loss of status. Some 25,000 Cuban doctors are currently working abroad in programmes organised by the island's communist government.
-
+17 +1
Despite Better U.S.-Cuba Relations, Guantanamo Set To Stay In U.S. Hands
The only American military installation abroad that's unwelcome to its host government is the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A treaty signed in 1934 leases Guantanamo to the United States in perpetuity, for about $4,000 a year. And the U.S. has no plans to leave, despite the two countries having just restored diplomatic ties.
-
+17 +1
On Eve of Papal Visit, Cuba Pardons Over 3,000 Prisoners
The Cuban Council of State has pardoned 3,522 prisoners as a goodwill gesture on the eve of the papal visit to the island.
-
+26 +1
Cuba Releasing 3,522 Prisoners Ahead of Pope's Visit
Cuba announced Friday that it is releasing 3,522 prisoners ahead of next week's visit by Pope Francis, the third time Cuba has granted inmates freedom before a papal trip. The Council of State announced in state media Friday that the prisoners to be freed include a mix of women, people younger than 20, inmates suffering from illnesses and people whose terms were coming to an end next year.
-
+57 +1
Cuba's Mysterious 'Numbers Station' Is Still on the Air
On August 18 at 22:00 UTC, I heard a government intelligence agency transferring encrypted messages to spies over the radio. Or at least, that's the most common explanation for what I heard. I dialed to the correct frequency—17480 kHz—using an internet-connected radio tuner maintained by a university in the Netherlands. Suddenly, over waves of static, an eerily-robotic woman's voice began speaking a series of five-digit number sequences in Spanish.
-
+36 +1
U.S. Moves to Open up Business with Cuba, Ease Embargo
The United States on Friday issued regulations easing restrictions on American companies seeking to do business in Cuba and opening up travel in the latest move to weaken the U.S. trade embargo amid warming relations with the Communist country.
-
+22 +1
September 18th 1960 - Castro arrives in New York
Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations. Castro’s visit stirred indignation and admiration from various sectors of American society, and was climaxed by his speech to the United Nations on September 26.
-
+5 +1
This is Cuba's Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify – all without the internet
Media smugglers get Taylor Swift, Game of Thrones, and the New York Times to Cubans every week through an illegal network of runners. In Cuba there is barely any internet. Anything but the state-run TV channels is prohibited. Publications are limited to the state-approved newspapers and magazines. This is the law. But, in typical Cuban fashion, the law doesn't stop a vast underground system of entertainment and news media distributors and consumers.
-
+28 +1
This is Cuba's Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify – all without the internet
Media smugglers get Taylor Swift, Game of Thrones, and the New York Times to Cubans every week through an illegal network of runners.
-
+22 +1
People Try Cuban Food For The First Time
As we become a multicultural globally interconnect world, it is important to remember one thing: Cuban food is the best food.
-
+35 +1
Cuba’s really terrible internet, explained
A few years ago some computer gamers based in Havana strung a small web of ethernet cables, from house to house, so they could play video games together. The network has grown quietly and today its called StreetNet: a bootleg internet for Havana with over 10,000 users. It was an innovation forged by necessity in a country where only 5 percent of the citizens have access to the uncensored internet. Watch the why Cuba's internet is stuck in 1995.
1 comments by rti9 -
+30 +1
22nd October 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis
In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F. Kennedy announces that U.S. spy planes have discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites—under construction but nearing completion—housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C.
-
+39 +1
United Nations votes 191-2 to condemn U.S. embargo against Cuba
In the first United Nations vote on a resolution condemning the U.S. embargo against Cuba since the two countries renewed diplomatic ties in July, Cuba scored its biggest victory yet as the General Assembly voted 191-2 to adopt the resolution. The only drama was how the United States would vote after its Dec. 17 announcement of a rapprochement with Cuba and its renewal of diplomatic relations with Havana in July after a gap of more than 54 years.
-
+22 +1
Cuba's Only Email Service Has Been Mysteriously Shut Down
The Cuban government has shut down the island's only official email service provider and it's not clear when it'll come back. The Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA) announced in an official note Wednesday that it has had to "completely stop email services" in the country. As is often the case in Cuba, the communist government hasn't given an official reason for the shutdown. Service on the island has been spotty for more than a week...
-
+16 +1
The Last Prisoner of the Cold War
The new opening to Cuba would not have happened without an old-fashioned swap. Cuban spies were being held in U.S. prisons. And the Cubans were holding an American named Alan Gross. Gross was a U.S. government contractor who was setting up Internet connections in Cuba. But the Cuban government said he was a spy. It has been nearly a year since Gross became the lynchpin for the diplomatic breakthrough.
Submit a link
Start a discussion