New Delhi, Sept. 24 -- NEW YORK - Cuba went dark on September 18, four days before Donald Trump stood at a Shield of the Americas meeting at the United Nations and pointed to the island's lights going out as evidence of communist collapse. It was the sixth nationwide grid failure in 2026. Roughly ten million people lost power. The cause was not ideological failure alone; it was a fuel shortage that traces directly to an oil embargo the Trump administration imposed in January.

The Shield of the Americas held its second summit-level meeting on the sidelines of the 81st General Assembly on Tuesday, convened by Trump and attended by leaders and foreign ministers from approximately fifteen Latin American nations. Special envoy Kristi Noem co-...