{"id":73828,"date":"2026-05-21T08:55:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/us-indicts-former-cuban-president-raul-castro-as-it-seeks-to-oust-regime-first-thing\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T08:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:55:20","slug":"us-indicts-former-cuban-president-raul-castro-as-it-seeks-to-oust-regime-first-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/us-indicts-former-cuban-president-raul-castro-as-it-seeks-to-oust-regime-first-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"US indicts former Cuban president Ra\u00fal Castro as it seeks to oust regime | First Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Charges filed against Ra\u00fal Castro for allegedly shooting down planes in 1996. Plus, US employers spend more than $1.5bn a year to fight labor unions<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/2018\/sep\/17\/guardian-us-morning-briefing-sign-up-to-stay-informed\">Don\u2019t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Good morning.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, the US <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/may\/20\/cuba-raul-castro-indictment\">issued a federal criminal indictment<\/a> against Ra\u00fal Castro, Cuba\u2019s former president, and five others, in a significant escalation of the Trump administration\u2019s campaign to oust the country\u2019s communist regime.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are the details?<\/strong> Castro, 94, was charged with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft related to an incident in 1996 \u2013 in which four men were killed by the Cuban military, when two small planes were shot down during a humanitarian mission in the Florida Straits.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How has Cuba reacted?<\/strong> Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, the Cuban president, condemned the indictment as a political stunt that sought only to \u201cjustify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does the video show?<\/strong> Images of dozens of men and women kneeling in rows, with their foreheads to the ground and their hands zip-tied behind their back. Ben-Gvir posted it on his social media account. He appears waving an Israeli flag, mocking and taunting the detainees.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are global leaders saying?<\/strong> The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, one of the country\u2019s staunchest allies, described Ben-Gvir\u2019s behaviour as \u201cdespicable\u201d and said the minister had \u201cbetrayed the dignity of his nation\u201d. Others criticizing the video were Italy, Spain, the European Council, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and others. The Spanish foreign minister called the treatment \u201cmonstrous, disgraceful and inhumane\u201d.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/21\/first-thing-us-indicts-former-cuban-president-raul-castro-as-it-seeks-to-oust-regime\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charges filed against Ra\u00fal Castro for allegedly shooting down planes in 1996. Plus, US employers spend more than $1.5bn a year to fight labor unions Don\u2019t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here Good morning. On Wednesday, the US issued a federal criminal indictment against Ra\u00fal Castro, Cuba\u2019s former president, and five &#8230; <a title=\"US indicts former Cuban president Ra\u00fal Castro as it seeks to oust regime | First Thing\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/us-indicts-former-cuban-president-raul-castro-as-it-seeks-to-oust-regime-first-thing\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about US indicts former Cuban president Ra\u00fal Castro as it seeks to oust regime | First Thing\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}