International News Briefs for Tuesday, August 25, 2026
HAVANA TIMES – We bring you some of the top international news stories compiled by Democracy Now on Tuesday, August 25, 2026.
SOUTHCOM Resumes Bombing Boats Accused of Drug Smuggling
Aug 25, 2026
Image Credit: U.S. Southern Command
The Pentagon says it has resumed strikes on boats in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean after a two-month pause. On Monday, U.S. Southern Command said two people were killed after it carried out a “lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes” in the Pacific Ocean. Once again, the Pentagon provided no evidence the boat was carrying drugs. Since President Trump launched a boat bombing campaign nearly a year ago, SOUTHCOM says it’s killed at least 223 people. Amnesty International has condemned the strikes as extrajudicial killings, a form of murder, saying they amount to crimes under international law.
China Calls on U.S. to “Act Rationally” as Bessent Threatens Secondary Sanctions on Iran’s Partners
Aug 25, 2026
The Trump administration has outlined plans to tighten sanctions on Iran, warning that businesses, banks and other nations could lose access to the U.S. financial system if they continue doing business with Tehran. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “Operation Economic Outcast,” which includes secondary sanctions on trade related to Iran’s oil, shipping, cryptocurrency, gold and aviation industries. Bessent said countries have a “timeline” to sever ties with Iran, but provided no details on which countries would be targeted, or when.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “We are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system? We believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period, but they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious.”
Iran’s key trading partners include the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Iraq, India, Pakistan and China, which is the largest foreign market for Iranian oil. On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry called on the U.S. to return to dialogue and negotiations.
Lin Jian: “Sanctions and pressure will not resolve disputes. They will only exasperate tensions and escalate the situation, which is not in the interest of any party. China calls on the relevant parties to act rationally and with restraint and avoid taking any measure that may further escalate tensions or deal a blow to the global economic growth and financial stability.”
Iran has condemned the sanctions as an “act of war.” A spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said they show the U.S. is resorting to economic warfare after it was defeated on the battlefield.
Supreme Court Sides with Trump over Limits to Mail-In Voting
Aug 25, 2026
The Supreme Court has lifted a lower court’s injunction on President Trump’s executive order seeking to limit mail-in voting ahead of November’s midterm elections. Trump’s order directs the Department of Homeland Security to create state-by-state lists of eligible voters who are citizens. The U.S. Postal Service would then use the lists provided by states to assess if voters should be allowed to vote by mail. On Monday, justices ruled 6 to 3 that California and 22 other states lacked standing to sue over the issue. The ruling, however, did not address whether Trump had authority to impose the rules.
The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned that the majority opinion “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections.” Meanwhile, a separate nationwide injunction against parts of the same order remains in place.
This all comes as Trump seeks Senate confirmation for four loyalists he’s nominated to vacancies on the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service. Three of them have expressed doubts that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
Trump Threatens Even More Tariffs on Canada, Deepening Trade War
Aug 25, 2026
President Trump on Monday threatened to increase U.S. tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks and auto parts to 50%, starting next year. Trump’s threat came just days after the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion of other Canadian goods, prompting Prime Minister Mark Carney to announce plans to impose retaliatory tariffs beginning on September 8. On Monday, Carney said Canada would return to trade talks only if the Trump administration changes tactics.
Prime Minister Mark Carney: “When the Americans go to the negotiation table first with the right attitude towards our industries and a true partnership, of course we’ll come to the negotiating table.”
Israel Bombs Gaza Water Desalination Plant, Mosque and Tents, Killing 7, Including Children
Aug 25, 2026
In Gaza, Israel launched a wave of attacks on Monday, hitting a mosque, a water desalination plant and tents housing displaced Palestinians. At least seven people were killed, including two children. In central Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a house in the Bureij refugee camp, killing a 4-year-old boy. In Khan Younis, another child died from gunshot wounds after Israeli forces fired on her. This is Abu Amra, a Palestinian man at the site of the damaged mosque.
Mohammed Abu Amra: “This mosque has been here since the day we were born. Today I am about 48 years old, and I’ve always seen this mosque just as it was. The Israeli occupation is just hitting blindly. What? What are they hitting? They’re hitting, they claim — look at what the occupation is hitting. Look. Look. They say they are bombing the book of our Lord. They are bombing our mosques where we pray.”
Despite last October’s so-called ceasefire, Israeli forces have killed nearly 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza.
Montreal City Council Passes Watered-Down Palestine Resolution That Doesn’t Halt Ties with Israel
Aug 25, 2026
In Canada, the Montreal City Council passed a resolution in solidarity with Palestinians on Monday, after councilors removed much of the motion’s original language, which included calls to suspend institutional and diplomatic ties with Israel. The original provision would have also seen the city of Montreal officially recognize and denounce Israel’s assault on Gaza as a “genocide” and its treatment of Palestinians as “apartheid.” This is Alex Norris, a Projet Montréal city councillor who co-sponsored the motion.
