How the Iran War Is Splintering U.K.-U.S Relations

The once seemingly robust relationship between the U.K. and the U.S. is fracturing, with U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at odds amid the widening Iran war.

"The U.K. has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have," said Trump during anOval Office briefingalongside visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday.

Trump was referring to the Chagos Islands, home to the joint U.K.-U.S. airbase Diego Garcia, which the U.K. now leases after itreturned the sovereigntyof the islands to Mauritius last year—a move Trump called an "act of great stupidity."

Starmer initially refused to allow the U.S. military to use the base to send defensive missiles to Iran. He walked back that decision Sunday night, framing it as the "best way to eliminate the urgent threat and prevent the situation spiralling further."

But for Trump, the course reversal happened far too late.

"It's taken three or four days for us to work out where we can land. It would have been much more convenient landing there, as opposed to flying many extra hours," he said during Tuesday's briefing.

"He ruins relationships. We are very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with," Trump added, taking aim at Starmer's leadership.

The remarks were yet another indication that the two leaders are no longer in alignment.

Starmer defended his position once more in the House of Commons on Wednesday, arguing he's not prepared for the United Kingdom to join a war that doesn't have a plan.

"We need to act with clarity, with purpose, and with a cool head. The protection of U.K. nationals is our number one priority," he said, highlighting how the U.K. has planes in the region, intercepting incoming strikes.

When pressed on how his response might have hindered U.K.-U.S. relations, Starmer issued a defiant statement.

"American planes operating out of British bases, that is the special relationship in action… hanging on to President Trump's latest words is not," he said.

After launching the U.S-Israeli military action over the weekend, which resulted in thekilling of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Trump made a series of remarks to British media, lashing out at Starmer's initial refusal to grant access to U.K. bases.

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"That's probably never happened between our countries before… It sounds like he was worried about the legality,"he saidin one interview. "It's very sad to see that the [U.K.-U.S.] relationship is obviously not what it was," heremarkedin another.

Meanwhile, the U.K. has maintained its position not to join offensive action against Iran, instead focusing on stepping up defensive efforts after Iranian-made dronestargeted a British airbasein Akrotiri, Cyprus.

Starmer hasorderedfor the HMS Dragon warship to be deployed in the region to assist in the defense of British bases and partners. It has also taken part in joint operations, including with Qatar, to intercept drones in the Gulf region.

TheMinistry of Defenceconfirmed that Britain has shot down drones in Jordanian and Iraqi airspace.

Early signs of strife in the U.K.-U.S. alliance

Signs of tension between Trump and Starmer started to show earlier this year over policies and approaches to geopolitical matters.

The U.S. President has repeatedly criticized the U.K.'s decision to give the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius after a decades-long dispute, despite the State Departmentpraisingthe move last year.

Starmer also broke rankswith Trump when the President threatened to tariff European allies until Denmark relents and sells the territory of Greenland—a position he swiftly walked back on. Starmer called the threat "completely wrong" and said a trade war was "in no one's interest."

In late January, the pair disagreed again after Trump targeted NATO allies, falsely claiming that troops from other countries "stayed a little back" from the frontlines during the war in Afghanistan.

Starmer calledthe comments "insulting and, frankly, appalling," while paying tribute to the 457 British armed personnel that died during service in Afghanistan.

Trump later appeared to walk back his comments,sayingthat the soldiers of the U.K. "will always be with the United States" as the bond is "too strong to ever be broken."

Prior to all this, Trump and Starmer appeared to have established a burgeoning working relationship.

In 2025, during his first visit to the White House following Trump's inauguration, Starmer presented the Presidentwith a letterfrom King Charles III, inviting Trump to an historic second state visit to the U.K. The visit proved to be a show of unity between the two leaders, as they signed thebillion-dollarTech Prosperity Deal.

The two nations had earlier reacheda trade agreement, lessening the blow of U.S-imposed tariffs after Trump's self-appointed "Liberation Day" announcement of global trade charges sparked concern in April 2025.

Contact usatletters@time.com.

