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Cuba Starts Freeing Prisoners Day after US Said it Would Lift Terror Designation

A person uses a cellphone inside a private cab in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Ley)
A person uses a cellphone inside a private cab in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Ley)
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Cuba Starts Freeing Prisoners Day after US Said it Would Lift Terror Designation

A person uses a cellphone inside a private cab in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Ley)
A person uses a cellphone inside a private cab in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Ley)

Cuba started releasing some prisoners Wednesday as part of talks with the Vatican, a day after President Joe Biden's administration announced his intent to lift the US designation of the island nation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
More than a dozen people who were convicted of different crimes — and some of them were arrested after taking part in the historic 2021 protests — were released during the day, according to Cuban civil groups following the cases of detainees on the island.
Among those freed was tattooist Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista, 24, who was detained in the 2021 protests and convicted to four years in prison for attacks and public disorder. She was released from a prison in the province of Camagüey, and told The Associated Press that eight men were also freed along with her.
On Tuesday, the US government said it notified Congress about the intent to lift the designation of Cuba as part of a deal facilitated by the Vatican. Cuban authorities would release some of them before Biden's administration ends on Jan. 20, officials said.
Hours later, the Cuban foreign ministry said the government informed Pope Francis it would gradually release 553 convicts as authorities explore legal and humanitarian ways to make it happen.
Havana did not link the prisoners' release to the US decision on lifting the designation but said it was “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025 declared by His Holiness,” referring to the Vatican's once-every-25-year tradition of a Jubilee, in which the Catholic faithful make pilgrimages to Rome.
Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez did not mention the release on Wednesday — consistent with his stance the day before, indicating they were separate issues — but mentioned removing Cuba from the list of states sponsors of terrorism.
“You can reverse a country’s status on that list, but the tremendous damage to U foreign policy cannot be undone,” he told the AP. “It has been proven that this list is not a tool or instrument in the fight against terrorism, but rather a brutal and mere tool of political coercion against sovereign states.”
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, one of the civil groups, said that by 4 p.m. EST, 18 people had been released, including Barreto Batista.
“At three in the morning they knocked," Barreto Batista told the AP over the phone. "I was sleeping (in the cell) and they told me to gather all my things, that I was free.”
She said that she and the eight men were warned it was not a pardon or a forgiveness and that they had to be on good behavior or they could be sent back to prison.
“I am at home with my mother," she said. “The whole family is celebrating.”
In July 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest widespread power outages and shortages amid a severe economic crisis. The government’s crackdown on the demonstrators, which included arrests and detentions, sparked international criticism, while Cuban officials blamed US. sanctions and a media campaign for the unrest.
In November, another Cuban nongovernmental organization, Justice 11J, said that 554 people remained in custody in connection with the protests.
Biden's intention to lift the US designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism is likely to be reversed as early as next week after President-elect Donald Trump takes office and Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio assumes the position of America’s top diplomat.
Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s before the communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, has long been a proponent of sanctions on the communist island.

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Kamala Harris Made History as Vice President. The Rest Didn't Go as Planned

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, at a National Action Network event in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, at a National Action Network event in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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Kamala Harris Made History as Vice President. The Rest Didn't Go as Planned

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, at a National Action Network event in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, at a National Action Network event in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

