SUMMARY: The White House says Americans will now be able to sue businesses operating on land confiscated by the Castro regime. Previous administrations declined to enforce the related Helms-Burton Law. Canada and the EU, which have private-sector interests on Cuban land, decried the move. Nick Schifrin talks to National Security Advisor John Bolton about that, plus U.S. policy on Venezuela and North Korea.
SUMMARY: Thursday marked the end of the Castro era, but not its legacy. The late Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul controlled Cuba for nearly 60 years. How do Cubans feel as 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel takes control as the new head of state? William Brangham talks with Azam Ahmed of The New York Times.
SUMMARY: Since President Obama loosened U.S. travel restrictions, Cubans have been waiting and making room for an American invasion they have long yearned for: tourists. In June, President Trump announced he would undo some key aspects of the diplomatic thaw, including enforcing the ban on tourism, with some exceptions. Miles O'Brien reports on the effect on both Cubans and Americans.
SUMMARY: President Trump announced renewed restrictions on business in and travel to Cuba, partially reversing course on former President Obama's re-engagement with the island nation. John Yang speaks with Alan Gomez of USA TODAY about what's at stake for average Cubans who depend on tourism.
SUMMARY: A promising lung cancer treatment from Cuba is getting attention from U.S. patients, some of whom are already traveling there to try the drug in hopes of stopping their cancer from growing. American doctors can't prescribe CIMAvax because the Food and Drug Administration won't approve it until U.S. clinical trials can prove its effectiveness. Special correspondent Amy Guttman reports.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's news, including the terror attack in Brussels and the U.S. fight against the Islamic State, why President Obama was criticized for attending a baseball game, Ted Cruz's call to patrol Muslim neighborhoods, and a war of words about the wives of Cruz and Donald Trump.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Now, for another look at the war against ISIS and the battles on the presidential campaign trail, the analysis of Shields and Brooks. That’s syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Gentlemen, welcome to you both.
So, let’s pick up from where we were in that conversation we just heard.
Mark, they did — you did have this successful capture, killing of this top ISIS leader and another one recently on the battlefield, but in the wake of these Brussels attacks, growing chorus of criticism that the Obama administration is not doing enough to go after ISIS, that you’re still seeing horrible attacks like the ones in Belgium.
Where do you — how do you assess the administration?
MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist: Well, the administration has taken on ISIS, its caliphate, that is, in Syria and Iraq, and I think it’s fair to say that they’re in retreat.
The problem is Europe. I mean, that’s a problem. It’s a soft target. It’s free and easy access. And these are homegrown terrorists here. And what the United States can do is to encourage and urge and push for the sharing of information.
But there is a whole inequality of quality of intelligence in those countries. There is an unwillingness, understandably. There’s language difficulties, and also there is a tradition. I mean, this is a continent that has lived under both Nazism and communism, and the willingness to let authorities have access to the metadata that we have done in this country with only limited resistance is a lot stronger there.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Only so much the U.S. can do, David?
DAVID BROOKS, New York Times Columnist: Well, I think there are two issues here.
First, in Syria, I think we bear a large responsibility. I think we withdrew from Iraq too quickly and it created this tremendous vacancy there that ISIS filled. I think we were too slow to recognize what was going on in Syria in the civil war, refused to arm people, refused to take down Assad, ignored the red line and then created a vacuum which ISIS then filled there.
And so that’s partly on us. The European thing — I think that has nothing to do with what happened in Brussels. The European thing, as Mark said, it’s a matter of ideas and alienated cultures. I lived in Brussels for five years. This was back in the ’90s.
If you went to those neighborhoods which are a lot of Muslim people live there, they were isolated, they were different. It was like leaving Brussels and entering a different country, and there was just little integration, social, cultural, economic, between those areas, and the rest of the country, and the rest of the city.
And that sort of thing just gestated, gestated, gestated. And then when the radical ideology found — they found a lot of alienated people, and they only have to tap a few young men to create something like this.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Some of the criticism, Mark, is that the administration has just not put enough emphasis on this. Yes, the president talks about it and, yes, there have been a number of limited troops, special operations troops, and there may be more going over, but it doesn’t seem to be a priority, enough of a priority for this president.
