Global report

1 CUBA

Protests are a US-backed plot, claims Díaz-Canel

The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, attacked the “shameful delinquents” he claimed were trying to “fracture” his country’s communist revolution after the largest anti-government protests on the Caribbean island in nearly three decades.

As Cuban officials blamed the United States for last Sunday’s demonstrations, Joe Biden called on the island’s leaders to hear its citizens’ “clarion call for freedom”.

Díaz-Canel, who recently succeeded Raúl Castro as the Communist party’s top figure, painted the protests as part of a US-backed, social media-driven plot to stir up public discontent and overthrow the Cuban regime.

“The approach wasn’t peaceful,” the 61-year-old politician claimed, criticising the “completely vulgar” behaviour of some demonstrators whom he accused of throwing stones at police and destroying cars.

Díaz-Canel conceded other protesters had legitimate concerns over food shortages and blackouts, although he blamed those problems on US sanctions. “It’s legitimate to feel dissatisfaction,” the party’s powerful first secretary said in the broadcast.

2 UNITED STATES

Recovery work continues as Miami death toll passes 90

Authorities searching for victims of a building collapse in Miami Florida said they hoped to conclude their painstaking work in the coming weeks. As of Monday, 94 deaths had been confirmed in the collapse in June of the 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside. Among them were 71 bodies that have