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President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, a move that could further cripple an island plagued by a deepening energy crisis. The order would primarily put pressure on Mexico, a government that has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba and has constantly voiced solidarity for the U.S. adversary even as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to build a strong relationship with Trump. Trump was asked by a reporter Thursday whether he was trying to choke off Cuba, which he called a failing nation. The word choke off is awfully tough, Trump said. Im not trying to, but, it looks like its something thats just not going to be able to survive.” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and a number of other Cuban officials condemned Trumps executive order. Rodríguez called it a brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people who are now threatened with being subjected to extreme living conditions. He accused the U.S. of resorting to blackmail and coercion to try to force other countries to join its universally condemned blockade policy against Cuba. Cuba relies on allies for energy This week has been marked by speculation that Mexico would slash oil shipments to Cuba under mounting pressure by Trump to distance itself from the Cuban government. In its deepening energy and economic crisis, fueled in part by strict economic sanctions by the U.S., Cuba has relied heavily on foreign assistance and oil shipments from allies like Mexico, Russia and Venezuela before a U.S. military operation ousted former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Since the Venezuela operation, Trump has said no more Venezuelan oil will go to Cuba and the Cuban government is ready to fall. In its most recent report, Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex said it shipped nearly 20,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba from January through Sept. 30, 2025. That month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Mexico City. Afterward, Jorge Pion, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute who tracks shipments using satellite technology, said the figure had fallen to about 7,000 barrels. Uncertainty simmers in Mexico Sheinbaum has been incredibly vague about where her country stood, and this week has given roundabout and ambiguous answers to inquiries about the shipments, and dodged reporters questions in her morning press briefings. On Tuesday, Sheinbaum said Pemex had at least temporarily paused some oil shipments to Cuba. But she struck an ambiguous tone, saying the pause was part of general fluctuations in oil supplies and a sovereign decision not made under pressure from the U.S. Sheinbaum has said Mexico would continue to show solidarity with Havana, but didnt clarify what kind of support Mexico would offer. On Wednesday, the Latin American leader claimed she never said Mexico has completely suspended shipments and humanitarian aid” to Cuba would continue and decisions about shipments to Cuba were determined by Pemex contracts. So the contract determines when shipments are sent and when they are not sent, Sheinbaum said. Trump and Sheinbaum spoke by phone Thursday morning. Sheinbaum said they did not discuss Cuba. We didnt address the issue of Cuba, Sheinbaum said, adding that Mexicos foreign affairs secretary had discussed with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it was very important for Mexico to maintain its humanitarian aid to Cuba and Mexico was willing to serve as an intermediary between the U.S. and Cuba. Under threat of tariff coercion The lack of clarity from the leader has underscored the extreme pressure Mexico and other Latin American nations are under as Trump has grown more confrontational following the Venezuelan operation. It remains unclear what the Thursday order by Trump will mean for Cuba, which has been roiled by crisis for years and a U.S. embargo. Anxieties were already simmering on the Caribbean island as many drivers sat in long lines this week for gasoline, many unsure of what would come next. On Cuban state television, commentator Jorge Legaoa, who usually expresses views aligned with the government, asserted Cuba was not a threat, but rather that the islands authorities were fighting gangs and preventing regional drug trafficking with their zero-tolerance policy. Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos F. de Cossio wrote on social media platform X that the U.S. is tightening its Cuban blockade after the failure of decades of relentless economic warfare and attempting to force sovereign states to join the embargo. Under threat of tariff coercion, they must decide whether to forgo their right to export their own fuel to Cuba, he wrote. Michelle L. Price and Megan Janetsky, Associated Press Andrea Rodríguez and Dánica Coto contributed to this report.
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Liftoff Mobile, a California-based mobile app marketing provider, announced on Thursday that it plans to launch . . . into the public markets. The company, backed by Blackstone, is targeting a valuation of nearly $5.2 billion for its IPO, and is looking to raise as much as $762 million in funding by selling more than 25 million shares. Share prices are expected to range between $26 and $30. It will trade under the ticker LFTO. The companys roots go back to 2012, when it was initially founded. A majority stake was later acquired by Blackstone in 2021, and Liftoff was then combined with Vungle to create a single, large, independent mobile adtech platform. That platform provides users with an AI-powered tool to support customer acquisition and monetization for mobile advertisers or publishers. It works across several industries, such as finance and gaming. The companys S-1 filing with the SEC states that it has more than 1.4 billion daily active users, and more than 1,000 global advertisers as of the fourth quarter of 2025. To our new investors: You are investing in a company with a senior leadership team averaging twelve years of ad tech industry experience, and technology that gets smarter with every cycle. We have a history of delivering results and a commitment to sustaining that reputation. You can expect what weve always delivered: customer focus, product velocity, and results, said CEO Jeremy Bondy in a statement included in the S-1 filing. The IPO market has felt quiet overall, but a recent report from EY shows that 2025 was the busiest year for IPOs since 2021. Last year, there were 216 total IPOs, amounting to $47.4 billion in proceeds. As for 2026, EYs report notes that there is significant optimism for investors and potential issuers in 2026, fueled by strong interest in AI and other areassomething Liftoff is likely trying to take advantage of. Almost a month into 2026, data from Renaissance Capital shows that there have been nine IPOs priced so far, down 47% from 2025.