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How the Iran War Is Splintering U.K.-U.S Relations

The once seemingly robust relationship between the U.K. and the U.S. is fracturing, with U.S. President Donald Trump and ...

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Claims of 'rediscovered' Michelangelos unsettle Renaissance experts

ROME (AP) — An independent researcher claimed on Wednesday that a marble bust of Christ in a Roman church is by Michelangelo, the latest purported attribution to theRenaissance geniuswho is one of the most imitated artists in the world.

Italy Michelangelo

The unverified claim by Valentina Salerno has unsettled Renaissance scholars, especially since a recent sketch of a foot that was attributed to Michelangelo — but disputed by some as a copy — recently fetched $27.2 million at aChristie's auction.

Given the stakes — and Salerno's suggestion that several other works can now be attributed to Michelangelo based on her documentary research — leading experts have declined to comment.

Salerno has published her theory on the commercial website academia.edu, a non-peer reviewed social networking site academics use, and announced the first "rediscovery" at a press conference Wednesday.

The claims have drawn perhaps more attention than they normally would, given the Vatican seemed at least initially interested. Friday marks the 550th anniversary of Michelangelo's birth and there are a number of exhibits, conferences and commemorations that are reviving attention about his genius and legacy.

The culture ministry was invited to participate in Salerno's press conference and didn't, said the abate of the order that runs the church, the Rev. Franco Bergamin, while the Carabinieri's art squad refused to weigh in on the authenticity of the statue, but said it was being protected and a laminated sign now graces the sculpture: "Alarm armed" it reads.

"We hope that this asset, which belongs to our cultural heritage regardless of whether it can be attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti or not, is part of the national heritage that we are responsible for defending," said Lt. Col. Paolo Salvatori.

'Documentary evidence on this'

Michelangelo Buonarroti, who lived from 1475-1564, created some of the most spectacular works of the Renaissance: the imposing statues ofDavid in Florenceand Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel ceiling and "The Last Judgment" fresco behind the chapel's altar. Salerno now says she has located another — a bust of Christ in the Basilica of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura, listed by Italy's culture ministry as anonymous from the Roman school of the 16th century.

She is not the first to claim it. In 1996, Michelangelo expert William Wallace wrote an article in ArtNews about the well-documented history of wrongly attributing works to Michelangelo. It quoted the 19th century French writer Stendhal as writing that at the Sant'Agnese church, "we noticed a head of the savior which I should swear is by Michelangelo."

"Stendhal's vow notwithstanding, the head has never been taken seriously, and nowadays would not even appear in a catalog raisonné under 'rejected attributions,'" Wallace wrote.

Salerno suggests that several documents in the first few hundred years after Michelangelo's death correctly attribute the work to the artist but that in 1984 a scholar debunked it, erroneously in her view, and it has remained wrongly attributed ever since.

"I have provided and will continue to provide — I hope, because the research continues — a whole series of documentary evidence on this," she said. "There will be experts in the field who will conduct their own investigations. To date, we can say that, according to the documents, the object is attributed to Michelangelo."

She suggested that the bust was modeled on Michelangelo's intimate friend, Tomaso De' Cavalieriis, and was part of the great artistic inheritance Michelangelo left to his friends and students when he died. Salerno said she came to the conclusion tracing wills, inventories and notarized documents held in church and state archives and the archives of Roman confraternities to which Michelangelo and his students belonged.

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Salerno, an actress and fiction author, has no college degree or expertise in art history. She has said she fell into the research "by chance" when she set out to write a novel about Michelangelo 10 years ago.

According to her research published on academia.edu, Salerno uncovered evidence of a secret "pact of indissolubility" among some of Michelangelo's students and their heirs to keep Michelangelo's works after he died. The pact included the previously unknown existence of a chamber, whose locks could only be opened with three keys, held by three different students, she said.

Vatican takes note

Salerno's research caught the eye of Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, who runs St. Peter's Basilica. He named Salerno and her mentor to a scientific committee formed in 2025 to discuss a possible Vatican exhibition to commemorate the anniversary of Michelangelo's birth.

Nothing has yet come of the committee's work. But its members have downplayed the significance of Salerno's work or refused to discuss it.

