Please be aware... ALL Photos are purely for entertainment. I am no expert. Titles are from recognition - what I was told - or a quick search. Polite comments or corrections are welcome.
Between grandstanding, contradictory statements, and secret meetings, something is happening in Cuba. A path has opened that is still full of unknowns, but one that now seems hard to reverse. In recent days, events have accelerated with the unusual visit by the CIA chief to Havana, the U.S. indictment of Raúl Castro — the Cuban Revolution’s last great symbol — and the deployment of an aircraft carrier in Caribbean waters near the island.
U.S. presidents typically leave their mark on the White House. And then there’s Donald Trump. A builder at heart, he has filled the Oval Office with gilded moldings, just like the Mar-a-Lago-style lettering he’s placed throughout his Palm Beach, Florida, mansion. He has paved the Rose Garden, installed a dark granite walkway that contrasts sharply with the pristine white building, and created a presidential gallery filled with insults and lies about his predecessors. However, his greatest interest and political capital have gone into the ballroom he wants to build on the site of the former East Wing, which he himself decided to demolish a year ago without permission.
Vincent Cassel, who will star in the fourth season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” is set to play Napoleon Bonaparte in the upcoming first-person Soulslike video game “Valor Mortis.” Per the game’s description, “Set in a supernatural reimagining of 19th-century Europe, Valor Mortis casts players as William, a resurrected soldier of the Grande Armée who […]
Vin Diesel’sBloodshot, his own superhero film released amid his MCU run as Groot, underperformed at the box office because of the pandemic, but was making waves on streaming just last week. Now, one of his other anti-hero trilogies that culminated before his MCU run began in Guardians of the Galaxy is coming to Netflix and might do the same since even Karl Urban (The Boys) stars in it.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tuesday against any “destabilizing” actions on Taiwan before a trip to China by President Donald Trump and called on Beijing also to raise pressure on Iran.
US President Donald Trump listens as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 30, 2025, in Washington, DC. File photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP.
Rubio, addressing reporters at the White House, said he was sure that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would discuss Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island claimed by Beijing.
“I think both countries understand that it is in neither one of our interests to see anything destabiliz(ing) happen in that part of the world,” Rubio told reporters.
“We don’t need any destabilizing events to occur with regards to Taiwan or anywhere in the Indo-Pacific, and I think that’s to the mutual benefit of both the United States and the Chinese,” Rubio said.
China has ramped up its military presence around Taiwan in recent years and staged large-scale military drills.
While the United States has an ambiguous policy on whether it would defend Taiwan, its military looks increasingly stretched as resources shift from Asia to the Iran war.
Rubio, who has never visited China, was an outspoken critic of Beijing’s human rights record while a senator, championing legislation that brought sanctions over Beijing’s alleged use of forced labor from the Uyghur minority.
The Trump administration has largely downplayed human rights, preferring to focus on promoting what it sees as core US interests such as trade.
Asked if Trump would raise human rights, Rubio said, “I think we’ve proven in some cases it’s most effective to raise them in the appropriate setting. But we always raise those issues.”
Call to pressure Iran
Rubio also called for China to put pressure on Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was leaving Tuesday for Beijing.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi departs for Beijing on May 5, 2026. Photo: Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Iran has exerted control over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil once transited, in retaliation for being attacked by the United States and Israel.
China has been by far the largest buyer of Iranian oil, defying sanctions unilaterally imposed by Trump since his first term against any country that is Tehran’s customer.
“I hope the Chinese tell him (Araghchi) what he needs to be told, and that is that what you were doing in the straits is causing you to be globally isolated,” Rubio said.
“You’re the bad guy in this,” he said. “You guys should not be blowing up ships.”
The United States has also been blowing up ships. The US military said Monday it had destroyed six small Iranian boats, accusing them of threatening shipping.
During the war, a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian frigate off Sri Lanka, killing 104 sailors, with US forces leaving them to drown.
Shutterstock has agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) $35 million over allegations that the photo agency misled customers and illegally made millions of dollars from them.
Please be aware... ALL Photos are purely for entertainment. I am no expert. Titles are from recognition - what I was told - or a quick search. Polite comments or corrections are welcome.
The U.S. military started what it called "self-defense strikes" against Iran for the downing of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump said the two crew members were both "safe and uninjured" after the Apache helicopter went down while on patrol off the coast of Oman. Geoff Bennett discussed the latest with Dan Lamothe of The Washington Post.
Having deleted several cartoons, both strips and political, that referred to Dear Leader’s now-moribund slush fund, it was a surprise to find a case of coincidental timing that did apply to something in the news. Not that it’s all that encouraging, but these days you have to take whatever you can get. Enough politics: It’s […]
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