Day: May 17, 2026

Young women stopping a group of thugs from looting a store near London.

Well done ladies
Video
 

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 17, 2026

Hot Take: The world is moving so fast that people in their thirties are talking about the “good ole days.”

— SPIES&VESPERS (@SpiesVespers) May 17, 2026

Verstappen’s Nuerburgring 24hrs hopes dashed by driveshaft failure  reut.rs/4wBcPnO  reut.rs/4wBcPnO

— @Reuters May 17, 2026

⚠️🇨🇺🇷🇺🇮🇷 𝗖𝗨𝗕𝗔 | 𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗡 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧 𝟵𝟬-𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗘

Cuba has spent six decades aligning itself with every adversarial power willing to use the island as a platform against the United States – the Soviet Union, Russia, China, Iran, Nicaragua, and Venezuela among others.

That pattern has not changed and has only accelerated since 2021 when Raul Castro ceded formal power. Since then, Cuba’s governing structure has become increasingly dominated by hardline military and internal security interests.

The shift coincided with deepening economic collapse, expanding Russian and Chinese engagement, and a broader alignment with states hostile to the U.S.-led order.

It also worsened significantly after Russia’s launch of the full-scale war in Ukraine when the Kremlin began recruiting allies for its hybrid war efforts in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.

U.S. classified intelligence, reported by Axios today, confirms Cuba has acquired more than 300 military drones from Russia and Iran since 2023, stored at strategic locations across the island.

Cuban officials have discussed contingency use against Guantánamo Bay, U.S. naval vessels, and Key West, 90 miles north of Havana.

Up to 5,000 Cuban soldiers have fought and trained in Ukraine, gaining firsthand drone warfare experience that has been fed directly back to Havana.

Iranian military advisers are currently present on the island.

Russian and Chinese SIGINT (both COMINT and ELINT) facilities are operational there.

Iranian drones inflicted serious damage to U.S. bases across the Middle East throughout Operation Epic Fury.

This despite three-plus years of firsthand Shahed-type drone deployment experience in Ukraine and documented knowledge of how to defend against them.

The lesson of Epic Fury is openly apparent: low-signature, low-cost UAV platforms employed at scale against fixed installations produce real casualties and real infrastructure damage when effective defenses are not in place.

That lesson is documented and available to anyone studying the campaigns, including Cuba military planners and its foreign partners who have been transferring the technology and doctrine to Havana.

NAS Key West, Guantánamo Bay, Puerto Rico, and U.S. naval and Coast Guard assets operating in the Florida Straits and Caribbean are fixed or predictable targets well within Shahed range of a regime that has acquired the capability, studied the tactics, has trained military personnel with real-world combat experience in their use, and has openly discussed their priority target contingencies.

If C-UAV assets are not currently deployed or surge-ready for the region, the threat picture that would justify that deployment is now on record.

#OSINT  #Cuba

— OSINT Intuit™ (@UKikaski) May 17, 2026

Pioneer Rousey gains redemption with retirement fight win over Carano  reut.rs/4wvSZup  reut.rs/4wvSZup

— @Reuters May 17, 2026