Some expressed surprise at her inclusion in a committee made up of some of the leading Renaissance and Michelangelo scholars in the world, including Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums, Hugo Chapman, curator of Italian and French drawings, from 1400-1800, at the British Museum, and Wallace, professor of art history at Washington University in St. Louis.

Jatta has distanced herself from the Vatican committee when contacted by The Associated Press.

The British Museum declined to make Chapman available for comment. Gambetti's office did not respond to a request. Other committee members declined to comment.

Wallace told the AP that Salerno's methodology was sound and noted that there is a strong tradition in Europe of noncredentialed researchers doing solid work. He said he agreed with her thesis that Michelangelo didn't destroy his works in a fire, a commonly held belief at the time that has been debunked for years by scholars. Rather, he concurred with Salerno that Michelangelo entrusted what remained of his works in his final years to his students to finish his projects.

But he disputes Salerno's conclusion that a huge treasure of Michelangelo's was secreted away — and is therefore ripe for new discovery — saying Michelangelo simply wasn't producing that much in the final years of his life. Michelangelo was overseeing six architectural projects in Rome at the time. What drawings he made were sketches to resolve technical problems on the worksite, and likely don't survive because they were merely "working drawings," he said.

Wallace concurred that existence of a secret chamber that can only be opened with three keys is new. But he said proper academic scholarship would call for Salerno to transcribe the documents and allow for a peer-review process to take place.

Italy is no stranger to claims of new discoveries about old artists, with fakes, frauds and new "discoveries" of Modiglianis and other artists a regular occurrence in art history circles.

"I think I counted up 45 attributions to Michelangelo since 2000, and not one of which you can remember or mention, but every single one arrived with the headline, 'The greatest discovery of the time,' (or) 'It will change everything we think about Michelangelo,'" Wallace said. "And then five years later, we can't even remember what it was."

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP'scollaborationwith The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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March 04, 2026

Claims of 'rediscovered' Michelangelos unsettle Renaissance experts

ROME (AP) — An independent researcher claimed on Wednesday that a marble bust of Christ in a Roman church is by Michelang...

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Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, frontrunner to be Iran's supreme leader?

March 4 (Reuters) - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba has emerged as frontrunner to succeed his late father as Iran's supreme leader after years spent forging close ties with the elite Revolutionary Guards and building influence in the clerical establishment.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has survived the U.S.-Israeli air war on Iran and is seen by Iran's establishment as ‌a potential successor to his father, who was killed in an airstrike on Saturday, two Iranian sources said on Wednesday.

A powerful mid-ranking cleric, Mojtaba has opposed reformers seeking to ‌engage with the West as it tries to curb Iran's nuclear programme, and has long greater freedoms.

His close ties with the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) give him added leverage across Iran's political and security apparatus and he has built up influence behind the ​scenes as his father's "gatekeeper", sources familiar with the matter said.

"He has strong constituency and support within the IRGC, in particular amongst the younger radical generations," said Kasra Aarabi, head of researching the IRGC at United Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S.-based policy organisation.

"So if Mojtaba is alive, there is a high chance that he will succeed (his father)," he said, describing Mojtaba as already operating as a "mini supreme leader".

DECISION ON SUPREME LEADER EXPECTED SOON

The Assembly of Experts that will select the new leader is "close to a conclusion" and will announce its decision soon, Assembly member Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told state TV on Wednesday, without naming the candidates.

The supreme leader ‌has the final say on matters of state, including foreign policy ⁠and Iran's nuclear programme. Western powers want to prevent Tehran developing nuclear arms. Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.

If elected, Mojtaba will face pressure from U.S. sanctions that have hammered the economy and could face opposition from Iranians who have shown they are ready to stage mass protests to press ⁠their demands for greater freedoms despite bloody crackdowns by the authorities.

Mojtaba was born in 1969 in the city of Mashhad and grew up as his father was helping lead the opposition to the Shah. As a young man, he served in the Iran-Iraq war.

Mojtaba studied under religious conservatives in the seminaries of Qom, Iran's center of Shi'ite theological learning, and has the clerical rank of Hojjatoleslam.