MARK SHIELDS: Well, I think the President can be accused legitimately of not having recognized the threat at the outset. And I think history will not be kind to the drawing of the red line in Syria, and for the United States.
But, (A) the willingness of the United States for further action and deployment of military, even an all-volunteer military, is severely limited, Judy. And let’s be very frank. The organizing principle of this was the United States’ invasion of Iraq and the United States’ occupation of Iraq. That remains to this moment the — whether we left early, should still be there, the fact that we went in, invaded and occupied this country, and it was a tragedy and a disaster, and we have reaped that whirlwind and it remains with us.
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DAVID BROOKS: As I said and as everyone says, the reason we have terrorism is not because the Prophet Mohammed came down and not because there is a religion called Islam.
MARK SHIELDS: That’s right.
DAVID BROOKS: The reason we have terror is that young men are alienated and feel they can wage war and a just war against societies that are racist and xenophobic and crushing toward them.
And if you want to spread the message, a good way would be to have extra police operations directed at Muslim neighborhoods.
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On Trump/Cruz war-of-words about women:
DAVID BROOKS: Yes, that’s the first thing I was going to say. Are we really here? Is this really happening? Is this America? Are we a great country talking about trying to straddle the world and create opportunity in this country?
It’s just mind-boggling. And we have sort of become acculturated, because this campaign has been so ugly. We have become acculturated to sleaze and unhappiness that you just want to shower from every 15 minutes.
The Trump comparison of the looks of the wives, he does have, over the course of his life, a consistent misogynistic view of women as arm candy, as pieces of meat. It’s a consistent attitude toward women which is the stuff of a diseased adolescent.
And so we have seen a bit of that show up again. But if you go back over his past, calling into radio shows bragging about his affairs, talking about his sex life in public, he is childish in his immaturity. And his — even his misogyny is a childish misogyny.
And that’s why I do not think Republicans, standard Republicans, can say, yes, I’m going to vote for this guy because he’s our nominee. He’s of a different order than your normal candidate. And this whole week is just another reminder of that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Could this finally be something, Mark, that really does hurt Donald Trump?
MARK SHIELDS: Well, we have predicted nine of his last eight stumbles, and they have yet to all materialize.
Judy, whoever did that political action committee ad has to be thrilled, because it elicited from Donald Trump the worst of his personality, the bullying, the misogyny, as David has said, brought it out.
But I think it’s more than childish and juvenile and adolescent. There is something creepy about this, his attitude toward women. Take Megyn Kelly of FOX News, who he just has an absolute obsession about, and he’s constantly writing about, you know, how awful she is and no talent and this and that. It’s an obsession.
And I don’t know if he’s just never had women — strong, independent women in his life who have spoken to him. It doesn’t seem that way. His daughter…
JUDY WOODRUFF: She has asked him tough questions in that debate.
MARK SHIELDS: She just asked him tough questions and was totally fair, by everybody else's standards.
But there is something really creepy about this that’s beyond locker room. It’s almost like a stalker, and I just — I thought this was — it actually did the impossible. It made Ted Cruz look like an honorable, tough guy on the right side of an issue.
And, you know, I just — I just marvel at it. And I don’t know at what point it becomes, you know — politically, he’s still leading. And I would have to say he’s the overwhelming favorite for the Republican nomination.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And what was striking is that this ad, David, which presumably had very limited circulation, might have gone almost unnoticed if it hadn’t have been for what he — how he reacted to it.
DAVID BROOKS: The odd thing about his whole career and his whole language, his whole world view is there is no room for love in it.
You get a sense of a man who received no love, can give no love, so his relationship with women, it has no love in it. It’s trophy. And his relationship toward the world is one of competition and beating, and as if he’s going to win by competition what other people get by love.
And so you really are seeing someone who just has an odd psychology unleavened by kindness and charity, but where it’s all winners and losers, beating and being beat. And that’s part of the authoritarian personality, but it comes out in his attitude towards women.
