The Daily Populous Wednesday January 15th, 2025 day edition
Authored by bbc.com and submitted by xena_lawless

US to remove Cuba from state sponsors of terrorist list

Getty Images US President Joe Biden gave his final foreign policy address earlier this week

The US will remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, Joe Biden has said in one of his final official acts as president. In return, Cuba announced it would release 553 prisoners. The deal, which was brokered by the Catholic Church, comes just days before President-elect Donald Trump is due to be sworn in. During his first presidential term, Trump reinstated Cuba to the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, and it is not clear if he will reverse Biden's move once back in power.

Trump's choice for national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on Fox News that "anything they [the Biden Administration] are doing right now we can do back, an no one should be under any illusion in terms of a change in Cuba policy". An official from the Biden administration said that in return for its removal, Cuba would "gradually" release 553 prisoners "who have been detained unjustly". Cuba's ministry of foreign affairs said that the deal "puts an end to specific coercive measures" that it said damaged the country's economy. Havana did not release any details as to whom it may free but relatives of people imprisoned following anti-government protests in 2021 said they hoped their loved ones would be among them. Liset Fonseca, whose 41-year-old son was sentenced to 10 years in jail after taking part in the 2021 protests said that "all the mothers of prisoners want our children to be free and out of that suffering, out of that hell that is the prisons in Cuba". "They should never have been in prison," she told AFP news agency.

unl1988 on January 14th, 2025 at 23:57 UTC »

The week before inauguration. Why are all of these things coming up in the past 30 days?

_sp00ky_ on January 14th, 2025 at 23:43 UTC »

Until Trump puts them back on.

-Average_Joe- on January 14th, 2025 at 23:38 UTC »

are they going to be back on in a week?