He has never held a formal position in the ​Islamic ​Republic's government, despite being widely seen as the gatekeeper to his father. He has appeared at loyalist rallies, but ​has rarely spoken in public.

His role has long been a source of controversy ‌in Iran, with critics rejecting any hint of dynastic politics in a country that overthrew a U.S.-backed monarch in 1979.

US SANCTIONS

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Mojtaba in 2019, saying he represented the supreme leader in "an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position" aside from working in his father's office.

Its website said Khamenei had delegated some of his responsibilities to Mojtaba, whom it said had worked closely with the commander of the IRGC's Quds Force and the Basij, a religious militia affiliated with the Guards, "to advance his father's destabilising regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives".

Mojtaba was a particular target for criticism by protesters during unrest over the death of a young woman in police custody in 2022, after she was arrested for allegedly breaching the Islamic Republic's strict dress ‌codes.

In 2024, a video was widely shared in which he announced the suspension of Islamic jurisprudence classes he was ​teaching at Qom, fuelling speculation about the reasons.

Mojtaba bears a strong resemblance to his father, and wears the black turban ​of a sayyed, indicating his family traces its lineage to the Prophet Mohammad.

Critics say Mojtaba ​lacks the clerical credentials to be supreme leader - Hojjatoleslam is a notch below the rank of Ayatollah, the position held by his father and Ruhollah Khomeini, ‌who founded the Islamic Republic.

But he has remained in the frame, particularly after ​another leading candidate for the role - the former President ​Ebrahim Raisi - died in a helicopter crash in 2024.

A U.S. diplomatic cable written in 2007 and published by WikiLeaks cited three Iranian sources describing Mojtaba as an avenue to reach Khamenei.

Mojtaba was widely believed to have been behind the sudden rise of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected president in 2005.

Mojtaba backed Ahmadinejad in 2009 when he won a second term ​in a disputed election which resulted in anti-government protests that were violently ‌suppressed by the Basij and other security forces.

Mehdi Karroubi, a moderate cleric who ran in the election, wrote a letter to Khamenei at the time objecting to what ​he alleged was Mojtaba's role in supporting Ahmadinejad. Khamenei rejected the accusation.

Mojtaba's wife, who was killed in Saturday's airstrikes, was the daughter of a prominent hardliner, the former ​parliament speaker Gholamali Haddadadel.

(Writing by Tom Perry and Michael Georgy and Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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March 04, 2026

Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, frontrunner to be Iran's supreme leader?

March 4 (Reuters) - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba has emerged as frontrunner to succeed his late father as Ira...

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Spain Rebukes Trump's Threats, Refuses to Aid Iran Conflict

Pedro Sanchez delivers a speech in Madrid, Spain, on March 4, 2026. Credit - Eduardo Parra—Getty Images

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez doubled down on his refusal to become involved in the Iran conflict and rebuked U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to cut off trade with Spain as a form of punishment.

"The position of the Government of Spain can be summed up in three words," said Sánchez in a televisedaddressWednesday morning. "No to war."

Sánchez argued Europe has been in a similar situation before, referring to the negative impact of the Iraq war. "We must not repeat the mistakes of the past," he urged.

"Twenty-three years ago, another U.S. Administration dragged us into a war in the Middle East," he said. "A war which, in theory, was said at the time to be waged to eliminate Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, to bring democracy, and to guarantee global security but.. it unleashed the greatest wave of insecurity that our continent had suffered since the fall of the Berlin Wall."

In amessageshared after his address, Sánchez reiterated his stance, saying "no to violations of international law" and "no to the illusion that we can solve the world's problems with bombs."

Sánchez had the support of his colleagues, with Budget Minister María Jesús Monteroadding thatSpain "will not be vassals" to another country.

The strong response from the European nation comes after Trump posed economic threats during a press briefing at the White House Tuesday alongside visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

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Reflecting on the U.S.-Israeli military action against Iran, whichkilled the country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Trump heralded the success of the operation and vowed to keep moving forward. But he hit out at some European allies, including Spain, for denying the U.S. access to their military bases.

