Parents whose children fatally overdosed on opioids are demanding Harvard University remove the name of a family whose company makes the powerful painkiller OxyContin from a building that housed one of its art museums.
About two dozen parents protested Friday outside the building the housed the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
Wendy Werbiskis, whose son Daniel died from an overdose in 2017, likened Harvard's decision to accept donations from the Sackler family to "blood money."
Barbara Cowley, of Boston, carries a photo of her son Justin Cowley-Kerner, who was 30 when he died of an opiate overdose in 2015, outside the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University, Friday, April 12, 2019, in Cambridge, Mass. Cowley took part in a demonstration by parents who have lost a child to opioid overdose, campaigning for the removal of the Sackler family name from the building at Harvard. (AP PhotoJosh Reynolds)
A Harvard Art Museums spokesman said Arthur M. Sackler donated funds in 1982 that contributed to the construction of the original building that housed the museum.
The spokesman said since Sackler died before OxyContin was developed — and due to other legal and contractual obligations — Harvard doesn't plan to remove Sackler's name from the museum.
Kathleen Scarpone, of Kingston, N.H., protests in front of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University, Friday, April 12, 2019, in Cambridge, Mass. Scarpone, who's son Sgt. Joseph Scarpone, a native of Methuen, Mass., died in 2015, took part in a demonstration by parents who have lost a child to opioid abuse, campaigning for the removal of the Sackler family name from the building at Harvard. (AP PhotoJosh Reynolds)
Kathleen Scarpone, left, of Kingston, N.H., and Cheryl Juaire, second from left, of Marlborough, Mass., protest in front of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University, Friday, April 12, 2019, in Cambridge, Mass. Juaire, who's son Corey Merrill died of in 2011, led a demonstration by parents who have lost a child to opioid abuse, campaigning for the removal of the Sackler family name from the building at Harvard. (AP PhotoJosh Reynolds)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela's leader.
Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country's oil products.
Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.
“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”
Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.
Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro's capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”
A person watches the oil tanker Ocean Mariner, Monrovia, arrive to the bay in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
President Donald Trump attends a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