SUMMARY: Christopher Sabatini, a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, joins Alison Stewart to discuss President Obama's historic visit to Cuba and the new era of U.S.-Cuba relations.
ALISON STEWART (NewsHour): Wheels down in Havana for Air Force One, as Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge almost 90 years ago. It was raining as the first family got off the plane, to be greeted by Cuba’s foreign minister.
While still on the plane, President Obama tweeted: “Que bola, Cuba?”, or “What’s up, Cuba” in Spanish.
The President will spend a busy two days on the communist-ruled island nation, which has been preparing for his visit.
Only eight months after the flag was raised at the reopened U.S. Embassy in Cuba, for the first time in more than half-a-century, the streets of Havana are decorated with American flags and images of President Obama.
The President and the first family are beginning their Cuban visit with a walking tour of historic Old Havana tonight. Mr. Obama will meet tomorrow with Cuban President Raul Castro and attend a state dinner. The President has no plans to meet with former President and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, older brother of the current president.
But he does intend to spend time on Tuesday with critics of Castro’s government, many of whom have faced arrests for their outspoken opposition.
The White House would not disclose which dissidents Mr. Obama will see, but insists the list is not negotiable.
JOSH EARNEST, White House Press Secretary: But I can tell you that the President is going to move forward and host meetings and have a conversation about human rights with the people that he chooses to meet with.
ALISON STEWART: This afternoon in Havana, police arrested dozens of anti-government dissidents from the so-called Ladies in White group. The President will also deliver a speech at the National Theatre of Cuba, where he plans to lay out his vision for how the two countries can work together.
He will also catch a baseball game between Cuba’s national team and the Major League Tampa Bay Rays. And in a video released online by the White House yesterday, the President joked with Cuba’s most famous comedian, Luis Silva, who often satirizes the failings of the Cuban government and economic system.
Earlier, I spoke with Christopher Sabatini, a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, about this new era in U.S.-Cuba relations.
SUMMARY: President Obama will be the first sitting U.S. President to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge, according to a Twitter announcement Thursday (2/18). Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports on the latest in a series of moves to normalize relations with the communist state, and Judy Woodruff talks with William LeoGrande of American University for more on the implications.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): On March 21, President Obama will make Cuba the first stop on a trip to Latin America. It will be an historic moment that comes 14 months after Cuba and the United States announced renewed diplomatic ties.
Our chief foreign affairs correspondent, Margaret Warner, begins our coverage.
MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour): It will be the first visit to Cuba by a sitting American president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. President Obama announced the plans on his official Twitter feed today.
And Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes outlined the goals.
BEN RHODES, Deputy National Security Adviser: We see it as a means of pushing forward this normalization process, trying to achieve a greater opening between the United States and Cuba commercially, but also supporting and advancing the values that we care about.
MARGARET WARNER: The visit, including talks with Cuban leader Raul Castro, follows more than a year of work to thaw relations. Embassies reopened in both countries, and the two nations this week agreed to start daily commercial flights.
But these moves toward normalization haven’t produced results as quickly as hoped. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, meeting Cuba’s trade minister in Washington this week, complained that, despite Washington easing restrictions on U.S. companies wanting to do business there, Havana hasn’t done the same.
Rhodes echoed that today.
BEN RHODES: What we would like to see is that they are taking the types of steps that allow those regulatory changes to take hold, that allow U.S. businesses to start to be able to operate in Cuba in ways that benefit the Cuban people.
SUMMARY: New York Times columnist David Brooks and David Corn of Mother Jones join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, why Jeb Bush is calling out the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton for the rise of the Islamic State, including how 2016 candidates are responding to renewed relations with Cuba, whether Hillary Clinton is losing ground in the 2016 race, plus the appeal of Donald Trump.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Well, something else Jeb Bush brought up this week was — as an issue in the race was going after Hillary Clinton, blaming her and the Obama administration for — essentially for helping create ISIS.