Samuel Corum—Getty Images" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Read More:From Iran to Venezuela, Here Are the Countries Trump Has Ordered Strikes On in His Second Term

"Spain has been terrible. I told Scott [Bessent, Treasury Secretary] to cut off all dealings with Spain," he said, threatening to impose an economic punishment. "We're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain."

"Spain said we can't use their bases. We could use their bases if we wanted to, we could just fly in and use it, nobody is going to tell us not to use it, but we don't have to," Trump argued. "Spain has absolutely nothing we need, other than great people, but they don't have great leadership."

He also faulted Spain for failing tocommitto increasing defense spending to 5% of GDP under NATO targets.

Trump's criticism extended to other nations, as he accused the United Kingdom of being "uncooperative."

"We are very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with," he said, referencing U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

While Starmer initially refused to allow Trump to use British bases to launch defensive missiles, he reversed course on Sunday evening,announcing Britain will grant accessto the U.S. military.

Contact usatletters@time.com.

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Spain Rebukes Trump's Threats, Refuses to Aid Iran Conflict

Pedro Sanchez delivers a speech in Madrid, Spain, on March 4, 2026. Credit - Eduardo Parra—Getty Images Spanis...

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What went wrong in the women’s competition at the chaotic USATF half marathon championship?

North Carolina runner Molly Born won the USA Track & Field (USATF)women's half marathon championshipby a slim margin of just over four seconds on Sunday in Atlanta – but the result is only half the story.

To say Born's win was mired in controversy would be an understatement. That's because the four runners that were outpacing the rest of the pack were led off the course by the guide vehicle with just over a mile remaining in the 13.1-mile race.

The quartet ran about 1 kilometer (roughly 0.62 miles) extra,according to one of the runners. By the time the mistake was realized and the wayward runners were led back onto the race course, they had been overtaken by rest of the field. The trio that was set to make the podium ended up finishing in ninth, 12th and 13th place.

The affected runners filed a protest of the results and were denied. They then appealed that decision to USATF.

In a statement, the national track and field governing body determined that the course violated USATF rules and was not adequately marked, which contributed to the misdirection. However, USATF said there is no recourse in the rule book to alter the finishing order of the race.

The protested results would stand, to the satisfaction of seemingly no one, not even the race winner. Born said in aninterviewafter the race, "I don't really feel like the US champion."

Jess McClain, who was in the lead before taking the wrong turn, said onInstagram, "I'm going try my hardest to walk away from this weekend remembering the joy I felt in those moments where I thought I was on my way to becoming a National Champion & finally make Team USA outright."

Astatementreleased by the Atlanta Track Club on Tuesday shed some light on the bizarre chain of events that led to the contentious finish.

What exactly went wrong?

The race began to go off the rails when the frontrunners were still about 13 unlucky minutes away from the fateful intersection.

Police officers who were working to direct traffic for the race received a call of an officer down about a block off the race course roughly 300 feet from the location of the misdirection. Race organizers say that a motorcycle officer working the race was struck by a vehicle around 8:05 a.m. ET. The officer was treated at a local hospital and released later that day.

Two minutes later, nearby officers working the race responded to the call of an officer down, leaving "a number of key race intersections, including the one where the wrong turn occurred, unattended," according to Atlanta Track Club.

The officer who left the affected intersection had not yet placed the traffic cones to block the intersection and mark the race course.

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At 8:10 a.m., the lead male athletes of the race "successfully navigate" the intersection in question with a race-assigned escort.

Another police officer – who was not assigned to work the race and wasn't equipped to prevent the wrong turn, according to race organizers – arrived five minutes later at 8:15 a.m. to facilitate the flow of first responder vehicles through the intersection to reach the officer down.

Atlanta Track Club says the driver of the lead vehicle knew the planned route, but upon arrival at the intersection at 8:20 a.m. ET, the traffic cones had not been set to mark the race course, so they followed a police motorcycle off course, believing that the race had been rerouted.

Twenty five seconds after the four runners had made the wrong turn, the original officer assigned to work the intersection returned. Motorcycle police eventually caught up to the misdirected athletes and turned them around.

