March 17, 2026 ❧ Current Affairs is going to Cuba!, Anti-ICE protesters convicted of supporting terrorism, and South Asia is rationing oil

Plus: We talk to Nathan and Alex before they depart, Embarrassing DOGE staffer testimonies, Florida's new anti-communist curriculum, Peter Thiel lectures on the Antichrist in Rome, memory chip workers threaten to strike in South Korea, and shrimp that can shoot bubble bullets. 

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Now, the news.

❧ Current Affairs is going to Cuba ❧

Current Affairs is going to Cuba! 

Editor-in-Chief Nathan J. Robinson and Associate Editor Alex Skopic leave New Orleans this week to join the Nuéstra America Flotilla, which will attempt to deliver humanitarian aid to the country. Readers of this Briefing will know that the United States is blocking oil shipments to Cuba in an attempt to cripple the island and violently bring it under American control. After months of isolation, the situation in Cuba is dire. There is currently an island-wide black out impacting 11 million people. 

“People can’t refrigerate their food, garbage is piling up in the streets since there’s no fuel for trucks to collect it, and preventable disease is spreading. Worst of all, doctors in Havana report that over 3,000 people who rely on dialysis machines are at risk of dying from loss of power. Words like ‘sanctions’ and ‘restrictions’ really don’t capture reality. This is an undeclared economic war, and a lethal one,” Alex and Nathan write in their pre-departure bulletin, “Why We’re Going to Cuba.”

I caught up with Alex and Nathan yesterday to ask them what is on their mind as they head out, and of course, what book they are bringing to read on the plane. 

To quote them both: “The whole world’s eyes should be on Cuba right now, because the U.S. oil cutoff is a crime against humanity… Spread the word, and stay tuned.”

Art by Skutch from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 2

Emily Carmichael: How are you feeling? What are you excited about? What are you nervous about?

Nathan J. Robinson: I'm excited to meet all the wonderful leftist activists from Code Pink and Progressive International, including many friends of Current Affairs like Tommy "Quentin Quarantino" Marcus, Medea Benjamin, Kate Willett, and Katie Halper. We've got an amazing delegation of committed humanitarian internationalists going. I'm also excited to get to know Cubans themselves. I have long admired their resilience under immense outside pressure. 

Alex Skopic: Really, I'm excited and worried about the same thing—getting involved in a direct challenge to the Trump administration's horrible attempt to starve Cuba into submission. Like a lot of people, I've spent months reading the news as this government goes around the world committing one atrocity after another, from Venezuela to Iran, and not being able to do much about it has been hugely frustrating. So it's great to be part of an international coalition of people who are actually standing up and intervening directly in Cuba. 

For a long time the socialist left has had this tradition of internationalism, going back to the Abraham Lincoln Brigades who volunteered to fight fascism in Spain and journalists like John Reed who got involved in the Russian Revolution, and it's nice to see today's leftists carrying that forward. At the same time, we've already been condemned in a congressional hearing by one GOP lawmaker, and there's a real possibility Trump and his many agencies will try to interfere with this mission. People like Hasan Piker, who's also coming to Cuba, have already been stopped and interrogated about their politics at U.S. airports. So I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a concern. 

Read the rest of our conversation at the end of this newsletter.

❧ In Other News ❧

❧ THE MLA RELEASED SIX HOURS OF DOGE EMPLOYEE TESTIMONY. The Modern Language Association obtained the video depositions as part of a lawsuit, then made the incredible decision to post the videos to their YouTube channel. The footage shows two young men, both with banker haircuts, who have no qualms about their behavior after slashing more than a thousand “DEI-related” grants at the National Endowment for the Humanities—even though they could not define what DEI is, exactly. They could, however, tell you what DEI is in practice: feeding government grants into ChatGPT and looking for the words “Black” and “homosexual” but not “white” and heterosexual.” 404 Media watched all six hours and has a summary of the depositions here. The internet lost it, and after the footage became “fodder for viral social media posts mocking the two men,” a Manhattan judge ordered that the videos be deleted from the internet, reported the New York Times.

