LAS MINAS, Cuba (AP) — The Barroso family rose at dawn and hitched a cart to a borrowed horse to take their daughters to school on Tuesday, the first day of classes for many students across Cuba.
As the crises deepen on the island, thieves recently stole the family’s horse and killed it for food, so the Barrosos now rely on a borrowed animal for transportation, because school buses aren't running.
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Children line up for their national anthem in the school courtyard where a stray dog sits by on the first day back to school in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Yurima Izaguirre, left, shines her cell phone flashlight during a blackout as her children brush their teeth and get ready for their first day back to school in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
The Barroso family travels by horse-drawn carriage as they head to school for their two daughters' first day back to classes in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Yurima Izaguirre uses a cell phone flashlight due to a blackout as she wakes her children up to get them ready for their first day of back to school in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Girls hug as they arrive to school for their first day back to classes in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Children drag toys made from cardboard boxes as they walk in Minas, in Cuba's Havana province, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Fuel, teachers and uniforms remain scarce as the new school year begins.
More than 10,000 schools were expected to open their doors on Tuesday, welcoming an estimated 1.4 million children and more than 135,000 teachers.
The island’s education minister acknowledged ongoing challenges, calling the reopening of schools a “heroic act” for an island whose free and universal education system was long considered a crowning achievement of the 1959 revolution.
But the island’s multiple crises forced the government to end the previous school year in June — one month early. Conditions have only worsened, with persistent power, water and fuel shortages compounded by a U.S. oil embargo and longstanding sanctions.
“This academic year has been the most disastrous one,” said Leanete Barroso, mother of two daughters.
As schools reopened, President Miguel Díaz-Canel touted the achievement, writing on X that it was something “the empire sought to prevent with its plan of strangulation.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez echoed those sentiments.
“No energy blockade, threats, intensified embargo, or secondary sanctions will prevent us from continuing to preserve and develop the achievements of the Revolution, attained under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz,” he wrote on X.
As students entered their respective schools, they saluted the Cuban flag and sang the national anthem, which includes this line: “To die for one's country is to live.”
A widespread lack of professors prompted the government to send more than 3,000 teachers from Cuba’s eastern provinces to schools in Havana as teacher coverage fell to 73% across the island. The vacancies are blamed on low salaries and emigration.
Education Minister Naima Trujillo Barreto implored Cubans to help fill the gaps, calling on university students, professionals and even retirees.
“Everyone is invited — anyone who has something to contribute,” she said at a recent news conference. “You might be at home, perhaps retired, and eager to meet a group of children who need lessons in the very subject you know better than anyone else.”
Librarian Sura Victorero Llerena answered the call. She retired this year but rejoined the school where she worked for 39 years: “I came back because I want to help. ... We are like a family. We all pull together to make sure things turn out well.”
Meanwhile, parents and those in the private sector are expected to help provide school meals, with some schools only reporting a 15-day supply of food, according to state media.
School uniforms also were largely unavailable as the new school year began, meeting only 12% of demand at the primary level.
“No workshop can operate without electricity. Without fuel, we cannot transport fabric from one part of the country to another,” Trujillo Barreto said. “Without money or the ability to import, no fabric comes in either.”
She said that students would be allowed to wear “comfortable clothing” but are still required to tie on their traditional red or blue kerchiefs.
On Tuesday before dawn, many children brushed their teeth by the light of cellphones and rechargeable light bulbs. The night was rough for the Barroso sisters, who slept with their mother outside because their rechargeable fan died and the air was suffocating inside their cramped wooden home with a tin roof.
As they got ready for school, Leanete Barroso's oldest daughter, 15-year-old Sheila Ramírez Barroso, had already issued a warning to her parents: drop her off before they reached the school so her classmates wouldn't see her atop a horse-drawn cart.
The day before classes started, Yurima Izaguirre struggled to pull up last year’s school uniform on the youngest of her three children. She grimaced when she saw that her 7-year-old daughter had nearly outgrown the burgundy skirt.
“You’re going to suffocate after a while in the classroom,” Izaguirre said.
No new uniforms were available for her two daughters, but she was able to find two shorts for her son.
A surge in the cost of goods in Cuba meant Izaguirre didn't have enough money to buy new shoes for her children. For the first time ever, she had to buy school supplies for the three of them. The government was unable to provide them.
Izaguirre worries the most about having to feed her children lunch every day during the school week, another first for her.
Izaguirre planned to prepare what she and her husband, who works as a lifeguard, could afford: pasta, tuna and mayonnaise: “It has to last.”