And he said that with the Obama administration did under her leadership as secretary of state was to leave an opening, pulling the troops out, he said, too early in 2011. Is this something, David Corn, that he can get some mileage?
DAVID CORN, Mother Jones: I mean, I have to laugh a little bit, because I think he was setting a record for chutzpah.
I mean, it wasn’t until after his brother’s invasion of Iraq that you had something called al-Qaida in Iraq. And that was the group that morphed into ISIS. So ISIS is a direct result of the war in Iraq right there. And so he’s wrong on the history.
But then he said what happened was that Obama and Hillary Clinton orchestrated this quick withdrawal after everything was secure. Nothing was really secure in 2009-2010. You can ask Tom Ricks about that. But it was George W. Bush in December 2008 who created the agreement with Prime Minister Maliki that said that U.S. troops had to be out by 2011.
And then Obama didn’t renegotiate that. And there is a lot of question as to whether he could even have, given the political situation in Baghdad itself. So Bush is totally — Jeb Bush is totally rewriting this. And my question is, why is he even talking about Iraq?
DAVID BROOKS, New York Times: Yes. He wants to have an anti-terror foreign policy.
I give him a little more credit, of course. I think the war did help create al-Qaida in Iraq. So, both parties have something to answer for. Ultimately, ISIS created ISIS. It wasn’t us, but allowing the environment — so the Bush administration, the failed war, that had a — some contributory factor.
I do think that we abandoned Iraq too quickly, left too quickly, left a void in the Sunni areas, which ISIS was completely happy to fill. But more important — and this is a bigger indictment of the Obama administration — we did nothing about the Syrian civil war. And that created the biggest void.
And that’s not necessarily Hillary Clinton’s fault because she was arguing for a more aggressive policy. Nonetheless, we did nothing. Even today, our attacks on ISIS are paltry, and we have continue to do nothing. And there are strategic issues. There are just moral issues.
Today, my newspaper had a front-page story on just rape academies, this institutionalized rape. And the fact that we can stand by and do nothing while this is happening, to me, that’s an indictment of the sitting administration.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Extraordinary story. We interview the reporter, Rukmini Callimachi, last night. It is just such a disturbing story.
But does he have a point, though, David?
DAVID CORN: I think you can have a policy dispute or debate, a discussion about what should be done, what has been done in the last three, four years regarding ISIS and Iraq.
You can’t blame Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for giving us ISIS, which is what Jeb Bush did. And if he wants to get to brass tacks and talk about what he’s willing to do in terms of putting in troops and taking on targeting that hasn’t been done already — I mean, Barack Obama has mounted thousands of airstrikes.
And the real question is, at the end of the day, can the U.S. go in and make a difference? We have learned with the invasion of Iraq that military might doesn’t always give us what we want in this region.
SUMMARY: When Omar Perez was 25, he found out his father was the revolutionary Che Guevara. For Perez -- a poet, artist and musician -- the revelation didn’t much change his outlook on life, or on Cuba. Jeffrey Brown talks to Perez in Havana about the Cuban Evolution, art and how closer ties with America may change his country.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): Omar Perez is an artist, a musician, and a poet.
OMAR PEREZ, Poet: It’s very much in the culture. There’s no difference between a song and a poem. The brain gets active when you listen to a melody. So that’s exactly what happens with poetry, too.
JEFFREY BROWN: And Perez has another claim to unusual fame. He is the son of revolutionary Che Guevara. His mother was a student at the University of Havana in the 1960s. Both she and Guevara were married at the time of their affair, and Perez grew up unaware of who his father was.
OMAR PEREZ: When I was 25 years old, I was already a human being, and then somebody told me, did you know your father is Che Guevara? I said, no, I don’t. What am I going to do now? I’m 25 years old, I’m a writer, I’m a poet, I’m a translator. Should I change now?
What should I become? Should I become something different? I didn’t want to become anything different. I was — that’s what I wanted to be, a poet.
JEFFREY BROWN: Generations of Cubans have lionized Che Guevara, the Marxist revolutionary from Argentina who, alongside Fidel Castro in the 1950s, overthrew Cuba’s government. His image is still seen all over Havana.