Video via 404 Media

❧ ANTI-ICE ACTIVISTS IN TEXAS CONVICTED ON CHARGES OF PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM. The charges were related to a Fourth of July protest at the Prairieland detention center outside of Fort Worth. Demonstrators painted cars and slashed the tires on a government van, and one of them non-fatally shot a police officer in the shoulder with an AR-15 after the officer drew his weapon on someone allegedly spray-painting. The government saw the action as a coordinated nefarious plot to shoot law enforcement. The defendants—who brought rifles and bullet proof vests, but left most of them in the car—said the weapons were only intended for self defense. Despite the fact that not all of them knew one another, nine people are now accused of being part of an “antifa terrorist cell”: the first criminal allegation of its kind. Those who did know each other had met through a Socialist Rifle Association or a leftwing bookclub. Prosecutors used the fact that the protestors communicated over Signal, dressed in black, and tried to prevent their phones from being tracked as evidence of conspiracy. Their possession of left-leaning zines and a sticker that said “Make America not Exist Again,” indicated that they were part of antifa. One of the defendants was not even at the protest, but was charged with corruptly concealing a document or record because he threw out some leftwing zines after his wife was arrested. Remember, antifa doesn’t exist in any kind of formal way, but the government’s attempt to criminalize leftwing political activity is as real as it gets. This case is harrowing proof. 

Art by Mike Freiheit from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 2

❧ GEORGIA TOWN CUTS OFF WATER TO ICE DETENTION CENTER IN PROTEST. The rural town of Social Circle does not want an ICE detention center within its limits. According to the Morgan Citizen County, Mayor David Keener and City Manager Eric Taylor said the planned warehouse, with its 10,000-person capacity, would triple the town’s population and “overwhelm” its infrastructure. What’s more, the city said the Department of Homeland Security did not communicate with them about purchasing the facility, and has failed to provide studies that qualify its economic impact and feasibility. So they turned off the detention center’s water and sewage, placing a lock on the water meter until DHS gives the city more information. Talk about civil disobedience. The warehouse was slated to open June 2026.

❧ Operation Epic Energy Crisis ❧

❧ Because Trump’s war in Iran has strangled international oil supplies, countries across Asia are being forced to ration fuel, according to Rest of The World. Vietnam is asking people to work remotely so that they use less gas. Pakistan has instituted a four-day work week. Thailand has limited the amount of air conditioning that can be used in civil offices and began allowing more informal dress so that employees can better withstand the heat. Restaurants in India are shutting down temporarily, unable to afford rising prices of liquified natural gas, a product similar to propane, delivering a brutal hit to the country’s gig workers. 

❧ Though Trump keeps saying the end of the war is near, Iran is demanding security guarantees and reparations, a word which would not make it through DOGE’s DEI screenings.

❧ In a tweet, Iranian news agency Tasmin published a list of 30 potential targets, all offices and infrastructure in the Middle East associated with U.S. big tech companies like Amazon, Palantir and Microsoft. “According to the list, most locations were selected due to their involvement in developing artificial intelligence (AI) systems or because they coordinate cloud computing services across the Middle East,” euronews reported.

CURRENT-EST AFFAIRS

What’s new in the magazine this week?

“Sinners” Offers a False Vision of Empowerment

Sinners didn’t win Best Picture this Sunday at the Oscars, but at this point, the gold statue would only have been a formality. The movie racked up the most Oscar nominations in history, 16, and has become a cultural juggernaut, beloved by millions. Resonating with a culture, however, is different than reckoning with it, Touré F. Reed points out. “As a professor of African American history, whenever I come across a black-oriented historical movie, the first thing I think about is whether the film makes my job harder or easier,” he writes. “Sinners,” Reed says, makes it harder. Read why here.

❧ In More News ❧

❧ WORKERS UNION AT LARGEST PRODUCER OF MEMORY CHIPS THREATENS TO STRIKE IN SOUTH KOREA. Frustrated employees have joined the Samsung Electronics Labour Union in droves, fed up with their low pay relative to competitors, even as the chip industry booms. The union now counts about 90,000 workers in its ranks, and together they’re asking for a seven percent raise in base pay and the addition of a bonus pool. A strike at Samsung Electronics could have significant implications for the supply of memory chips, which power semiconductors and artificial intelligence (in addition to being a political buzzword). This week, union members will vote whether or not to strike in May.

Art by Seb Westcott from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 2

❧ ISRAEL PUTS BOOTS ON THE GROUND IN LEBANON. Israel, the United States' partner in war crime, has put boots on the ground in Lebanon, reiterating that it sees Hezbollah like it does Hamas, and will do to Lebanon what it did to Gaza: enact total destruction. To put an even finer point on it, Israel is now running the same “tunnels under the hospital” gambit that they did in Palestine. Last week, the military attacked a medical center and killed 12 medical personnel, then claimed Hezbollah was using ambulances for military purposes, and that they would target them, too.

❧ FLORIDA ADDS ANTI-COMMUNIST CLASS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICULUM. The annual class on the history of communism, to be taught to middle and high school students, has been rubber stamped by the Heritage Foundation, truthout reports. Communism will be cast as anti-American and anti-freedom. Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee will look like the stuff of heroes, and so will the accumulation of personal wealth. It’ll pair nicely with Florida’s yearly Victims of Communism Day, which marks the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution (not something that happened in the U.S., famously!) by describing the “horrors of communism” and why America is better.