With Donald Trump’s return to the White House only days away, Kamala Harris ' staff packed into her ceremonial office to watch her sign the desk, a tradition performed by her predecessors for decades. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, stood behind her to take a photo as she wielded her Sharpie marker.
"It is not my nature to go quietly into the night," Harris said Thursday. “So don't worry about that.”
But what is next for her?
“I'll keep you posted," she said.
Harris hasn't made any plans for after leaving office Monday, apart from flying home to California. It will be the first time since 2004, when she became San Francisco's district attorney, that she hasn't held elected office.
There's talk that she'll write a book and speculation that she could run for governor or maybe president again. At 60 years old, Harris is still young in a political world where the last two presidents have set records as the oldest ever elected.
Donna Brazile, a longtime leader in the Democratic Party, recalled telling Harris that she needs to take a break and “learn what it's like to oversleep” for a while. They both laughed, and Brazile said, "Yeah, you’ll never go back to being ordinary.”
Brazile was campaign manager for Al Gore, the last sitting vice president to run for the top job.
“I’ve had more people call me about what’s next for Kamala Harris than called me about what’s next for Al Gore," she said.
Harris' term was both ordinary and extraordinary. Like many of her predecessors, she spent her time tending to a portfolio of issues — migration, abortion rights and maternal health among them — and representing the country overseas. Sometimes she struggled to distinguish herself, a common challenge in a job that comes with little constitutional responsibility.
But Harris also made history as the first woman, Black person or person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. And last year, Harris was thrust into an unprecedented situation when President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed her as his successor.
There were only 107 days left in the campaign, leaving Harris in a sprint for the presidency. She instantly reset the terms of the race against Trump, who is nearly two decades older than her, but was unable to defeat him.
Many Democrats blamed Biden for running in the first place and putting Harris in an impossible position. Harris faced her own criticism, too.
Some said she should have sent a more populist message instead of focusing on Trump's antidemocratic threats by campaigning with Liz Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman. She also failed to separate herself from Biden, who remains deeply unpopular with voters.
Minyon Moore, who chaired last year's Democratic National Convention, downplayed the criticisms by saying “ifa, woulda, coulda, shoulda.”
With Harris facing such an unusual campaign, Moore said, “there was no road map for what she should have done.”
Harris hasn't answered questions about her loss, nor has she shared her own perspective on the election. Her public remarks have been limited to rallying cries for students and others who are disappointed by Trump's victory, especially after Democrats described him as an existential threat to the country.
“No one can walk away," Harris said in one speech. "We must stay in the fight. Every one of us.”
Harris hoped to close out her term with an around-the-world trip to Singapore, Bahrain and Germany, a final opportunity to showcase her role on foreign policy. But she decided to stay in Washington as wildfires spread around Los Angeles. Her own house, in the Brentwood neighborhood, has been in an evacuation zone.
Harris didn't travel to the area because she was concerned about diverting local resources from responding to the fire, according to an official in her office who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss her planning.
Despite canceling her overseas trip, Harris has signaled her interest in remaining involved on the global stage. She's spent time in her final week in office making calls to foreign leaders including King Abdullah II of Jordan, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo.
On Wednesday, she was in the Oval Office to watch Biden give his farewell address. He described her as “a great partner,” and they embraced after the speech.
Biden chose Harris as his running mate after her first presidential campaign stalled four years ago. After taking office, her schedule was limited by the coronavirus pandemic and her obligations on Capitol Hill. With the US Senate evenly divided, she was often called on to cast tiebreaking votes, eventually setting a record as she helped advance judicial nominees and landmark legislation.
“She had to find her role," said Joel Goldstein, a historian who has studied the vice presidency. "It took some time to figure it out.”
Moore remembered an Oval Office meeting with Harris and other senior advisers as Biden deliberated whom to nominate for the US Supreme Court. Although it was unlikely that a liberal justice would have many opportunities to write majority opinions on a court dominated by conservatives, Moore said Harris focused on which candidate would harness the platform to issue dissenting opinions.
Harris wanted “somebody who could think through the nuances of writing those dissensions,” Moore said. Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson, fulfilling his promise to put a Black woman on the bench, and she's often drawn attention for her sharp dissenting opinions.
One of Harris' original tasks, reducing migration from Central America, became a political burden. Republicans described her as the “border czar” and blamed her for illegal crossings. However, fewer migrants came from the countries where Harris focused her efforts.
She met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Munich shortly before the Russian invasion began three years ago, and she spent a week in Africa to lay the groundwork for renewed US engagement.
Harris also traveled three times to Southeast Asia as the administration tried to reorient foreign policy to confront China's influence.
“She had the perception that we could use even more of an emphasis on this occasionally overlooked part of the world," said Phil Gordon, Harris' national security adviser.
Abortion rights became a defining issue for Harris after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Biden was more hesitant on the topic, and Harris started headlining the White House's efforts.
Lorraine Voles, Harris' chief of staff, said the court decision was “a turning point" for the vice president.
“That opened up a lane for her in a way that maybe wasn’t there previously," she said. "People were not focused on the issue of maternal health and reproductive health until people began to see it threatened.”
Nadia Brown, a Georgetown University government professor who focuses on Black women and politics, said Harris will “certainly go down in the history books” for breaking down racial and gender barriers in politics.
She said Harris' time as vice president helped expand the views of "everyday Americans who might have misconceptions about what a leader could be or should be.”
The only question left is what Harris decides to do now.
“It’s not over," Brown said. "But I’m not sure what that next chapter is.”