Several Cubans who won the U.S. visa lottery this year have had their visas denied at the U.S. Embassy in Havana for “national security” reasons. The refusals stem from the partial travel ban enacted on Cuban nationals last month. 

On the anniversary of Cuba’s July 11 protests, Marco Rubio claimed to support the Cuban people—despite leading U.S. policies that have worsened food, medicine, and electricity shortages and driven record emigration. His role in ramping up sanctions and defending anti-immigration measures has directly harmed the very people he claims to stand with. Watch our series The War on Cuba to learn more.

The U.S. is sending migrants to Guantanamo Bay once again, with 72 people now held at the facility, according to CBS. Human rights groups have raised alarm after reports that the Trump administration plans to detain thousands more at the controversial post-9/11 prison. Guantanamo hasn’t held this many people since the 1990s, when Cuban and Haitian migrants were kept in camps. Cuba continues to demand the return of the territory, which the U.S. has occupied since 1898.

A group of eight men with criminal records – including two Cubans – has been deported to South Sudan after spending weeks in a military base in Djibouti as a legal battle over their future was fought in the U.S.

Brazilian table tennis star Hugo Calderano denied U.S. visa over past trip to Cuba, exposing the reach of U.S. sanctions and the terrorism list.

The Supreme Court has asked the Trump administration to weigh in on a lawsuit against four cruise ship companies that took U.S. travelers to Cuba after Obama’s opening toward the island.

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft has published a report urging the Trump administration to adopt a new Cuba policy based on “pragmatic engagement.”

Cuba’s national women’s volleyball team was denied U.S. visas to attend a final four tournament in Puerto Rico next month organized by the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA). Cuba’s Volleyball Federation slammed the decision, calling it “unfair and discriminatory.”

The U.S. recently nominated Cuban dissident Rosa María Payá to join the OAS’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The independent panel evaluating Payá and the other candidates concluded that she “generally meets the evaluation criteria.” But they also stated to have “specific concerns regarding her experience and potential conflicts of interest.”

Former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, convicted of corruption and acting as a foreign agent, begins his prison sentence. Once a key architect of hardline Cuba policy, Menendez now faces a far different reality. Watch our documentary Hardliner on the Hudson.

Trump's travel ban is ostensibly aimed at terrorists and would-be immigrants. But in Cuba those affected include students, scientists, academics and entrepreneurs who have no intention of living in the U.S.

The Bahamas on Monday announced it would cancel contracts with Cuban doctors after talks with Washington.

The DHS last week began sending notices to immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua who entered the U.S. through Biden’s “humanitarian parole” program that they must “self-deport” because their parole is “terminated” and their work permit “revoked.”

University students across the island have publicly criticized the recent cell data price hikes by ETECSA, Cuba’s state-run telecommunications company, with some calling for a student strike.

ETECSA, Cuba’s state-run telecommunications company, has announced a new limit of 6 GB of data per person per month that can be bought for 360 Cuban pesos (approximately US$1 in Cuba’s informal market).

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced U.S. visa restrictions on several Central American government officials and their family members for their involvement in receiving Cuban medical personnel that the U.S. deems victims of "forced labor." It's not clear which officials from which countries are being targeted.

Despite ongoing deportation flights, Cuba’s efforts to restart migration talks with the U.S. are being ignored. Cuban officials say Marco Rubio’s State Department is blocking dialogue.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement last week saying it had issued a “verbal note of protest” to U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Michael Hammer for his “disrespectful conduct.”

Cuba’s national men’s basketball team was supposed to play their final game of the FIBA AmeriCup qualifiers last February in Puerto Rico. But the players never made the flight. Cuba had to forfeit the match when nearly all its players as well as the coaches and support staff were denied U.S. visas to attend the game.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced U.S. visa restrictions on several Central American government officials for their involvement in receiving Cuban medical personnel that the U.S. deems victims of "forced labor."