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The last Sundance Film Festival in Utah is drawing to a close this weekend.The Park City gathering was a wistful farewell to the place Robert Redford’s brainchild has called home for over 40 years and launched so many careers. Although the festival isn’t ending it will start anew in Boulder, Colorado, in 2027 it did have many, from filmmakers to volunteers, feeling nostalgic about the change whether their Sundance story began in 2022 or 1992.A Wednesday night anniversary screening of “Little Miss Sunshine,” still one of the festival’s biggest hits, was an especially emotional affair as filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and actors Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin, gathered once more, 20 years later, at the festival’s most famous and largest location, the Eccles Theater. Many in the audience had seen the movie and some had even been at the 2006 premiere. But a fair number were experiencing it for the first time and the response was rapturous.“Who would have imagined that a single film could deliver two electric nights at a Sundance Film Festival?” said festival director Eugene Hernandez.It wasn’t all looking back, however. The festival’s program is first and foremost about discovery. First time feature filmmakers comprised about 40% of the slate. The programmers also wanted to do right by Park City.“I feel like we achieved that based on what we’ve seen this week,” said Sundance programming director Kim Yutani. “The enthusiasm for the artists that we have now shared with the world is significant. It’s profound.” ICE and politics seep in The festival wasn’t a bubble to world events either. On the second night, a Florida Congressman was assaulted at a party by a man who told him he was going to get deported. ICE OUT pins were not an uncommon sight on major stars, like Natalie Portman, on the red carpet. And films like Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell’s “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” (in theaters March 27) sparked conversations about the end of the world. Memorable moments thanks to Charli xcx, Harry, Meghan and Billie Jean King It also didn’t stop people from having a good time. There was an all-night DJ’d party for the Charli xcx movie “The Moment” (in theaters this weekend) which had some out dancing until well after 3 a.m. The Billie Jean King documentary “Give Me the Ball!” had the audience erupting into spontaneous applause. (Afterward, King hit tennis balls into the balcony). Rufus Wainwright and Norah Jones sang Marianne Faithfull songs after a screening of “Broken English.” And the documentary “Cookie Queens,” about Girl Scout Cookie season, was an audience favorite that also brought a surprise appearance by Prince Harry and Meghan, who executive produced. Olivia Wilde’s big comeback Charli xcx might have had Wilde beat in numbers with three films at the festival, but Wilde took the spotlight for sheer impact. She confidently carried Gregg Araki’s comedic, and erotic, thriller “I Want Your Sex,” as the provocative artist Erika Tracy, who initiates an affair with one of her interns (Cooper Hoffman), changing his life and views about sex in the process. But her bigger moment was “The Invite,” a sharp chamber dramedy about an unhappy and sexless San Francisco couple (Wilde and Seth Rogen) who invite their upstairs neighbors (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over for dinner. Wilde directed the film, which quickly became a festival favorite, sparking a competitive, 72-hour bidding war. A24 emerged as the winner (reportedly in the range of $12 million) in the biggest acquisition of the festival so far.A release date for “The Invite” has not yet been announced. “I Want Your Sex” has not yet been acquired for distribution. The Channing Tatum drama everyone is talking about One of the biggest hits was also one of the most challenging: “Josephine,” writer-director Beth De Araújo’s raw drama about an 8-year-old girl (Mason Reeves) whose life and sense of safety is upended after she witnesses a sexual assault in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Tatum and Gemma Chan play the parents who are unsure how to help her navigate these new emotions and fears. It has not yet been acquired for distribution. The queer horror breakout Writer-director Adrian Chiarella’s midnight movie “Leviticus” was scooped up quickly by the indie label Neon (of “Parasite” and “Anora” fame) in a reported seven-figure deal. The Australian coming-of-age thriller is about two teenage boys (Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen) trapped in conversion therapy horror. A critic for IndieWire wrote that it played like an episode of “Heated Rivalry” crossed with the psychological horror “It Follows.” A release date has not yet been announced. A documentary more than 50 years in the making The footage that makes up the new documentary “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” was shot in 1972, when groundbreaking filmmaker William Greaves ( who died in 2014 ) brought together the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, poets, authors, librarians, photographers, critics and actors, to reflect on what it all meant, at a party at Duke Ellington’s home. His son David Greaves did camera work at the party and co-directed and finished the film, a striking and essential historical artifact (and a good, intellectually stimulating hang). It has not yet been acquired for distribution. Other buzzy titles John Turturro got an enthusiastic standing ovation for his performance in “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” a nostalgic crime thriller about a veteran pickpocket who steals from the wrong man, written and directed by Noah Segan.There was lots of chatter about “Wicker,” a quirky fantasy about a sardonic fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who commissions a basket weaver to weave her a husband (Alexander Skarsgrd), from filmmakers Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson.David Wain’s earnestly horny (and surprisingly gory) riff on “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” was a starry, easy crowd pleaser, with Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm and John Slattery. And Rinko Kikuchi got raves for her turn as a woman competing in the Tokyo ballroom scene in “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty.”All are still seeking distribution, but the end of the festival does not mean the end of those talks.“There are many more deals happening,” Yutani said. “The fact that these films are going to have these robust lives after their Sundance premieres is exactly what we want for these films. For them to reach wider audiencs is definitely the goal.” For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer
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