Iberia to suspend flights to Cuba, Spain says blockade of Strait of Hormuz ‘makes no sense’, and more news on Tuesday April 14th.
Iberia to suspend flights to Cuba amid US fuel blockade
Spanish airline Iberia on Monday said it will suspend its Cuba flights from June to late October “due to the situation” on the communist-run Caribbean island, which is under a de facto US fuel blockade.
“There are many supply problems in Cuba” and “a lack of demand”, an Iberia spokesman told AFP, saying a resumption of flights would happen “in November, if the conditions improve”.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has ramped up pressure on Cuba with a fuel blockade from January that has deepened the island’s energy crisis and hit its already fragile economy.
Cubans have endured regular blackouts, fuel rationing, soaring gasoline prices, dwindling public transport and a fall in the crucial tourism sector.
The US capture of Venezuela’s socialist strongman Nicolás Maduro on January 3rd, a long-time ally of the Cuban government, also cut off a key supply of oil to the island.
Airlines have had to adapt or suspend their services to Cuba as the situation deteriorated. Iberia flights have since February stopped in the Dominican Republic to refuel.
Spain says blockade of Strait of Hormuz ‘makes no sense’
The naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz announced by US President Donald Trump “makes no sense”, Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Monday.
“I too think it’s something that makes no sense… It’s one more episode in this whole downward spiral into which we’ve been dragged,” she said in an interview on Spanish public television.
The US military said it would begin a blockade of all Iranian ports Monday, after talks between the warring sides in Pakistan collapsed, and despite the Iranian military warning that it would treat any such action as an act of piracy.
Trump had announced on social media he would blockade the strategic Strait of Hormuz trade route that he had previously demanded Tehran re-open fully, after Vice President JD Vance left negotiations with an Iranian delegation in Islamabad without a deal.
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Adif warns of ‘misinterpreting technical details’ in Adamuz train crash report
The chairman of Spain’s state railway administrator, Adif, Pedro Marco de la Peña, has accused the Civil Guard of “misinterpreting certain highly technical details” in its preliminary report on the deadly railway accident in Adamuz, Córdoba, that killed 46 in January.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Marco de la Peña stated that, having analysed the initial report, there’s now a need to “clarify” a number of points.
Marco de la Peña argued that “certain causes cannot be taken for granted”, whilst criticising the fact that “conjectures” are being made without any progress in other expert reports, which, he stressed, is something that could “shed light on the matter”.
“We have been dealing with conjectures for two months and the main pieces of evidence have not yet been assessed,” he added.
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Spanish trade relations with China grow but remain highly uneven
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently set off for his fourth trip to China in as many years at a time when relations with Washington remain strained. However, Spanish media reports that another aim of the visit is to try and reduce Spain’s trade deficit with the country and to boost cooperation in technology.
China is Spain’s main trading partner outside the European Union. Only Germany, France and Italy surpass China in trade with Spain, of which total trade volume between the two countries exceeded €58 billion last year.
There is a significant imbalance, however. Spain imports a great deal from China but exports far less: of those €58 billion in trade, €50 billion are spent on Chinese goods, meaning Spain has a trade deficit with China of €42 billion.
In 2025, China was the second largest source of imports for Spain. 11 percent of everything Spain buys from abroad comes from China. In terms of exports, however, only 2 percent of Spanish exports to China.
READ ALSO: Spain’s PM calls China trade imbalance with EU ‘unsustainable’
With reporting by Conor Faulkner.