Before classes started, Izaguirre told her children that they needed to pack their small, rechargeable fans — each labeled with their name — to help cope with temperatures hovering above 90 F (32 C). Like many Cubans, they're often hit with daily outages lasting more than 20 hours — so they recharge the fans at the home of a kind neighbor.
The longer-than-usual vacation before classes also hit the family hard. Usually, they would visit the beach, a park or the zoo, but with no transportation available given a lack of fuel, Izaguirre said that she would organize picnics beneath a tree near their home.
Her children give her emotional strength, but daily life in Cuba has hit Izaguirre hard: “In my head, I think of doing 1,000 things, but I have to keep going for their sake.”
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Children line up for their national anthem in the school courtyard where a stray dog sits by on the first day back to school in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Yurima Izaguirre, left, shines her cell phone flashlight during a blackout as her children brush their teeth and get ready for their first day back to school in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
The Barroso family travels by horse-drawn carriage as they head to school for their two daughters' first day back to classes in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Yurima Izaguirre uses a cell phone flashlight due to a blackout as she wakes her children up to get them ready for their first day of back to school in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Girls hug as they arrive to school for their first day back to classes in Minas, Cuba's Havana province, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Children drag toys made from cardboard boxes as they walk in Minas, in Cuba's Havana province, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down after just 18 months on the job. The White House announced his departure after Driscoll spoke with President Donald Trump about the current state of the Army, an Army official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He's only the latest top military leader to leave during the Trump administration.
The U.S. Postal Service is rushing to launch a hastily built, error-riddled computer system that could jeopardize the process of mail voting relied upon by one-third of all voters, according to a whistleblower statement released Tuesday by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
And in a blow to congressional authority, a divided Supreme Court is allowing construction to continue on Trump's $400 million White House ballroom as he flexes unprecedented executive power and remakes the capital in his image.
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Rep. Pete Aguilar of California said the oil deal that hands an ownership stake to the Pentagon is “concerning for all of us.”
“This is an area that’s ripe for oversight,” said Aguilar, who is the chairman of the House Democratic caucus.
Previewing the agenda ahead if Democrats win control of the House in the midterm elections, he said, “When there is a time and moment for us to exercise oversight and accountability, you can count on House Democrats to do that.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar of California said the oil deal that hands an ownership stake to the Pentagon is “concerning for all of us.”
“This is an area that’s ripe for oversight,” said Aguilar, who is the chairman of the House Democratic caucus.
Previewing the agenda ahead if Democrats win control of the House in the midterm elections, he said, “When there is a time and moment for us to exercise oversight and accountability, you can count on House Democrats to do that.”
Rep. Ted Lieu said House Democrats have been researching potential Trump administration voter suppression scenarios similar to one reveled in a whistleblower’s claim that the U.S. Postal Service is possibly jeopardizing mail-in ballots.
Lieu said the message he wants to give Americans is simple: ”Just go … vote,” he said, using a profanity.
He encouraged voters to make sure they’re registered vote and cast ballots early or in person, if need be.
“That’s the best way to stick to the administration that’s trying to keep you from voting,” he said. “Go vote.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was unaware of the whistleblower’s complaint.
Markwayne Mullin says Immigration and Customs Enforcement made roughly 2,100 arrests in a targeted operation in New York carried out over the last month.
During a news conference in New York, Mullin said the people arrested were “criminals” and slammed New York’s governor and mayor for not working with ICE.
The news conference comes as ICE has ramped up operations nationwide this summer but data shows that the agency is increasingly arresting people who do not have a criminal record.
Data released by the Deportation Data Project shows ICE arrests jumping to nearly 50,000 in July but more than half of those arrested had not been convicted of any crimes and weren’t facing criminal charges.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani held their own press conference at the same time as Mullin’s, telling reporters that the Trump administration was withholding $87 million in counterterrorism funding to New York.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said it received reports of an attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, and a second report of an incident involving a tanker in waters nearby.
In the first, the UKMTO said a tanker was hit by three projectiles Monday on its way out of the Persian Gulf through the strait east of Oman. The monitoring agency said there were no reports of casualties on the boat or any environmental impact from the attack.
In the second, the UKMTO said it had received a report “involving a tanker and military forces” on Monday off the coast of Oman, also east of the strait. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.
The Strait of Hormuz “is a place where at least 120 ships used to transit every 24 hours. Even if two or three ships manage to pass through on some nights now, that in fact shows that we have control over the entire Strait of Hormuz,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a video posted on a state TV Telegram channel.