Omar Perez lives in one of the once elegant, now crumbling buildings alongside the city’s famous seawall, the Malecon. For his part, he doesn’t seem to hold on to a romantic view of Che Guevara or the Cuban Revolution.
SUMMARY: As the relationship between Cuba and America improves, what will a potential end to the embargo mean for the two countries? Reporting from Havana, Jeffrey Brown looks at how closer ties to America could change Cuba, and the Cuban way of life. This is part one of the series, "Cuban Evolution."
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): More than five decades after the U.S. and Cuba severed ties, Cuba is poised for some big changes in its relations with the United States, and the way business is done there.
In just a matter of weeks, the Obama administration is expected to announce that both countries will open embassies in each other’s capital. Last month, the U.S. removed Cuba from its terrorism list. At the same time, the Cuban government is allowing more private enterprise.
It’s a moment when Cuba is preparing for a very different relationship with its American neighbors.
Jeffrey Brown has the story, the first in a special weeklong series about the Cuban evolution, focusing on significant shifts in its politics, business, arts and culture.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): A second-floor bed and breakfast on a Caribbean island, home to Tatiana Zuniga her extended family.
From here, you can sit at breakfast?
TATIANA ZUNIGA, Airbnb Host (through translator): Yes. Enjoy your breakfast.
JEFFREY BROWN: But this is the island of Cuba. And Tatiana’s rooms are now available through Airbnb, the San Francisco-based online service, a bit of fledgling capitalism in the home of the hemisphere’s socialist revolution.
SUMMARY: Havana is known as a city frozen in time -- and much of that is attributed to its architecture. However, many old buildings lack plumbing, electricity and infrastructure. Now, with Cuban-American relations improving, will these buildings be renovated, or will an inflow of global businesses ruin the country’s unique atmosphere?
SUMMARY: Cuba has one of the lowest rates of Internet connectivity in the Western Hemisphere. In this installment of our continuing series “Cuban Evolution,” Jeffrey Brown looks at Cuban access to the Internet, the effect it has on people’s lives and whether access will change with improved Cuban-American relations.
SUMMARY: In the latest installment of our series “Cuban Evolution,” Jeffrey Brown explores the world of art in the country. He takes a look at the booming and vibrant art market that exists, as well as the limits on free expression that remain.
SUMMARY: Many people in America are proponents of the organic food movement, and worried about the potentially harmful effects of pesticides on their health or the environment. In Cuba, farmers have gone organic for a very different reason – they had to. In this final installment of our series “The Cuban ” Jeffrey Brown looks at food and farming.
SUMMARY: U.S. and Cuban diplomats resumed talks to iron out details of normalizing relations after decades of hostility. Judy Woodruff learns more from senior correspondent Jeffrey Brown, reporting from Cuba, and chief foreign correspondent Margaret Warner, who has been following the talks in Washington.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Officials from the U.S. and Cuba resumed talks today in Washington. They’re trying to iron out the details of reestablishing diplomatic relations, which were broken off more than 50 years ago.
At issue today, what it will take to reopen embassies in each other’s capitals? In December, Presidents Obama and Castro announced that they reestablish ties. And meeting in Panama, they reaffirmed that commitment.
Our own Jeffrey Brown is in Cuba all this week, reporting on what the opening up of that country means for them. And chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner has been following the progress of the talks here.
And we welcome both of you.
So, Margaret, you have been following these talks. What’s the latest?
MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour): The latest is, Judy, that they have wrapped up for the day and there is still no deal. Now, this is the fourth time they have met over the fairly confined issue of opening up embassies in each other’s capitals. And it’s proved tougher than they thought.
That said, apparently, things went encouragingly enough today that the two negotiators, Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary, and her counterpart from Cuba, are having back-to-back news conferences tomorrow morning here in Washington. But then Ms. Vidal is returning to Havana.
There is some concern among U.S. officials that Cuba may be dragging its feet here a bit. Cuba has gotten what it wanted here, which was to have the President take it off the state sponsors of terrorism list and also help in finding a U.S. bank that was willing to handle Cuban money for the interests section.
