‘I spent five years with criminals’: dissident Cuban artist embraces new life in US after prison release 17 October 2026 at 07:00

‘I spent five years with criminals’: dissident Cuban artist embraces new life in US after prison release

17 October 2026 at 07:00

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara tells of the reality of prison, drinking whisky with his captors, and being painted by George W Bush

When Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was pushed into the back of a police car on 11 July 2021, during the biggest protests Cuba had seen in nearly three decades, he expected to be in custody for “one, maybe two days”. Instead five years would pass before he was free, and only then after he’d agreed to exile.

“I remember that Sunday,” he says as he opens a beer in El Espacio 23, an art gallery in the Allapattah neighbourhood of Miami. “I was at my girlfriend’s. Friends started writing to tell me there were demonstrations in the streets. It felt like the day we all longed for had arrived – the end of the dictatorship – and I went out into the street.”

‘Like a drill going into my eye’: why the mystery over Havana syndrome refuses to die 10 October 2026 at 01:00

‘Like a drill going into my eye’: why the mystery over Havana syndrome refuses to die

The Guardian

By: Shaun Walker

10 October 2026 at 01:00

Dozens of CIA officers have been afflicted by debilitating symptoms over the past decade. Are they the result of ‘mass hysteria’? Or are they from attacks with an energy weapon and, if so, who is responsible? And has there been a cover-up?

Shortly after 1am one night in April 2019, a CIA officer on a work trip to London was jolted awake in his hotel room by the most intense head pain he had ever experienced. His body was soaked with sweat and he felt like his eyes were spinning in their sockets. He manoeuvred his way out of bed, hoping to make it to the bathroom to vomit, but found his sense of balance had deserted him. Eventually, he fell back into a fitful, shallow sleep.

The next day, arriving at the work meeting he had travelled for, the officer found he could not remember the names of colleagues in the room, people he knew well. As the meeting got under way, he could barely follow the discussion. Initially, he chalked it up to a terrible – if rather odd – case of food poisoning. But over subsequent weeks, worrying symptoms persisted: brain fog, loss of balance and increasingly harsh tinnitus.

Candlelit theatre in Havana – in pictures 9 October 2026 at 08:15

Candlelit theatre in Havana – in pictures

The Guardian

By: Norlys Perez/Reuters

9 October 2026 at 08:15

Widespread blackouts have become increasingly common in Cuba since the US imposed energy sanctions in January. Outages frequently surpass 24 hours as the ageing grid fails. The Impulso theatre group has had to adapt as power cuts pose severe challenges for the performing arts