us-cuba relations
The Shaq show came to Havana on Sunday as NBA great Shaquille O'Neal put on a basketball clinic for local youngsters, becoming the latest emissary for American outreach to the people of Cuba. The 2016 Hall of Fame inductee and four-time NBA champion led star-struck kids in layup drills and coached scrimmages while onlookers cheered from the sidelines, part of a U.S. State Department-sponsored visit to foster people-to-people exchanges with Cuban citizens.
Aoury and her friends came to Cuba on a cultural exchange program because it is still illegal for Americans to visit Cuba solely as tourists, and the U.S. maintains the trade embargo on Cuba that has been in place since 1960.
A behind-the-scenes look at President Obama's guest appearance on the hit Cuban comedy show Vivir del Cuento.
The significance of the Rolling Stones' Havana concert.
“What our players and what the Cuban players ... did in those six days did more for government relations between our two countries than has been done in the last 40 years by the governments,” Little League baseball coach Jim Carter said.[...] They spent their April spring break in Havana, learning about Cuba’s intense passion for baseball, seeing cultural and historic sights, getting to meet some of Cuba’s best professional baseball players, making new friends despite language barriers and playing baseball against local teams.
Throughout the trip, Chesky describes interactions between Cuban hosts and American guests as “person-to-person diplomacy.” That narrative allows Airbnb travelers to handily comply with the U.S.’s “people-to-people” educational travel visa requirement.
Secretary of State John Kerry exhorted Miami Dade Honors College students to pursue an inclusive American dream that includes “what our country stands for internationally.” [...] To encourage freedom, he said, the United States wants to help “the Cuban people to begin a new chapter in their history.”
The United States has always believed that our best ambassadors are the American people themselves [...] It’s people-to-people diplomacy; nothing may epitomize its modern manifestation more than the way Airbnb has succeeded in connecting tourists with hosts on the island.