Hooray for Cuba Without Castro?

Next Thursday, the National Assembly will name a new Cuban president, and the island nation will have a leader who isn’t named Castro for the first time in nearly 60 years. The heroes of the revolution will make way for a new generation led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, who was not yet born when Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959. This could be a landmark moment for Cuba’s relationship with the outside world and a major step toward a more promising future for the Cuban people.

Devil’s advocate. The new guy may lack the Castro charisma, but videotape of a private meeting with Communist Party members, published on YouTube last August by Cuban dissident Antonio Rodiles, suggests his views on Communism, civil rights, and freedom of speech follow in the hardline Castro tradition. In the video, the soon-to-be Cuban leader lambastes independent media, Cuban dissidents, and the staffs of the US, German, British, and Spanish embassies. He vows to shut down websites and civil society organizations he calls agents of counter-revolution.

More from GZERO Media

Protesters hold Democratic Republic of Congo flags during a march to voice concerns about issues regarding the recent conflict in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), outside the parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, February 7, 2025.
REUTERS/Esa Alexander

On Tuesday, Angola offered to mediate an end to the conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group.

Flags hung at the reconvening of the COP16 conference in Rome last month, with an inset image of Adrian Gahan, the ocean lead for Campaign for Nature.
María José Valverde and Adrian Gahan

Countries gathered in Rome in late February to finalize key decisions left unresolved after last year’s COP16 summit in Colombia. In Italy, negotiators agreed to the first global deal for finance conservation, which aims to achieve the landmark goal of protecting and restoring 30% of the world’s land and seas by 2030. Eurasia Group’s María José Valverde interviewed Adrian Gahan, the ocean lead for Campaign for Nature, a global campaign founded in 2018 to safeguard the 30x30 target, as we look ahead to the UN ocean conference and continue building on the nature agenda for 2025.

Trump in front of a downward trending graph and economic indicators.
Jess Frampton

For someone who campaigned on lowering grocery prices on day one and rode widespread economic discontent to the White House, Donald Trump sure seems bent on pursuing policies that will increase that discontent.

An Israeli soldier stands next to a gate on a road near the Israel-Lebanon border, in Israel, on March 12, 2025.

REUTERS/Avi Ohayon

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to start talks “as soon as possible” on their disputed land border nearly four months after a ceasefire ended the most recent war between the two countries.

A man walks as a Danish flag flutters next to Hans Egede Statue ahead of a March 11 general election in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025.
REUTERS/Marko Djurica

Greenland’s center-right parties trounced the ruling left-wing coalition in Tuesday’s election. In a blow to US President Donald Trump’s plans to annex the Arctic territory, a once-marginal party that favors a slow separation from Denmark is set to lead the next government.