“The information we have — open and covert, visible and hidden — shows us that after failing in the military and diplomatic arenas, the enemy has added a very broad economic war and cognitive war to its military campaign,” Qalibaf said. “The enemy’s objective in this hybrid war is to create unrest and chaos inside the country. That is their malicious intention. ... Or they may try to force us to surrender through diplomacy. Never.”
Scott Bessent said the Strait of Hormuz will be a “worthless piece of water in two years,” after predicting that shippers and other users of the narrow strait will find alternative means of transit as they conduct less and less business with Iran.
The Trump administration launched “Operation Economic Outcast” against the Islamic Republic in August as a means to economically punish the country and encourage other nations to do so.
He made the comments on the sidelines of the G20 Tuesday morning as he spoke with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow.
The American job market is hardly booming, but it is ambling along despite an energy shock caused by the fighting with Iran that has squeezed family budgets. U.S. job openings ticked up to 7.27 million in July from a revised 7.18 million in June, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.
U.S. employers — companies, nonprofits and government agencies — added an average of 61,000 net jobs a month this year. The figure is unimpressive, but it’s an improvement on 2025 when job growth came in below 10,000 a month — the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002 — as the lingering effect of high interest rates and Trump tariffs uncertainty discouraged hiring. At least U.S. employers aren’t firing much — the number of people signing up for unemployment benefits has come in low week after week.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian vented about the Trump administration in public before his private meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“The aggression that America carried out against Iran had no legal, scientific, or logical justification. They martyred our leader, they martyred our commanders, they martyred our scientists, they martyred our innocent students, they beat our people; in other words, this behavior cannot be justified in any mental, rational, or international framework,” Pezeshkian said.
“Unfortunately, they claim human rights, they claim to be law-abiding, and the things they are doing are not documented in any framework that can be relied upon.”
“As I have stated repeatedly, Russia stands in solidarity with the Iranian people. We admire your courage and resilience in the pursuit of your national interests,” Vladimir Putin said in public before his meeting with Iranian leader Masoud Pezeshkian Tuesdayon the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.
Putin also said that Moscow has welcomed Iran’s ceasefire agreement with the United States early this year, but that “truce proved unstable and all too fragile.” So meanwhile, Russia has continued to supply Iran with “essential goods” while maintaining momentum on trade.
In turn, Pezeshkian thanked Moscow for its support amid both U.S. sanctions and its conflict with Israel and Washington. Iran has scrambled to sustain trade amid U.S. threats to sanction any country that refuses to break ties with the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian during a summit in Kyrgyzstan that “if the U.S. returns to its commitments in the memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately reciprocate,” Iranian state media reported.
The June memorandum started a 60-day period for negotiations aimed at reaching a wider peace deal. Iran agreed to clear the Strait of Hormuz of mines and allow ships to pass during the period, and the U.S. agreed to end its naval blockade, lift sanctions, issue waivers for Iranian oil exports and begin work on a reconstruction package for Iran, among other things. But the ceasefire broke down quickly, and while there has been a lull in fighting, the two sides exchanged fire on the weekend.
While Pezeshkian has long favored a negotiated end to the war, Iran’s most powerful force remains the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which is pressing for Iranian control over the strait and financial compensation for the war.
Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that Driscoll “worked to transform the Army for the battlefield of the future, and he engaged with Congress candidly and consistently.”
“Secretary Hegseth is cultivating a culture where dissent is punished and competence is secondary to personal allegiance,” said Reed, a former Army officer, while noting that “hundreds of thousands of soldiers are deployed around the world, many in combat zones.”
Rep. Jason Crow, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and co-chairs the House Army Caucus, said the “Pentagon right now is, in some cases, rudderless,” with so many senior leaders gone. “So, I’m gravely concerned about it,” he said.
Rep. Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican who had served in the Army National Guard, said on X that Driscoll is “a transformative leader who brought common sense and discipline to the Department of the Army.”
“I had the pleasure of working with him closely, and appreciated how engaged he was from mentoring cadets at West Point to leading the Army at the Pentagon,” Womack wrote. “The Army is better equipped and prepared to tackle emerging threats because of his leadership that strengthened the force while putting our Soldiers first.”
Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat and former Army Ranger, told reporters that he worked well with Driscoll despite their policy differences.
“It was actually nice, I will say, having somebody who was smart, that knew the policy, that wanted to do the work, that had a background in these issues,” Crow said, adding that “it’s unfortunate that somebody like that can’t last in this administration.”
