US reportedly prepares to indict former Cuban leader

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Tensions between Cuba and the US continue to rise amid reports that former President Raul Castro, brother of former leader Fidel who died in 2016, may soon face a US indictment over a 1996 downing of two small planes belonging to a Cuban exile group called Brothers to the Rescue. We hear from someone on the ground in Cuba about what life is like on the island amid fuel shortages and regular power outages, and hear from the founder of Brothers to the Rescue José Basulto. Also in today’s programme: Taiwan's president has pressed the case for US arms supplies, just hours after President Trump said he had not decided whether to proceed with a major weapons sale to the island following a summit in China with President Xi Jinping; and, are children reading fewer books? We hear from author and former Childrens’ Laureate Frank Cotterill-Boyce. Presenter Julian Worricker is joined by Yu Jie, a senior research fellow on China at Chatham House in London, and Soumaya Keynes, a columnist on economics for the Financial Times newspaper and co-author of a new book, How to Win a Trade War: A Friendly Guide to an Unfriendly World. Photo: Cuba's former President Raul Castro watches a May Day rally in Havana, Cuba May 1, 2025: (Credit: Reuters/Norlys Perez)