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HAVANA — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the government is preparing for severe fuel shortages as he denounced the Trump administration's measures that have cut oil supplies to the island.

"It is reprehensible that a power such as the U.S. would adopt such a criminal policy against a country, as it affects food, transportation, hospitals, schools, economic production and the functioning of our vital systems," Díaz-Canel said.

"We are going to take measures that, while not permanent, will require effort. What else are we to do?" he said during a nationally televised news conference Thursday.

He said the government would roll out a contingency plan in the next week to deal with the fuel shortages.

Díaz-Canel said there is a long list of issues that can be addressed between Cuba and the U.S. He said he's willing to engage in dialogue on any issue, but without pressure or preconditions and with respect for the country's sovereignty.

He said Cubans "do not hate" and recognize the values of the North American people. But the Cuban president said they're preparing a "defense plan" and stated that Cuba is a nation of peace and not a threat to the U.S.

"We aren't in a state of war," Díaz-Canel said, "but we are preparing ourselves in case we have to move to a state of war."

During a briefing Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated President Donald Trump's claims that Cuba's government is about to collapse.

"The president is always willing to engage in diplomacy and I believe that's something that's taking place, in fact, with the Cuban government," she said.

Trump said over the weekend that the U.S.is talking with "the highest people" in Cuba, something Cuba's deputy foreign minister, Carlos de Cossio, confirmed Wednesday when hetold CNNthat Cuba and the U.S. had "some exchanges of messages" that were "linked" to the highest levels of Cuba's government.

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De Cossio has reiterated inmultiple interviewsthis week that there is no official bilateral dialogue or negotiation with the U.S. right now, but they are open to dialogue if certain criteria are met.

Díaz-Canel said Cuba has not received oilshipments from Venezuelasince December. The South American country was the main provider of oil to Cuba, but that ended after the U.S. military operation that led to the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.

In Havana, reaction to the president's upcoming contingency plan to grapple with fuel shortages was bleak.

"The future of Cuba is very dark," Frank Palomares, a publicist, said. "It's difficult for there to be changes here, and they tend to be delayed."

University student Melani Alarcon said: "We're going to be very bad off, without being able to do anything. In my case, I won't be able to study. There is no future in Cuba right now."

Trump has said he asked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to stop oil shipments to Cuba. Mexico has been the second largest supplier of fuel to the island for years. Sheinbaum announced over the weekend that she would send food and other humanitarian aid to the island and called for diplomatic dialogue.

Since Maduro's capture, the Trump administration has turned its focus to Cuba. Trump and others in his administration have said Cuba is a "failing nation" and the government will fall.

It's unusual for the communist-run country's president to hold a news conference on short notice like he did Thursday. It reflects the mounting economic pressure Cuba is facing amid the rising tensions with the U.S.

Cuba has been in the midst of anacute economic crisisfor several years. The number of tourists arriving to the island has declined since the pandemic, and U.S. sanctions have cranked up since then. Chronic shortages in food and medicine have plagued the nation for years, andextended daily blackoutsdue to oil shortages have worsened.

Carmen Sesin reported from Miami, and Orlando Matos reported from Havana.

Thirty-one families that lost relatives in two fatal crashes ofBoeing 737 Max jetlinersasked a federal appeals court on Thursday to revive a criminal case against the aircraft manufacturer.

Boeing Justice Department

Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, urged a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturna lower court's dismissalof a criminal conspiracy charge Boeing faced for allegedly misleading Federal Aviation Administration regulators about a flight-control system tied to the crashes, which killed 346 people.

The dismissal came at therequest of the U.S. governmentafter it reached a deal with Boeing that allowed the company to avoid prosecution in exchange for paying or investing an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for victims' families, and internal safety and quality measures.

Cassell said Thursday that federal prosecutors violated the families' rights by failing to properly consult them before striking the deal and shutting them out of the process.

Federal prosecutors countered that, for years, the government, "has solicited and weighed the views of the crash victims' families as it's decided whether and how to prosecute the Boeing Company."

More than a dozen family members attended Thursday's hearing in New Orleans, and Cassell said many more "around the globe" listened to a livestream of the arguments.

"I feel that there wouldn't be meaningful accountability without a trial," Paul Njoroge said in a statement after the hearing. Njoroge, who lives in Canada, lost his entire family inthe secondof the two crashes — his wife, Carolyne, their children, ages 6, 4 and 9 months, and his mother-in-law.

All passengers and crew died when the 737 Max jets crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019 — a Lion Air flight thatplunged into the seaoff the coast of Indonesia and anEthiopian Airlines flight that crashedinto a field shortly after takeoff.