Starting Friday, the Obama administration will significantly loosen restrictions on American trade and investment with Cuba allowing U.S. companies to export mobile phones, televisions and computers while easing travel restrictions opening the communist island to more American travelers.
The new rules will put a large dent in the U.S. embargo against Cuba and will even allow U.S. citizens to start bringing home small amounts of Cuban cigars after more than a half-century ban.
As of Friday, U.S. companies will also be able to export mobile memory devices, recording devices, and software to a country with notoriously poor Internet and telecommunications infrastructure. The goal is to "contribute to the ability of the Cuban people to communicate with people within Cuba, in the United States, and the rest of the world," according to a Treasury Department fact sheet. Internet-based communications will fall under a general license.
Americans permitted to travel to Cuba for family visits, official U.S. government business, journalism, research, education, religious activity and other reasons fall under a U.S. general license and don't need to apply for a separate license. A limit on remittance payments to family members in Cuba will be raised to $8,000 per year, from $2,000 per year. Americans visiting Cuba will be allowed to bring home $100 in alcohol and tobacco products, and $400 in total goods.
Other changes include:
—No more limits on how much money Americans spend in Cuba each day or what they spend it on.
—Remittances allowed to be sent to Cuban nationals has increased from $500 to $2,000 per quarter
—Permissible use of U.S. credit and debit cards.
—Travel agents and airlines can fly to Cuba without a special license.
—Insurance companies can provide coverage for health, life and travel insurance policies for individuals residing in or visiting Cuba.
—Financial institutions may open accounts at Cuban banks to facilitate authorized transactions.
—Investments can be made in some small businesses and agricultural operations.
—Companies may ship building materials and equipment to private Cuban companies to renovate private buildings.
—Certain micro-financing project and entrepreneurial and business training is now authorized.
Thursday's announcement of new Treasury and Commerce Department regulations are the next step in President Barack Obama's ambitious goal of re-establishing diplomatic relations with the government of Cuban President Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother. They come three days after U.S. officials confirmed the release of 53 political prisoners Cuba had promised to free.
Only Congress can end the five-decade embargo. But the measures give permission for Americans to use credit cards in Cuba and U.S. companies to export telephone, computer and Internet technologies. Investments in some small business are permitted. General tourist travel is still prohibited, but Americans authorized to visit Cuba need no longer apply for special licenses.
Obama vowed to soften the embargo last month and begin restoring diplomatic ties with Havana, saying "these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked." The deal was the product of 18 months of secret talks that culminated in the exchange of imprisoned spies and release of Alan Gross, a U.S. government contractor who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years.
The sudden rapprochement between Cold War foes has divided U.S. lawmakers across party lines and interests. Among Republicans and Democrats in Congress, Cuban-Americans such as Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Bob Menendez of New Jersey have been particularly vocal in opposition.
But some pro-business types have welcomed the opportunity to open up a new export market in a country so close to American shores. The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for example, said Wednesday it was better for the U.S. to sell computers, smartphones and cars to Cuba than to cede such business to countries like Russia and China. Still, the embargo as a whole appears unlikely to fall anytime soon.
The U.S. and Cuba are scheduled to hold migration talks in Havana next week, the next step in their normalization process. Leading the American delegation is Roberta Jacobson, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America. Her visit marks the highest-level trip to Cuba by a U.S. official since 1980.
Further down the road, Washington envisions reopening the U.S. Embassy in Havana and carrying out high-level exchanges and visits between the governments. Secretary of State John Kerry could travel to the island later this year.
Based on reporting by the Associated Press.
SUMMARY: How will opening the door to normal relations with Cuba affect the world of professional baseball, a game that so many Cubans love? Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Jim Litke of the Associated Press to understand the possible implications.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Since President Obama announced the U.S. would normalize relations with Cuba, much of the discussion has naturally focused on human rights, freedom, democracy and commerce.
But opening the doors to normal relations with Cuba could also lead to some profound cultural changes, including in the world of sports, and particularly baseball, a game that so many Cubans love.
