WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday he approved the re-creation of the Cuba Restricted List. The list prohibits certain transactions with companies under the control of, or acting for or on behalf of, the repressive Cuban military, intelligence, or security services or personnel, he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reversed on Friday the last-minute decision by former President Joe Biden to remove sanctions on Cuban military companies and is extending the list of banned entities to include the Cuban company — secretly run by the military — that handles money transfers from Cuban Americans to their families on the island.

Havana Club will keep churning out its famously smooth rum even as Cuba's sugar cane harvests plummet to historic lows and tensions ratchet up between Washington and Havana, the company's top executive said this week.

The United States on Friday banned transactions with the main pipeline for remittances to Cuba, the latest effort to clamp down on the communist island since President Donald Trump's return. Upon taking office on January 20,

Can music be the gateway to closer relations between Americans and Cubans and help provide relief amidst the economic downturn and isolation? That is the hope of a group of musicians who have been forging a bond between young students.

Trump signed the Laken Riley Act and issued an executive order to repurpose Guantanamo Bay as a detention facility for migrants convicted of serious crimes.

Cash-starved Cuba this month opened the first grocery store to accept hard U.S. currency on the island in nearly two decades, the latest sign in a trend towards dollarization in the Communist-run country.

It’s impossible to miss. The huge rectangular mass of concrete and glass — the tallest building in Havana — dominates the city skyline, towering 150 meters (490 feet) above colonial homes with its 542 luxury rooms and majestic views of the city and the sea.

Karen Vasquez, 44, walked out of jail in Cuba on Sunday, part of a deal brokered by the Vatican under which the Biden administration would loosen sanctions on the communist-run island, while Havana would release more than 500 people from its jails who are considered political prisoners by Washington.

Long-grieving families who lost loved ones in the 1975 bombing of Manhattan’s Fraunces Tavern called on the new Trump administration to demand the extradition of the domestic terrorist behind the blast, who are now harbored in Cuba.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump reinstated Cuba 's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, reversing an executive order issued by former President Joe Biden just last week. Biden had announced plans to lift the designation as part of a Vatican-brokered deal to free political prisoners in Cuba.