U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas, who oversaw the case for years, issued a written decision in November that described the families' arguments as compelling. But O'Connor said case law prevented him from blocking the dismissal motion simply because he disagreed with the government's view that the deal with Boeing served the public interest.

The judge also concluded that federal prosecutors hadn't acted in bad faith, had explained their decision and had met their obligations under the Crime Victims' Rights Act.

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In the case of its deal withBoeing, the Justice Department had argued that given the possibility a jury might acquit the company, taking the case to trial carried a risk that Boeing would be spared anyfurther punishment.

Boeing attorney Paul Clement said Thursday that more than 60 families of crash victims "affirmatively supported" the deal and dozens more did not oppose it.

"Boeing deeply regrets" the tragic crashes, Clement said, and "has taken extraordinary steps to improve its internal processes and has paid substantial compensation" to the victims' families.

The appeals court panel that heard the arguments said it would issue a decision at a later date.

The criminal case took many twists and turns after the Justice Departmentfirst charged Boeingin 2021 with defrauding the government but agreed not to prosecute if the company paid a settlement and took steps to comply with anti-fraud laws.

However, federal prosecutorsdetermined in 2024that Boeing had violated the agreement, and the company agreedto plead guiltyto the charge. O'Connor laterrejected that plea deal, however, and directed the two sides to resume negotiations. The Justice Department returned last year with the new deal and its request towithdraw the criminal charge.

The case centered around a software system that Boeing developed for the 737 Max, which airlines began flying in 2017. The plane was Boeing's answer to a new, more fuel-efficient model from European rival Airbus, and Boeing billed it as an updated 737 that wouldn't require much additional pilot training.

But the Max did include significant changes, some of which Boeing downplayed — most notably, the addition of an automated flight-control system designed to help account for the plane's larger engines. Boeing didn't mention the system in airplane manuals, and mostpilots didn't know about it.

In both of the deadly crashes, that softwarepitched the noseof the plane down repeatedly based on faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots flying for Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines were unable to regain control. After the Ethiopia crash, the planes were grounded worldwide for 20 months.

Investigators found thatBoeing did not informkey Federal Aviation Administration personnel about changes it had made to the software before regulators set pilot training requirements for the Max and certified the airliner for flight.

WASHINGTON — PresidentDonald Trumpplans to let a treaty that's limited how manynuclear weaponsthe United States and Russia can maintain expire, while his team works to negotiate a new deal.

The New START treaty was set to end on Feb. 5 after Trump opted against taking Russian PresidentVladimir Putinup on a voluntary one-year extension of the agreement that put caps on the number of deployable nuclear warheads and missiles.

"Rather than extend "NEW START" (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Some experts have saidin the lead-upto the expiration that allowing New Start to lapse could set off a new arms race, while others have argued that the treaty was not worth extending if it did not include verifiable inspections.

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Trump has said he would like to see a new deal that includes China, which has been expanding its nuclear arsenal. Heannounced last October,as he was preparing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, that the U.S. would begin testing nuclear weapons for the first time in more than three decades.

Fallout maps:See how an attack on nuclear silos would impact US cities

Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Trump to let US-Russia nuclear treaty expire

Mike Tirico doesn't have many firsts left in what has been an extraordinary broadcast career.

However, this isn't a normal February for Tirico.

On Sunday, Tirico will call his firstSuper Bowl. Immediately following the conclusion of theSeattle-New Englandgame, Tirico will transition to his role as NBC's primetime host for Olympic coverage. That will make Tirico the first to call a Super Bowl and serve as the mainOlympichost in the same year.

"Nothing can match this winter. You don't even think about dreaming of doing something like this because it's stupid to think that this is reality. But I'm so excited for it and very blessed to be a part of it," Tirico said.

Tirico's unique February began Sunday, when he called a Los Angeles Lakers-New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden to launch NBC's "Sunday Night Basketball" package. The NBA returned to NBC this season for the first time since 2022.

It is the third time NBC has had the Winter Games and the Super Bowl in the same year, but only the second time both have overlapped on the same Sunday.

When the Patriots faced the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 52, the opening ceremony for the PyeongChang Games was five days away. Tirico did a remote hit from South Korea during the Super Bowl pregame show.

Tirico was the Super Bowl pregame host in 2022 when the game was in Los Angeles. After the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the Rams, he did the Olympic primetime show from a set outside the stadium.

"For him to have this moment in time where he's going to do the Super Bowl, he's going to be the lead voice in the Olympics, he's going to be the lead voice in the NBA — I can barely keep these two teams straight in my mind. How he keeps all of that inside that computer brain of his, I have no idea, but there's nobody like him," said Cris Collinsworth, who will be doing his sixth Super Bowl as an analyst.

