Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Devastation in Afghanistan: “Afghanistan accused Pakistan of killing at least 400 people in an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in the Afghan capital late Monday. It marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that began late last month and has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan.”
* Crisis conditions in Cuba: “Officials in Cuba reported an islandwide blackout Monday in the country of some 11 million people as its energy and economic crises deepen and its power grid continues to crumble. The Ministry of Energy and Mines on X noted a ‘complete disconnection’ of the country’s electrical system and said it was investigating, noting there were no failures in the units that were operating when the grid collapsed.”
* In related news: “‘I do believe I’ll [have] the honor of taking Cuba,’ Trump told reporters Monday afternoon. Asked whether this meant diplomacy or military action, he said: ‘Taking Cuba in some form … whether I free it, take it — I think I can do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth.’”
* If this reporting is accurate, it’s evidence of a failing policy: “Despite more than two weeks of relentless airstrikes, U.S. intelligence assessments say, Iran’s regime likely will remain in place for now, weakened but more hard-line, with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps security forces exerting greater control.”
* On the other hand: “Israel said it had dealt double blows to the upper echelons of Iran’s government and military on Tuesday, killing Ali Larijani, the head of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, and Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of a powerful plainclothes militia aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.”








