A State Department official said in an email that the American Embassy in Havana was aware of the efforts by private institutions like the Caribbean Baseball Initiative to increase ties between the two countries, and described baseball as “an excellent avenue for sports diplomacy and creating good will between our peoples.”

George Clooney, the Hollywood actor, has launched a new initiative called The Sentry aimed at ending conflicts on the African continent by tracking the money that fuels them. The Sentry, founded by Clooney and John Prendergast from the advocacy group the Enough Project, will investigate the financing of conflicts in South Sudan, Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Juana Mora Cedeño of the Rainbow Project, an independent Cuban advocacy organization, told the Washington Blade on Monday that authorities at José Martí International Airport in Havana early on July 6 stopped her and two of her colleagues who were returning from Colombia where they had attended a workshop on documenting LGBT rights abuses.

Actress America Ferrera has penned an open letter to Donald Trump in response to his controversial comments about Mexican immigrants. Ferrera has been an advocate for Latino causes and a prominent supporter of Democratic candidates for years. Her tongue-in-cheek post puts a unique spin on the uproar over Trump’s claims that “rapists” and “drug dealers” have entered the U.S. border illegally from Mexico.