Driscoll’s departure follows the ouster of one of his allies from the Army as well as the rollback of a drone program he had championed. Hegseth had suddenly ousted the service’s top uniformed leader, Gen. Randy George, in April, while the Army’s commander in Europe and Africa, Gen. Christopher Donahue, unexpectedly stepped down in June.
Gen. Christopher LaNeve took George’s place and directed a Europe-based Army unit that was building its own drones to end its efforts.
Driscoll told Congress in April that the military’s civilian leadership gets “to pick the leaders that they want.”
Driscoll is an Iraq war veteran, tech investor and former adviser to Vice President JD Vance, whom Driscoll met at Yale Law School. When nominating Driscoll in 2024, Trump called him “a disruptor and change agent.”
As Army secretary, Driscoll was tapped for the unusual role of key negotiator to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. He was also a major force behind trying to cut the red tape for military contractors to quickly develop more drones and counter-drone capabilities as warfare rapidly changes around the world.
No reason was given for the departure of Driscoll, but tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been widely reported.
House lawmakers returned to Washington on Monday with a short to-do list after five weeks back in their home districts. The first order of business is most likely a vote on a stopgap spending bill designed to keep the federal government fully funded through early December, removing the possibility of a shutdown before the midterm elections.
With election season getting underway, votes are also expected on measures designed to amplify the GOP’s messaging strategy going into November, most notably a resolution condemning socialism. Republicans are trying to tie the Democratic Party in general to the democratic socialist candidates who have succeeded this year in running for office.
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The U.S. Postal Service is poised to launch a hastily built, error-riddled computer system that could jeopardize the process of mail voting relied upon by one-third of all voters, according to a whistleblower statement released Tuesday by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
The effort is part of the implementation of Trump’s executive order limiting mail voting and has been temporarily halted by a federal judge. The ruling is being appealed by the administration and the directive may ultimately end up back before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The disclosure from the unidentified whistleblower contends that the Postal Service has been scrambling to try to build a complex system that would normally take a year or more in only three months, sometimes in defiance of the judge’s orders halting work. The goal is to have it ready for use in the midterm elections.
The disclosure contends that, due to the new procedures, a single scanning error in a batch of tens of thousands of ballot envelopes could prevent any from reaching voters. It details a system that election officials have already warned could not be implemented before the first mail ballots begin going out Friday in North Carolina.
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When Vice President JD Vance stepped on stage in Michigan on Monday, it was MAGA Inc. writing the check for the campaign event. It was a rare bit of spending in a battleground state from a powerful political organization that has mostly been missing in action this year.
With just over two months to go before the midterm elections, President Donald Trump is still sitting on most of his colossal war chest, and he’s been growing his money pile instead of spending it.
Even though the president and his team insist they’ll open their wallet soon, frustrations are growing as Republicans try to maintain control of Congress despite headwinds partially of Trump’s own creation. While the president remains the party’s best asset in turning out its base, he is historically unpopular, with low marks on his handling of the economy and the ongoing war in Iran.
The ticking clock narrows Republicans’ options because time on the airwaves gets more limited and more expensive as the election draws near.
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A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the White House to continue construction on a $400 million ballroom project as lawsuits play out, a win for Trump as he flexes unprecedented executive power and remakes the capital in his image.
The apparent 5-4 decision replaces a temporary order issued earlier this month, shortly before a court-ordered halt would have gone into effect.
That temporary order was signed by Chief Justice John Roberts, assigned to handle appeals from the capital. But he publicly disagreed with the latest decision, writing a strong dissent that said the project is likely unlawful because it hasn’t been approved by Congress.
“Today’s decision is no victory for the separation of powers,” Roberts wrote. The court’s three liberal-leaning justices agreed.
The majority, on the other hand, found the National Trust for Historic Preservation likely did not have the legal right to challenge the project.
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Driscoll's departure is only the latest of a top military leader during the Trump administration, and no reason was given Monday. He's a friend of Vice President JD Vance, but tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been widely reported. The U.S. military leadership has seen a series of shakeups, with the Army especially seeing major upheaval.
A U.S. Army official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Driscoll spoke with President Donald Trump on the current state of the Army and submitted his resignation. The official did not provide additional details. The Pentagon referred questions to the Army. Driscoll’s resignation was reported earlier Monday by The Wall Street Journal.
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By Ben Finley and Aamer Madhani
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - Delivery vans are parked during a protest staged as part of a countrywide National Day of Action Tuesday, July 28, 2026, outside the main United States Postal Service headquarters in northeast Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
Construction continues on a helipad, left, on the South Lawn of the White House and and the new White House ballroom, right, as seen from the Washington Monument in Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll speaks at the America 250 celebration at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker, File)