Alex Norris: “One reason Gaza has had such an impact is that we have watched it unfold in real time. On our phones and on our screens, we have seen civilians attacked. We have seen neighborhoods erased. We have even seen perpetrators celebrating what they have done. That is why Gaza has been so often described as the world’s first live-stream genocide. What Israel has done in Gaza and the role Western governments have played in enabling it has become one of the defining moral tests of our time. Today, this council has the opportunity to say, ‘Enough.’”
Heavily Armed Gang Kills Dozens in Overnight Raid in Haiti
Aug 25, 2026
In Haiti, a heavily armed gang killed dozens of people overnight Monday in a raid on Kenscoff, a farming community near Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. The U.N. reports at least 47 people were killed and 22 more wounded, with homes set ablaze, prompting outrage from survivors over the Haitian government’s failure to protect them from repeated deadly attacks.
Orisme: “We live in humiliation. The government has done nothing for us. The blood of the population does not stop flowing in Kenscoff. The prime minister has to say something to the people in Kenscoff now. We cannot take it anymore.”
The U.N.’s human rights agency reports hundreds of criminal groups in Haiti have killed over 16,000 people since early 2022. That’s compounded an existing humanitarian crisis, with 6.4 million Haitians requiring assistance and nearly 1.5 million internally displaced. Despite that, the U.S. last week announced twice-weekly deportation flights to Haiti, after a Supreme Court ruling allowed the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for an estimated 350,000 Haitians.
Trump Administration Announces Plans to Revoke Visas of Asylum Seekers
Aug 25, 2026
The Trump administration has announced plans to revoke the visas of asylum seekers. The State Department will revoke so-called B1 and B2 visas, issued for business and tourism travel, between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have applied for or are now seeking asylum. The Associated Press puts the number of affected people at 200,000. If the administration follows through with its plans, it would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history.
Trump Administration Seeks to Charge Employers Over $103,000 to Hire Workers with H-1B Visas
Aug 25, 2026
The Trump administration again announced plans to charge employers a fee of over $103,000 to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program. The revenue would be used to fund ICE. President Trump had tried to implement a six-figure fee last year through a presidential proclamation, but a judge ruled against it in June.
ICE Arrests Mother and Daughter Who Were Seriously Injured in Car Crash and Hospitalized
Aug 25, 2026
In Florida, ICE arrested a mother and daughter who were seriously injured in a car crash and brought to a hospital. According to family members, Grace Stephanie Calero Cabanilla and her 19-year-old daughter Giulianna Mía Carriel Calero were placed in separate rooms after arriving at the hospital, and a sheriff’s deputy began questioning the mother about her immigration status shortly after she arrived, while she was wearing a neck brace and had been given medication. According to family members, the mother had applied for political asylum, and her daughter’s visa document was valid until 2030.
Democratic Congressmember Al Green Files Articles of Impeachment Against Trump
Aug 25, 2026
Democratic Congressmember Al Green filed articles of impeachment Monday against President Trump over his violent mass deportation campaign. In his resolution, Green argues, “[President Trump] is abusing the powers of the presidency by operating United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection as his vicious, quota-driven, unaccountable paramilitary police forces, transgressing with anonymity and secrecy, assaulting people, committing and covering up unjustified killings of civilians.”
This comes as a U.S. airman, Major Jason Watson, was arrested twice for calling for the impeachment of President Trump. He was officially criminally charged Monday for his comments. He faces three violations for “contemptuous” remarks about Trump, five violations for allegedly disobeying orders, and two violations for alleged conduct unbecoming of an officer.
Palestinian Artist Sliman Mansour Dies at 79
Aug 25, 2026
Image Credit: Sliman Mansour
Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour has died at the age of 79. He was one of the leading figures in contemporary Palestinian art. He helped create a visual language of Palestinian identity, revisiting the land, exile and occupation in works that frequently featured olive trees and traditional embroidery. He was born in Birzeit, near Ramallah, in 1947 and attended Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem in 1970. In 1994, he co-founded Al-Wasiti Art Center in East Jerusalem to preserve Palestinian art and connect artists living in Palestine with other Palestinians in exile. This is Mansour in an interview with Al Jazeera in 2021.
Sliman Mansour: “I believe art in our situation, where — when you don’t have a homeland, when you don’t have, I mean, a country, a political thing, and when people deny your existence — you know, in Israel and many, many places in the West, they deny your existence — so, art is a form of saying that we are here.”