Super Sunday milestone

Tirico becomes the 13th announcer to handle play-by-play duties for a Super Bowl, and the fourth to do it for NBC. Dick Enberg called eight of NBC's 20 previous Super Bowls, while Curt Gowdy did seven, and Al Michaels called the last five.

One reason Tirico left ESPN for NBC in 2016 was the chance to eventually do a Super Bowl. Tirico was the voice of "Monday Night Football" from 2006 through '15, but it wasn't until the NFL's current broadcast contracts began in 2023 that ESPN joined the rotation of Super Bowl broadcasters. ESPN will have next year's game.

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Sunday will be Tirico's 290th NFL game, excluding preseason, according to NBC.

"I think if you call one (NFL game), you hope that this is one that you get to call eventually, and that opportunity is not lost on me. I'm extraordinarily grateful to all the people who've helped me get to this point," he said. "We all work towards things in life, and maybe once we get there, we don't appreciate the view. So just try to be part of this in a different, more magnetic way to make sure that these images, these days, stick. Just to enjoy it."

Even with extra time to prepare, Tirico has used the same approach as always. As soon as Seattle defeated San Francisco in the NFC championship game on Jan. 25, he was in his office, getting his game charts together and analyzing the backup quarterbacks.

Tirico will have plenty of storylines for Sunday, from Mike Vrabel turning around the Patriots in his first year as coach to quarterback Sam Darnold leading Seattle to the Super Bowl after signing as a free agent from Minnesota.

No matter how the game goes, producer Rob Hyland is confident Tirico will paint the perfect picture. Hyland pointed to Tirico telling the story of Baltimore rookie kicker Tyler Loop leading into a last-minute kick during the regular-season finale at Pittsburgh, without videotape, as evidence of Tirico's performance.

"I think Mike has become, in my opinion, the best storyteller in live television. He told that kicker story in 25 seconds, and you really understood a lot about him, a lot about the Ravens organization, why they moved on from Justin Tucker," Hyland said. "I think Mike's ability to tell stories has only gotten better every single year since he's been a part of NBC, and I think that's an area where he is the best at what he does."

Off to Milan

As soon as Sunday night's Olympic show ends, Tirico will join a group of NBC personnel on a plane from Northern California to Italy. He is expected to begin reporting from Milan during Tuesday's daytime coverage.

Besides Tirico, Gowdy, Greg Gumbel, and Jim Nantz have also done the Super Bowl and served as Olympic primetime hosts. The other three, though, didn't do it the same year.

This will be Tirico's fifth Olympics as primetime host and his third for a Winter Games. Before joining NBC, he covered the FIFA World Cups and UEFA European Championships for ESPN. Those month-long events helped shape how he approaches the hectic pace of the 16 days of the Olympics.

"Usually when I get to Olympics or World Cups, I've found myself on a really good schedule, getting your daily routine dialed in and just maintaining that because I think it maintains your sanity. Your sleep isn't too long, but it's quality sleep, you get a workout, and you get good meals, and you find the comforts that you need, and you make your way through it."

AP NFL:https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Carolina Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis has been tabbed to replace injured Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Pointer on Team Canada in the Milano Cortina Olympics.

Point, 29, has not played since suffering a lower-body injury on Jan. 12 in Tampa Bay's 5-1 win at Philadelphia. He scored a power-play goal in the second period and Flyers defenseman Cam York fell on Point's right leg on the play. Point had to be helped off the ice by teammates and did not return.

The Lightning placed him on injured reserve Jan. 16 and long-term IR this week. He participated in the team's optional morning skate before Thursday's game against Florida but will miss his 10th consecutive game.

Point has 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists), a plus-4 rating, eight penalty minutes, 13 blocks and four hits in 37 games this season.

For his career, Point owns 665 points (317 goals, 348 assists), a plus-81 rating, 157 penalty minutes, 345 blocks and 301 hits in 694 regular-season games in 10 seasons in Tampa Bay. He was an All-Star in 2018.

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He also has 89 points (44 goals, 45 assists) in 92 playoff games, including Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021.

Jarvis, who turned 24 on Sunday, has 43 points (25 goals, 18 assists), a plus-10 rating, six penalty minutes, 21 blocks and 69 hits in 48 games for Carolina.

The fifth-year pro has collected 256 career points (121 goals, 135 assists), a plus-66 rating, 66 penalty minutes, 193 blocks and 419 hits in 352 regular-season games. Jarvis also has 43 points (19 goals, 24 assists) in 55 postseason games. Jarvis and Point both earned a gold medal with Team Canada in last year's 4 Nations Face-off.

The NHL's break for the Winter Games begins Friday. Team Canada, whose head coach is Lightning coach Jon Cooper, plays its first game against Czechia on Thursday, Feb. 12.

--Field Level Media