HAVANA (AP) — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Friday accused the United States of hypocrisy for promoting private enterprise on the island while imposing new restrictions against privately-owned Cuban businesses.
Díaz-Canel hosted a podcast with Prime Minister Manuel Marrero to discuss the implementation of an economic reform package approved by parliament in June that gives private enterprise unprecedented latitude.
The reforms include allowing private businesses to employ more than 100 workers, participate in financial and currency markets, import and export goods without state intermediaries, hire workers directly and gain access to more idle land.
Although Díaz-Canel and Marrero reiterated that the Cuban government does not intend to embrace capitalism, the package moves Cuba toward the kind of economic opening the United States has demanded for decades — even as Washington maintains sanctions that Havana describes as an energy blockade.
“We are not going to stop,” Díaz-Canel said, rejecting assertions by U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Cuba is a “failed state.”
At the same time, he rejected the latest U.S. sanctions, which this week revoked the permission previously granted by former U.S. President Joe Biden for small Cuban private entrepreneurs to open accounts in U.S. banks.
No figures are available on how many Cuban entrepreneurs hold such accounts, but independent analysts on the island described the move as a setback for the development of private enterprise.
“Now they are attacking that sector as well, making it increasingly clear that there is no interest or willingness to benefit our people — that it is all a lie, all a fallacy,” Díaz-Canel added.
U.S. sanctions have deepened the economic crisis gripping the island for five years. Cubans have endured blackouts lasting more than 30 hours, transportation disruptions, flight cancellations and a sharp decline in production.
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FILE - Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel delivers a welcome speech to participants of the, "Nuestra America," or "Our America Convoy," at the Convention Palace in Havana, Cuba, March 20, 2026. (Adalberto Roque/Pool Photo via AP, File)
The Indian airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight said in a live video call that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save passengers after being stabbed by his co-pilot.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who was running in Israel’s upcoming election is withdrawing his candidacy following comments about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage is available here.
The FlyDubai captain told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save everyone on board, after he was stabbed by his co-pilot and the aircraft plunged into a steep descent.
“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” Capt. Smit Machchhar said from a hospital in Abu Dhabi. “I was fighting for my life. At one point I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”
Machchhar was seriously injured in Wednesday’s attack but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended sharply, witnesses and Israeli authorities said.
The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, with 182 people on board, was diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker, an Omani national, was arrested in Saudi Arabia. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear.
Israel was set to begin repatriation flights to bring back passengers stranded in the United Arab Emirates after commercial travel between the two countries was suspended following the attack.
— More coverage on the attempt to crash the plane is available here.
In the Strait of Hormuz, a tanker was struck by an “unknown projectile” while transiting outbound through the waterway, the British military said Friday, adding that the attack caused a “small fire and blackout onboard.” There were no reported casualties, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center (UKMTO) said. The fire was extinguished and the tanker continued its transit.
UKMTO did not identify the tanker and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Four tankers have recently been hit by projectiles in the critical waterway, bringing the total to five with Friday’s incident, UKMTO said.
Overall ship traffic remains below prewar levels in the Strait of Hormuz, as do shipments of energy products, even though Iran has lost its near-complete chokehold over the crucial waterway thanks to the U.S. Navy's efforts to shepherd oil tankers through the strait. That, along with various pipelines, has allowed Gulf countries to restore oil exports to nearly prewar levels.
Three Israeli strikes in Gaza City and central Gaza killed three people and wounded at least one other on Friday, according to health officials at Gaza’s hospitals.
Two strikes in Gaza City killed one person each, while another strike in central Gaza killed a third, officials said.
Israel’s military acknowledged carrying out the strikes, saying that it was hitting militants in those areas, without elaborating.
In Yemen, intense fighting engulfed a residential area in Taiz City as clashes between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces raised concerns over a worsening humanitarian situation.
The World Food Program warned that renewed fighting in Yemen is worsening an already dire humanitarian situation in a country suffering from severe hunger.
WFP director Matthew Hollingworth said that almost three out of four households are unable to meet their basic food needs.
Shelling Friday by the Houthis on the residential neighborhood of Wadi al-Qadi in Taiz City injured several people, according to an Associated Press reporter in the city.
Separately, Saudi Arabia said Friday that it intercepted three ballistic missiles, launched by the Houthis, over the city of Khamis Mushait. The statement, by Saudi spokesman Gen. Turki al-Maliki, did not specify when the attacks occurred or report any immediate damage. A fourth projectile, also blamed on Houthi rebels, fell on a school in the city of Najran, causing material damage, Saudi Civil Defense said. No injuries have been reported.
In Israel, the chairman of the left-wing Balad party said he would withdraw from Israel’s upcoming election after the country’s Supreme Court president said a majority of justices were prepared to uphold his disqualification.
Sami Abou Shehadeh’s candidacy was challenged over an editorial he wrote in the newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The article did not condemn Hamas and argued that it was surprising violence hadn’t erupted earlier given conditions in Gaza.
In a subsequent article, Abou Shehadeh, a former member of Israel’s Knesset, called Hamas’ attack both unacceptable and a crime. He said he hadn’t known the scale of the violence when he wrote the first article.
The court weighed whether his remarks violated an Israeli law barring candidates who reject Israel’s existence, incite racism or support armed struggle against Israel. His lawyers said that barring him would reinterpret the law and create a new threshold.
About 20% of Israel's citizens are of Palestinian descent.
Israeli soldiers have barred Palestinian farmers and activists from harvesting olives in the northern West Bank, according to video footage obtained by The Associated Press.
The footage showed soldiers firing shots in the air and tear gas toward the Palestinian farmers and activists, while settlers were also seen in the area.
Israel's military said troops were deployed following reports of a confrontation, which was dispersed. It added that a security official at the scene fired shots into the air earlier, without elaborating. The military said no one was injured.
The olive harvest season in the West Bank is usually marred by tensions between Palestinian farmers and settlers. Israel has imposed new rules this year, prohibiting Palestinians from harvesting in what’s known as Area C, which is under Israeli security control and encompasses the majority of the territory’s agricultural lands.
An earlier version of this story mistakenly said that a fourth projectile reported by Saudi Arabia Friday was not attributed to anyone in particular; it was blamed on Houthi rebels.
This screengrab from Narendra Modi YouTube Channel shows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking with FlyDubai pilot Capt. Smit Machchhar on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (Narendra Modi YouTube Channel via AP )
