President Donald Trump this week said he believes he’ll have “the honor of taking Cuba” soon.  Without declaring a formal blockade, Trump and his administration have already crippled trade with the island and threatened the future of the Communist Party regime. In March, supplies of oil, food and other goods to the island collapsed, with no foreign-originating tankers arriving to Cuba, according to shipping data analyzed by Windward, a maritime intelligence firm. The volume of port calls, which includes tankers moving from one Cuban port to another, averaged around 50 per month in 2025 but fell to just 11 in March - all of them arriving from domestic ports. It was the lowest since 2017.

There’s a growing body of data showing the tariffs President Donald Trump said would help American factories are, in fact, squashing many of them. Take, for example, Allen Engineering, which makes industrial equipment in northeast Arkansas. Jay Allen says his costs for the parts for his power trowels have risen due to import taxes. Allen says he lost money last year, even though he cut his payroll and increased prices. Data shows manufacturing jobs dropped during Trump’s first year back in office. The White House says the Republican president's policies will take time to make a difference. But economists say the uncertainty caused by the tariffs has set back the sector.

Farmers are bracing for effects of the Iran war on fertilizer prices and availability as the spring planting season nears. Farmers have complained about costly fertilizer for years, but prices have soared even higher since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. The war prompted Iran to largely block shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas. Besides increasing the price of fuel, which is key in the production of fertilizer, the shipping disruption also has reduced the export of nitrogen fertilizers manufactured in the Persian Gulf and limited access to key fertilizer ingredients.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is calling for "new people in charge" of Cuba as the socialist island experiences its third nationwide blackout in four months. U.S. President Donald Trump has called Cuba a “very weakened nation.” He said on Monday that he believes he’ll have the “honor of taking Cuba.” On Tuesday Rubio, who is of Cuban heritage, said the current government is incapable to addressing the problems. The island's government blames its woes on a U.S. energy blockade after Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. The country's aging grid has drastically eroded in recent years, leading to daily outages.

Officials in Cuba report an island-wide blackout in the country of some 11 million people as its energy and economic crises deepen. The Ministry of Energy and Mines notes a “complete disconnection” of the country’s electrical system and says it is investigating. President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Friday warned that the island had not received oil shipments in more than three months and that it was operating on solar power, natural gas and thermoelectric plants. Cuba has blamed its woes on a U.S. energy blockade. President Donald Trump warned in January of tariffs on any country that would sell or provide oil to the island.

China says U.S President Donald Trump’s latest tariff moves could harm the countries' trade relationship. Beijing's international trade representative said his government expressed serious concern during high-level talks in Paris. The meeting was meant to prepare for Trump's planned trip to China in about two weeks, though the U.S. president has warned that it could be delayed. The Iran war has emerged as a potential stumbling block just as the U.S. and China were patching up relations following a tariff war and truce. The U.S. treasury secretary says any postponement wouldn’t be to pressure China on that new issue.

The Trump administration this week stepped up its ambitious effort to replace about $1.6 trillion in lost tariff revenue that was eliminated by the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a range of the president’s import taxes. Recovering that lost revenue, which the White House was counting on to help offset the steep, multi-trillion dollar cost of its tax cuts, is possible but will be challenging, experts say. The administration has to use different legal provisions to impose new duties, and those provisions require longer, complex processes that U.S. companies can use to seek exemptions. It could be months or more before it is clear how much revenue the replacement tariffs will yield.

Iraq is caught in the crossfire of the Iran war and is the only country facing strikes from both sides, threatening to drag the nation that has so far avoided two years of regional turmoil into a full-blown crisis. Disruptions to Gulf shipping and strikes on oil fields and infrastructure have all but halted exports, jeopardizing a state that relies on such trade for the bulk of its revenue. If the shutdown continues, Baghdad could be unable to meet its oversized public‑sector payroll. In the meantime, near-daily drone strikes have targeted American interests across the country, while the U.S. has struck back against militia bases to defend its troops.

The Trump administration is opening a new trade investigation into manufacturing in foreign countries. It’s an effort that comes after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s previous use of tariffs. Trump and his team have made clear that they’re seeking to replace the hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenues by using different laws to establish new tariffs. The administration is starting investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to try to charge new import taxes. But U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters that he didn’t want to prejudge the outcome of the process, even though he said that “the policy remains the same.”

The Iran war has upended oil production and shipping across the Middle East, straining energy supplies worldwide. And crude prices swung wildly Monday. The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, briefly surged to $119.50 per barrel on Monday — its highest level since the summer after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. West Texas Intermediate, which is produced in the U.S., also soared to $119.48 per barrel at one point. But those prices fell to under $90 late Monday, as markets made significant reversals after President Donald Trump told CBS News that he thinks “the war is very complete.”