I present the account of two Democratic representatives from the United States who recently visited Havana. Interesting, of course, because of the authors' backgrounds. Published in The New York Times on May 11 (available in its entirety to subscribers only) and on May 12 in Spanish, from which I offer an automatic translation using Microsoft Word and the few available comments.

Jacques-François Bonaldi

GUSNOTE: TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH BY JULES LETAMBOUR

May 12, 2026 (original English: May 11, 2026)

By Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan L. Jackson. Jayapal, of Washington's 7th Congressional District, and Jackson, of Illinois' 1st Congressional District, are Democratic members of the House of Representatives.

US President Donald Trump has said that a peace agreement with Iran has been “largely negotiated” and is now being finalized, signaling a potential breakthrough after nearly three months of war and repeated threats of renewed US strikes.

Trump announces Iran deal ‘finalization’
The US president says a peace agreement has been “largely negotiated,” with the “final aspects” still under discussion

The Sydney Peace Foundation is honoured to announce that the 2026 Sydney Peace Prize will be awarded to Jennifer Robinson, international human rights lawyer, barrister, author and advocate. Jen is acclaimed for her work in key human rights and media freedom cases, extensive pro-bono work, and advocacy for the rights of marginalised communities.  

The UK has had eight Prime Minister’s this century, with most serving after Brexit and for an average of two years. Sir Keir Starmer is deeply unpopular and the public (and some in his party) want him to resign.

This is not the first challenge to Starmer, but Labour’s slump in recent local elections – to English councils, the Scottish Parliament, and Welsh Assembly – is especially bruising.

Sir Keir Starmer (sort of) survives, but Britons are impatient

Battered but still standing, the British PM lacks a credible rival – while voters, exhausted by crisis, keep demanding change...

By Dr. James C. Peace

Czech President Petr Pavel has urged NATO to “show its teeth” in response to what he described as Russian “provocations” on the bloc’s eastern flank.

Pavel’s remarks follow a series of Ukrainian drone incursions into NATO airspace in Europe. Since mid-March, long-range UAVs have repeatedly crossed Baltic and Nordic airspace en route to targets in northwestern Russia, particularly oil facilities in Leningrad Region. The incursions prompted fighter jet deployments, and some drones crashed inside NATO states, causing damage.

Moscow has accused European NATO members of quietly allowing Kiev to use their airspace for attacks on Russian territory, but Western officials deny this, instead blaming Russia for the incursions and claiming that Russian electronic warfare systems may have redirected the drones to stray into NATO airspace.

At least 18 people have been killed and dozens more wounded – most of them students – in a Ukrainian drone raid on a school dormitory in Starobelsk in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on Friday. As of Saturday afternoon, search-and-rescue operations are still underway, with local officials reporting additional Ukrainian drone attacks aimed at derailing the efforts.

President Vladimir Putin called the raid a “terrorist attack by the neo-Nazi regime,” adding that he ordered the military to prepare retaliation.

Following the attack, Russia requested an emergency UN Security Council session.

Until recently I had serious concerns that my old outfit, i.e., the CIA, was failing to do its job in providing accurate analysis to the President. Looks like my concerns were misplaced. While there have been a few occasions in the history of the CIA that the analysts told the then active administration what they believed the President wanted to hear, the more common problem is that the CIA analysts rain on the President’s parade and their analysis is ignored. That appears to be the case now with Iran. 

Looks Like CIA Analysts Are Doing a Pretty Good Job Regarding Iran

by Larry C. Johnson

China spent over *$106 billion* building Venezuela’s oil economy over two decades — loans, refineries, pipelines, joint ventures, and oil-backed debt deals. Then in January 2026, the United States launched a dramatic Delta Force operation, captured Nicolás Maduro, and declared a new era for Venezuela. But did Washington actually take control… or walk straight into a trap China already prepared?

Perhaps it’s no surprise that Opposition Leader Angus Taylor would seek to jump on the orange bandwagon by cosying up to One Nation, and emulating Trump, given the PHONies’ recent surge in popularity and the Libs’ ever-plunging support.

The recent two-day Beijing summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping has come and gone. There was pageantry: Military honors, flag-waving children, flowers and toasts. Both governments declared success. The relationship has been stabilized, which is not nothing, but the deeper question about the future of our global governance architecture remains unanswered.

After Beijing: An Architecture Still Adrift

The bilateral guardrails erected in Beijing last week may buy time, but they do not fix global governance institutions drifting toward a rupture that historically has preceded systemic collapse, writes Tatiana Carayannis.

PassBlue

"For France and Russia, being united means being strong; being divided means being in danger. This is a necessary condition from the standpoint of geography, experience, and intelligence."

Soviet-French Alliance named after de Gaulle

A great son of his people, raised in the spirit of patriotism and love for his homeland, de Gaulle recalled his youth: 

Australia is part of the white man’s intelligence network, Five Eyes. That means too much CIA input into anti-China perceptions in recent years. It also helped bring down the Whitlam government.

Five Eyes, the intelligence alliance between Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand was established in 1946. Today, we need to ask, who are the Five Eyes loyal to?

John Menadue

Cuba has survived as a communist country probably because it was sanctioned by the USA and Cuba had to become self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency is the main purpose of socialism for a group of people, in which no-one is allowed to dictate to others, but decisions are made collectively… 

Most societies around the world have a certain proportion of socialistic policies in order to help the less fortunate people. The amount of help is the difficult balancing point of budgeting for democratic outcomes… In some societies, this amount of help is minimal and leads to cronyism. In America, the system resents having to support the poor, while helping the rich [and the military complex].

2025 can be seen as the year in which the united anti-Russian coalition fell apart. In essence, there are now three distinct players acting against Russia (Ukraine, Europe, the US), and each has its own interests. Analyst Sergey Poletaev has prepared a series of articles in which he analyses the position of each player, their goals and interests in the conflict, and suggests how Russia might respond. 

Ukraine and the road to ruin

The fate of the conflict, part 1: The state that forgot how to live without war

BY Sergey Poletaev

The first one concerns Ukraine.