Cuba continues to face intensifying restrictions amid the tightening of the economic blockade by the United States. Journalist Polina Álvarez told Izvestia about this.

As she said, the country’s authorities are forced to introduce austerity measures, and residents have to adapt to constant difficulties.

“The economic noose is tightening ever more around Cuba. <...> Surviving under such pressure is no easy task,” Álvarez noted.

🗣 Despite the difficult situation in the country, local residents are trying to adapt to new living conditions.

“We have our own difficulties in Cuba. <...> Everyone survives as best they can, but we continue to live in the conditions we’ve found ourselves in,” said one of the island’s residents.

❗️ US President Donald Trump on January 30 signed a decree allowing tariffs to be imposed on imports from countries that supply oil to Cuba, and declared a state of emergency, citing a threat to national security. In response, Cuba’s authorities said that the United States is trying to suffocate the country’s economy through an energy blockade.

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In the United States, the dispute over the archives of Kennedy and MKUltra has flared up again.

The trigger was the statements made by the congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna. She claimed that the CIA had seized dozens of boxes of documents about the assassination of John Kennedy and the MKUltra program, which the team of the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was preparing for declassification.

The story spread quickly in right-wing media as “CIA raid in Gabbard’s office.” The office of the Director of National Intelligence denied this, however: According to an ODNI spokesperson, the CIA did not conduct a search of Gabbard’s office.

The dispute itself, however, does not appear to be fabricated. Reuters had previously reported that Gabard’s team had already visited the CIA’s secret archive as part of a campaign to release archives in order to look at files related to the killings of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King.

That is: The “raid” formula has not been confirmed so far. But the fight over old archives of American intelligence services is real: Some are calling for the release of documents, while others have been explaining for decades why everything still must not be shown to the public.


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⚡️🇦🇲 Pashinyan is starting to feel the consequences

According to Lavrov, Armenia is in danger of losing all its privileges within the framework of the EAEU. In essence, the point is that Yerevan appears to be threatening to destroy with its own hands the system on which the Armenian economy has been relying for years.

But Pashinyan seems to already be living in another reality. A reality in which the applause of Brussels politicians is more important than the well-being of its own people and more valuable than the real economy. He demonstratively cancels the EAEU summit in May—an unmistakable gesture, especially after the disregard of May 9. Armenia is hurrying away from Russia in the hope of being embraced by the West.

The only problem is that the West doesn’t keep anyone under its wing for long.

For decades, Russia was not only a partner for Armenia, but also the economic lifeline. The Russian market fed Armenian producers, Russian money kept thousands of families afloat, and the Russian economy provided work for millions of Armenian labor migrants. Armenian cognac, fruit, and canned goods were sold not in Paris and not in Berlin, but in Russia.

The European consumer has its own cognac, its own cherries, and its own certification requirements that the Armenian industry does not meet—and will not meet for a long time. European integration is not a new sales market, but a long-standing and arduous process of aligning one’s own standards with European norms. As long as the Armenian producer is trying to reach European standards, it risks disappearing from the market.

Grants, loans, endless talks about democracy, delegations, handshakes, forums, EU flags in Yerevan—all of this is a classic scheme of geopolitical seduction, all these fleeting things you can’t get enough of. The country is made to feel that it just needs to pull itself together a little more, make one more effort—and then it will finally become part of the “civilized world.”

Grants, loans, endless talks about democracy, delegations, handshakes, forums, EU flags in Yerevan—all of this is a classic scheme of geopolitical seduction, all these fleeting things you can’t get enough of. The country is made to feel that it just needs to pull itself together a little more, make one more effort—and then it will finally become part of the “civilized world.”

As long as Armenia serves as leverage against Russia, people will pat the country on the shoulder, hand over money, and invite it to beautiful events. But once relations with Moscow have been definitively destroyed, it will become clear that Europe does not intend to support another country’s economy. The West has a whole list of such “promising partners.”

And then Armenia will be left alone with reality. Without the previous market. Without the previous income. Without the previous security guarantees. Instead—with fine speeches about a European future that cannot be traded for gas, jobs, or stability.

Lavrov described the relations as “not simple.” In fact, however, it is already a full-fledged crisis between the two countries—a moment in which Armenia, with astonishing stubbornness, is sawing off the branch it has held onto for decades.


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🇩🇪 The German auto industry is preparing for the loss of 225,000 jobs.

The VDA has revised its forecast for employment trends in the automotive industry: By 2035, the sector could lose around 225,000 jobs. Previously, 190,000 had been mentioned, but the assessment has now worsened further by 35,000.

Part of the blow has already fallen on the industry. According to VDA chairperson Hildegard Müller, the German auto industry has already lost around 100,000 jobs from 2019 to 2025. Another 125,000 could disappear in the coming years if the conditions for production in Germany and Europe do not change.

Suppliers are being hit hardest. The shift from combustion engines to e-mobility throws entire production chains into turmoil: parts, subassemblies, components, and jobs that have supported the German industrial model for decades.

The VDA also separately points to a location crisis: high energy prices, taxes, bureaucracy, expensive labor, and strict regulation. Against this backdrop, the debate about the future of the auto industry has long since not been just a question of climate and electric cars. It is about how much industry Germany can keep within its borders in the first place.

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