Art by Aidan Y-M from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 2

❧ PETER THIEL GIVING ANTI-CHRIST LECTURE SERIES IN ROME. ITALIANS HATE IT. Peter Thiel has been banging on about the Antichrist for a while now, giving secret lectures in San Francisco and Paris that make Silicon Valley look anointed. “In Thiel’s framing,” Fortune writes, “the Antichrist is not an outwardly malevolent figure, but rather a comforting administrator, one that promises tighter control of innovation to stamp out the risk of runaway technology—particularly artificial intelligence—replacing humanity.” While San Francisco may have already lost its soul to capitalism, Thiel’s message is touching a nerve in Rome, where none other than the Pope has called for AI regulation. Italian lawmakers have called Thiel’s ideas “scandalous,” and religious figures have been publishing rebuttals. Paolo Benanti, a priest, wrote that the lecture series represents the “radicalization” of western values.

❧ The rest of our Cuba conversation with Nathan and Alex❧

NR: I'm nervous because I don't do much international travel and obviously the Trump administration's bellicosity toward Cuba makes it possible there will be unforeseen complications. This is quite an adventure for me but it's very important that Americans call attention to the current crisis and do what they can to relieve Cuba's suffering. 

Importantly, many Americans may be under the mistaken impression that you can't go to Cuba right now. This is not so. It's perfectly legal to go there, and we're taking a flight from Miami International Airport. We're also bringing tons of medical supplies and food, which is also perfectly legal. We want to show that people around the world can and must aid Cuba in its time of need.

My hope is that we can come away with a better understanding of the impact that America's oil cutoff is having on the population and that we can learn from Cubans what it is they want and need from the outside world right now during this difficult time.

Art by Mike Feiheit from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 2

AS: Mainly I'm hoping to capture what it's actually like to live in a country under U.S. sanctions, if only for a few days—the word "sanctions" is very abstract, and I don't think most Americans have any real idea what we're doing to people on a daily basis. If we can help expose what this collective punishment actually means on a human level, I'll consider that a win. 

The people I'm most excited to meet are the Cuban doctors who've participated in the country's international medical missions—Bryce Greene wrote a great article about this for the magazine last year, but they're genuine heroes, who've saved lives on practically every continent when medical emergencies like Ebola or COVID-19 break out. I'm also hoping to interview the Irish rap group Kneecap, who I've been a fan of for a while now, while we're both in Havana. 

EC: What book is in your bag?

AS: On the plane, I'm reading an advance copy of Chris Smalls' book When the Revolution Comes, about his experience co-founding the Amazon Labor Union. Chris is also on the Nuéstra America mission, and we'll hopefully be speaking with him if the schedules work out, so people can keep an eye out for that.

NR: I'm bringing Lars Schoultz's That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution, a 700-page history of how American presidents have dealt with Cuba since 1959. The title is taken from a quote by Theodore Roosevelt, who said: “Just at the moment I am so angry with that infernal little Cuban republic that I would like to wipe its people off the face of the earth. All we have wanted from them was that they would behave themselves and be prosperous and happy … they have started an utterly unjustifiable and pointless revolution and may get things into such a snarl that we have no alternative save to intervene."

 It captures the attitude that many presidents would have later about Cuba. Schoultz quotes Lyndon Johnson saying that his policy was to "pinch Cuba's nuts," which is precisely what successive governments did. We have seen arbitrary and absurd policies like refusing to let any ship dock in a U.S. port if it has been to Cuba in the last six months, or pressuring countries to stop accepting Cuban doctors on medical missions. I'm reading Schoultz to refresh myself on the background to the present policies. Schoultz does point out, interestingly, that while US presidents have been almost uniformly hostile to Cuba, they have rarely (save Kennedy) followed through on threats to invade it, in part because they get distracted by larger problems elsewhere in the world. We can only hope that proves to be the case for Trump, too.

ANIMAL FACT OF THE WEEK

The pistol shrimp can shoot bubble bullets!

This is a shrimp with a gun. Pistol shrimp have two claws, one you can trust, and another much larger one that doubles as a weapon. When they want to attack, pistol shrimp open their big claw, allowing it to fill with water, then snap it shut, shooting out bubble bullets. The bubbles can reach 60 miles per hour, enough to stun or kill a fish, and the snaps can be louder than a gunshot. A University of Notre Dame blog called pistol shrimp “highly aggressive.” But you need not worry, dear reader, as Current Affairs is a friend to shrimp everywhere. Your subscription gives you automatic street cred in the deep sea.

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Writing and research by Emily Carmichael. Editing and additional material by Alex Skopic, Emily Topping and Nathan J. Robinson. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.

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