The Trump administration has been steadily increasing pressure on Cuba through harsher sanctions, a crippling oil blockade and threats to “take” the island. Now, Washington has sharply escalated tensions by indicting the 94-year-old former Cuban president, Raúl Castro, over the downing of two unarmed civilian planes by the Cuban military in 1996. The incident triggered the worst crisis in US-Cuban relations since the Cold War.

Who is Raúl Castro?
With his brother Fidel, Raúl helped lead the guerrilla war that toppled the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and launched the Cuban communist revolution. Raúl stepped in as acting president when Fidel fell ill in 2006, before formally taking over in 2008. Although he resigned as president in 2018, and as leader of the Communist Party in 2021, he is still considered one of the most powerful men in the country, and one of the fathers of the revolution.

What happened in 1996?
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main financial supporter, Cuba suffered an “extreme economic emergency” of blackouts and food and fuel shortages, said the BBC – much like today. Thousands fled to Florida on rafts. A Miami-based group of Cuban exiles, Brothers to the Rescue, tried to help, and used planes to drop anti-regime leaflets over the island. Havana “began denouncing the air incursions”, branding the group “terrorists”.

Cuban fighter jets then shot down two of the group’s planes, killing all four men on board – three of whom were US citizens. Most organisations say the planes were in international airspace, although Cuba has always insisted otherwise. The attack sparked “strong international condemnation”, including against Raúl.

Does this make US-Cuba conflict more likely?
The US issued a similar indictment against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro before capturing him (and depriving the Cuban Communist Party of a key ally). Many fear this indictment suggests Donald Trump’s desire for regime change in Havana is intensifying.

The charges against Castro “lay the groundwork for a possible military operation by the US to extradite him”, said CNN. But, unlike in Venezuela where Maduro’s military “quickly fell in line with Trump’s demands”, Cubans are “likely to react far more belligerently”. The current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has said US action would trigger a “bloodbath”; the regime “may choose to go down fighting”.

“The name of the show says it all,” said Colin Robertson in The Sun. “Could there be a more guaranteed recipe for disaster” than a reality TV show where people share a bed and a life straight after meeting each other? 

Two female participants in the Channel 4 show have told the BBC’s “Panorama” they were raped during filming; a third has alleged she was subjected to a non-consensual sex act. According to “Panorama”, Channel 4 was aware of some allegations before the programme was broadcast. It seems pretty much “an accident waiting to happen”, said Caroline Dinenage, chair of the parliamentary Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

‘No way to restrict harm’
The format “both pressures people into unsuitable relationships and presents sex as a matter of course”, said Ella Dorn in The New Statesman. There was “no real way to restrict its harm to women”.

The allegations “prove that there’s just no way of making a reality TV show centred around dating that is both ethical and entertaining”, said Serena Smith on Dazed. Producers “can’t just let unhappy contestants walk away” because they need a show “packed with high-octane conflict”. It will “always be an impossible feat” to balance “ethics and explosive TV”, so “it’s time to accept that the experiment has failed”.

‘Domestic abuse as entertainment’
We risk “missing the wider point”, said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. “The chilling thing about these allegations” is that “reality TV stands accused of being too real by half”. One in 10 women in Britain say they’ve been forced into sex against their will, according to a landmark 2013 study. Half of female respondents to another survey said they had “woken up to find a male partner attempting to have sex with them in their sleep – a scenario described by one of the women from “Married at First Sight”.

We think ourselves “far more virtuous” than the Romans who “flocked to the Colosseum to watch slaves and prisoners” being killed, said Mary Harrington on UnHerd. But is “staging domestic abuse as primetime entertainment” really “less grotesque”? These allegations should “prompt a deeper reckoning about the national predilection for staging low-grade psychological torment as entertainment”.

A girl plays between tents set up for displaced people by the Lebanese government. More than a million have been forced to flee their homes in Beirut and southern Lebanon to escape Israel’s ongoing military strikes – despite the official ceasefire announced a month ago.

Anwar Amro / AFP / Getty Images

Stirlingshire: Cauldhame, Sheriffmuir
A fine 17th century farmhouse with magnificent views to the peaks of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. The property has three separate cottages run as short-term lets. 7 beds, 4 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, gardens and grounds of approx. 19 acres, parking. OIEO £1.45 million; Savills.

Norfolk: Oxnead Mill, Oxnead
This fine Grade II water mill includes a self-contained annexe and space for concerts and large parties, all in a splendid setting on the River Bure. 4 beds, 4 baths, kitchen, indoor swimming pool, garden, parking. OIEO £1.25 million; Sowerbys.

Cumbria: Brantrake & Old Brantrake, Eskdale
Enchanting Grade II farmhouse with a 4-bed stone barn, set in approx. 10 acres within the Lake District National Park. Both buildings are currently holiday rentals. 3 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/dining room, recep. £1.35m; Fine & Country.

Norfolk: Walnut Shade, Suton
A characterful Grade II former Hall House with medieval origins, set in beautifully landscaped gardens and grounds of approx. 2.5 acres. 5 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, garden, parking, and a 16-panel solar array that generated an income of £2,636 for the year to 1 December 2025. £995,000; Sowerbys.

Labour’s cost of living policy isn’t serious
The Telegraph's editorial board
People “heralded” Labour’s general election win as “the ‘return of the grown-ups’”, says The Telegraph. But they didn’t mention that those “so-called grown-ups would treat the public like children”. Rachel Reeves is subsidising “families’ holiday plans” and paying “for their bus fare, like an infantilising parent”. Does she think this will stop them noticing the cost of living crisis? If she “were actually serious” about our economy, “she would reverse her damaging tax rises and get the state out” of “people’s lives”.

HS2 is the wildest white elephant in British history. Please put it out of its misery
Simon Jenkins in The Guardian
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she’s “angry” that “HS2 will now cost up to £102.7bn and trains may not start until 2039”, writes Simon Jenkins. The project is a “dud” and “always was”. “Successive prime ministers” have been “presented with the bare facts” but none had “the courage to call a halt”. This government should do that “now, instantly”, and use the money for “more needed rail investments” – or “new hospitals, schools, care centres, youth clubs and courtrooms”.

Wahoo! My sensible mum years are over. I can be daft again
Caitlin Moran in The Times
I’ve been a “middle-aged Janet” for years, writes Caitlin Moran, unblocking toilets, booking appointments and organising birthday parties that are both “nut-allergy and clown-phobia compliant”. But I have “seismic news”: “once your children are adults” and you’re over the menopause hump, you can “be silly again”. I’ve just had my photo taken “dressed up as Henry VIII”, with my friends in “sticky out dresses”, all of us “brandishing swords”. The photographer was admirably “Janet-like; we were absolute, joyful fools”.