Hari Sreenivasan sat down with a baseball watcher to discuss the possibilities in our New York studios earlier this week.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): When people talk about traditional images of Cuba, one major cultural touchstone has been sports, specifically the country’s historical reservoir of baseball talent.
Baseball has long been the most popular sport on the island, and Cuban players have found their way into American baseball for more than 100 years. Some have made a legendary name for themselves, like former Red Sox great Luis Tiant, a three-time All-Star pitcher.
Last year, there were 19 Cuban players on the rosters of Major League Baseball teams in the United States. That’s a record. And some estimates show more than 200 players defecting over time to play baseball in the U.S.
Cuban players have stood out in recent seasons, like Yasiel Puig, the slugger for the Los Angeles Dodgers who illegally crossed the border from Mexico to Texas in 2012, and Aroldis Chapman, an All-Star closer for the Cincinnati Reds.
Major League Baseball has long had an eye on tapping into more Cuban talent. Now that the U.S. and Cuba are moving toward a different relationship, there are lots of questions about how it might impact the sport.
Jim Litke is the national sports correspondent for the Associated Press, joins me now.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including the choice to censor a Hollywood film about the assassination of Kim Jong-un, President Obama’s move to renew U.S. ties with Cuba and early signs that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush could be a 2016 presidential candidate.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): President Obama said today that the United States would respond proportionally and at time of its choosing to the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The FBI confirmed this morning that North Korea was behind the attack on the company.
Mr. Obama spoke on that and other issues at a year-end news conference.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, all I want for Christmas is to take your questions.
(LAUGHTER)
JUDY WOODRUFF: It was a year-end review dominated by the events of one week. As the fallout continued from the Sony hacking scandal, and the studio’s decision to cancel the release of the movie about assassinating North Korea’s leader, the President weighed in.
BARACK OBAMA: Again, I’m sympathetic that Sony as a private company was worried about liabilities and this and that and the other. I wish they had spoken to me first. I would’ve told them, do not get into a pattern in which you’re intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Without divulging specifics, he said the U.S. will respond to the attack.
Mr. Obama also discussed his move to reopen diplomatic relations with Cuba. He acknowledged the country’s regime still oppresses its people, but did find room for optimism.
BARACK OBAMA: What I know deep in my bones is that if you have done the same thing for 50 years and nothing’s changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome. And this gives us an opportunity for a different outcome.
JUDY WOODRUFF: His action on Cuba was just the latest instance of Mr. Obama’s using the power of the executive. Last month, he acted to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation. Both moves enraged Republicans, who will control both houses of Congress come January.
Despite their differences, and the gridlock that has gripped Washington for much of his tenure, the President said he still believes cooperation is still possible.
BARACK OBAMA: We’re going to disagree on some things, but there are going to be areas of agreement, and we have got to be able to make that happen. And that’s going to involve compromise every once in a while, and we saw during this lame-duck period that perhaps that spirit of compromise may be coming to the fore.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Mr. Obama took just a handful of questions, and only from women reporters, including one on race relations in America. It comes as the nation deals with anger over grand jury decisions in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, not to indict white police officers in the killing of two black men.
The President says the country’s made progress, but work remains.
BARACK OBAMA: I actually think it’s been a healthy conversation that we have had. These are not new phenomena. The fact that they’re now surfacing, in part because people are able to film what have just been in the past stories passed on around the kitchen table allows people to, you know, make their own assessments and evaluations.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The President left tonight for his family’s Christmas vacation in Hawaii.
SUMMARY: President Obama told the White House Press Corps that Sony was wrong to withdraw its film, “The Interview,” and that the U.S. would react “proportionally” to the damaging cyber-attack by North Korea. Judy Woodruff turns to Dmitri Alperovitch of CrowdStrike and Jack Pritchard, the former U.S. special envoy for negotiations with North Korea, about options for an American response.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Now back to the United States’ plans to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba.
For more on what it means in practical terms and efforts to lift the economic embargo, which is still in place, I’m joined by our foreign — chief foreign affairs correspondent, Margaret Warner, and NewsHour political director Domenico Montanaro.