Meanwhile, additional race-assigned police officers arrived at the intersection at 8:22 a.m. and directed all subsequent runners along the correct route.

"We regret that Jess McClain, Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat were impacted by this incident and were unable to be recognized as the top three finishers reflective of their performance on the course," Atlanta Track Club said in its Tuesday statement.

"Atlanta Track Club has offered to match the prize money as follows: McClain to receive the equivalent of first-place prize money. Hurley and Kurgat will split the combined total of second- and- third-place prize money because they were shoulder-to-shoulder when they left the race course."

But there was more than just prize money at stake on Sunday.

The race was a qualification event for the world championships later this year, with the top three finishers slated to represent the US in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September.

USATF says it will review the situation further before selecting the runners who will compete in Denmark.

"That team is not officially selected until May," the governing body said.

"USATF will review the events from Atlanta carefully. While we understand athletes are eager to resolve this issue expeditiously, our process will ensure an ultimate decision is in the best interest of all the athletes involved."

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What went wrong in the women’s competition at the chaotic USATF half marathon championship?

North Carolina runner Molly Born won the USA Track & Field (USATF)women's half marathon championshipby a slim mar...

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Carney says he backs strikes on Iran 'with some regret' as world order frays

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he supported the strikes on Iran "with some regret" as they represented an extreme example of a rupturing world order.

Carney spoke at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank, during the Australian leg of a trade-focused, three-nation visit that began inIndia. He will address the Australian Parliament on Thursday, then fly to Japan on Friday.

"Geostrategically, hegemons are increasingly acting without constraint or respect for international norms or laws, while others bear the consequences. Now the extremes of this disruption are being played out in real time in the Middle East," Carney said.

The Canadian prime minister stressed his country was not apprised beforehand of theU.S.-Israeli airstrikes, in his first remarks since the war broke out on Feb. 28.

"We were not informed in advance, we were not asked to participate," Carney told reporters traveling with him in Australia. "Prima-facie, it appears that these actions are inconsistent with international law."

Whether the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes broke international law was "a judgment for others to make," he said.

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Canada supported efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and from threatening international peace and security, Carney said. The two countries haven't had relations for 15 years because of reported human rights abuses in Iran. Canada last year designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist entity.

"We are actively taking on the world as it is, not passively waiting for a world we wish to be. But we also take this position with some regret because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order," he said.

Despite decades of U.N. efforts, "Iran's nuclear threat remains and now the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the U.N. or consulting with allies including Canada," he added.

Carney built on themes he laid out in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ina speechthat garnered widespread attention. He argued the world order was undergoing a rupture and the old norms of the rules-based order were being erased.

Canada and Australia aim to increase cooperation in critical minerals,artificial intelligenceanddefense technologies.

Canada and Australia are both rich in critical minerals and worked together to build "the largest mineral reserve held by trusted democratic nations," Carney said.

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Carney says he backs strikes on Iran 'with some regret' as world order frays

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he supported the strikes on Iran "wit...

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Cuba files terrorism charges against suspects over fatal US boat shooting

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba said Wednesday it has filed terrorism charges against six suspects it claims were aboard a Florida-flagged speedboat that is alleged to haveopened fire on soldiersin waters off the island's north coast.

Cuba Boat Shooting

The Prosecutor's Office said in a statement that the suspects of Cuban origin remain in pretrial detention, adding that it will ensure "due process" as it continues to act "in defense of our people and the country's institutions."

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The government has said 10 heavily armed Cubans from the U.S. who were on board the boat opened fire as theytried to infiltrate the islandto commit acts of terrorism. It said that Cuban soldiers returned fire, killing four suspects.

The governmentunveiled itemssaid to have been found on the boat, including a dozen high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.

Chief prosecutor Edward Robert Campbell has told The Associated Press that terrorism charges carry a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison or even the death penalty, although Cuba has maintained a moratorium on the latter since 2003.

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March 04, 2026

Cuba files terrorism charges against suspects over fatal US boat shooting

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba said Wednesday it has filed terrorism charges against six suspects it claims were aboard a Florida-fla...

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