So, Margaret, let me start with you.
What can the President do on his own, without needing Congress?
MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour): Well, first of all, as you said, he can normalize relations with Cuba, just as, for example, Nixon normalized relations with China, with whom we were still at odds. So that’s the first thing he can do.
Secondly, I learned just this afternoon that the — establishing a U.S. Embassy, which members of Congress have vowed to not fund, it turns out the U.S. Interests Section in the old U.S. Embassy. It has 360 people working there, including 67 Americans.
And so one senior official said to me, right now, we’re not even sure we need additional personnel. The building is a little shabby, but they can go right ahead. Two, he can take Cuba off the state-sponsor of terrorism list after a six-month review by the secretary of state, and notifying Congress, but they do not have to approve it.
And, three, he can use his licensing authority to ease all these travel and investment restrictions, so people will be able to use American credit cards there, more people will be able to travel, transfer more money there.
What an official said to me today, though, is, it is not open for business, that it is not open, that the economic embargo still holds, if you’re talking about big American hotel chains going down there. That is not the case. And so there will be a limit on that.
SUMMARY: As President Obama closes a door on Cold War hostilities between the U.S. and Cuba, American businesses wait in the wings for new opportunities to expand to the nation that has long been off-limits. Hari Sreenivasan talks to Marcelo Prince of The Wall Street Journal about which industries would be most affected if the embargo was lifted.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): President Obama calls it the most significant change in U.S. policy toward Cuba in more than half-a-century. In a stunning move today, he laid out plans for a diplomatic rapprochement with Havana.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We will end an outdated approach that, for decades, has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The President appeared in the Cabinet Room of the White House to make his momentous announcement. By executive action, he is reestablishing diplomatic ties with Cuba. He also means to open an embassy in Havana, expand economic ties with the communist island, and ease the ban on travel for family, government business and educational purposes.
BARACK OBAMA: I do not expect the changes I’m announcing today to bring about a transformation of Cuban society overnight, but I am convinced that, through a policy of engagement, we can more effectively stand up for our values and help the Cuban people help themselves as they move into the 21st century.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Mr. Obama finalized the deal after speaking at length with Cuban President Raul Castro yesterday. It was the first significant discussion between presidents of the U.S. and Cuba since 1961.
Today, in his own televised address, Castro welcomed the thaw, while cautioning there is much still to be resolved.
PRESIDENT RAUL CASTRO, Cuba (through interpreter): In recognizing that we have profound differences in the areas of national sovereignty, democracy, human rights, and foreign policy, I reaffirm our willingness to discuss all of these matters.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The renewal of relations followed a year of secret talks between U.S. and Cuban officials in Canada and at the Vatican. The first concrete step was a prisoner swap that took place this morning. The U.S. released three Cuban agents convicted in 2001 of spying on military installations.
SUMMARY: For two views on the diplomatic reconnection with Cuba, Judy Woodruff turns to Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who supports the move and traveled from Cuba with released prisoner Alan Gross, and Roger Noriega, former assistant secretary of state, who says President Obama is “betting” on goodwill from the Castro regime.
SUMMARY: How are Cuban-Americans responding to the breakthrough in relations between the U.S. and Cuba? Maria de los Angeles Torres of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Cuban-American activist Ana Carbonell join Judy Woodruff for a debate on the change in policy and its effect on the future of pro-democracy activism on the island.
GWEN IFILL: What would happen if the U.S. government used social media to undermine a hostile foreign government? That may be exactly what the U.S. Agency for International Development tried to do in Cuba with ZunZuneo, a Twitter-style social media platform secretly controlled by the U.S. government.
An Associated Press investigation reveals that thousands of private Cuban cell phone numbers were used to circumvent tight controls on Internet communication and to gain valuable information about the users themselves.
USAID says that the program existed only to — quote — “create a platform for Cubans to speak freely among themselves, period.”
Joining me now to talk about this operation is Jack Gillum, one of the reporters on the AP story.
