Big Headlines: Trump threatens to "take" Cuba, while two key Iranian officials have reportedly been killed in the Middle East war

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Trump is threatening to take Cuba now as the country deals with an island-wide blackout

with its oil supply cut off by the United States.

Hi, I'm Vergesh Dave.

This is Big Headlines, everything you need to know to be in the know in just five minutes.

Cuba is in the dark this morning amid a massive island-wide blackout in the country of 11 million people.

And the U.S. President is weighing in as Cuba blames the deepening crisis on the American oil blockade.

No oil has come into the country for 90 days cut off by the U.S. after the situation in Venezuela.

President Trump now says he believes he will have, quote, the honor of taking Cuba.

Whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.

You want another trip, a very weak intonation right now.

How a takeover might exactly happen, though, is still unclear.

Drinking water and food is in short supply.

Hospitals have cut services and trash is piling up across whole neighborhoods.

All of this, obviously wiping out tourism.

Several airlines, including from Canada, have suspended flights to Cuba.

There are major developments out of the Middle East, where Israel is claiming it's

killed two key Iranian officials as Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon continue.

And an explosion has been reported near the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

Israel says it's killed the de facto decision-maker in the country following the Ayatollah's assassination,

as well as the head of the volunteer security force.

CNN's Al-Ni Joko says Iran has not confirmed the deaths,

but has widened its strikes on other countries in the region, including Iraq.

Iraq officials saying Iranian drones targeted the U.S. Embassy and the heavily fortified green zone.

The authorities say there are no casualties.

It comes as Israel ramps up its ground offensive in Lebanon, where Israeli officials say

they're targeting the Iranian proxy group, Hezbollah.

While the war expands, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the UK have issued a joint statement

calling for de-escalation.

The coalition's also condemning Iranian strikes while calling on Israel to end its offensive in Lebanon.

Also making big headlines, it wasn't just the country's biggest cities seeing a slowdown in real estate sales last month.

Senior Business Editor Mike Apple says February sales and prices were down at countrywide.

But according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, activity did start to pick back up toward the end of the month.

The number of homes that changed hands across the country was 8.1% lower than February of 2025.

Sales also fell overall by 1.3% month to month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The national average sale price last month ticked two tenths of a percent lower from a year ago,

to 663,000 new listings dropped by close to 4%.

The Bank of Canada is set to make an interest rate policy announcement tomorrow.

Over 60 indigenous items repatriated from the Vatican are now back on Canadian soil.

They've been taken to Quebec, but as John Kennedy of the Canadian Press reports, their journey home is just getting started,

as experts and elders now work to identify which communities they should be returned to.

The items include baby carriers, embroidered gloves, a bow and arrow, moccasins, a seal skin kayak,

and a model matey sled and dog team.

And they're being housed for now at the Canadian Museum of History in Gattano.

Assistant Professor of History and Indigenous Studies at Western University Cody Grote says,

tracing the items back to their communities or families of origin could take years.

Experts will first study the items design and materials for clues before going into in-depth work to trace them back.

A federal investigation is underway into numerous fishing regulations being broken after a video started circulating online.

Officials say they're reviewing the video, which shows a crew on a large ship,

boasting about catching hundreds of dungeonous crabs while visiting Vancouver.

It shows the merchant sailors hauling up crab traps dangling from the side of a massive commercial vessel

that appears to include some undersized and female crabs.

The president of the BC Crab Fisherman's Association says it's important to follow the rules and regulations

to help ensure local crab fishing remains sustainable.

Crab fishing in BC and even in the United States is a very sustainable fishery

because our rules are you can only get males. No females because females lay thousands and thousands of eggs.

Fisheries in Oceans Canada says it's taking the matter seriously

while the port of Vancouver said it wants to help educate visiting sailors about local rules.

If you haven't listened yet today on the big story, what is AI baby slop?

And how can we save our kids from it?

Those Catherine Jatay speaks with Dr. Kerry Uurt, chair of the Bachelor of Education program

and assistant professor at Wilford Laurier University.

Even if they're not educational, maybe, you know, it's a tool that I can use. What would you say to that?

Well, and I don't want to be all doomsday because there are definite benefits to different aspects of these videos.

However, I think there's a lot of considerations, especially for parents, not necessarily knowing the background of everything.

One of them is it really reduces children's social learning.

So interacting with this automated content, I think it lacks the way that students, those essential verbal and nonverbal cues that children are needing, those, the body language, the facial expressions, those are found in human interactions.

So both seeing that and we go back to the idea of Mr. Rogers, you see how people respond to one another, where if it's this fictitious AI generated,

it's moving so quickly that they're not able to have those verbal and nonverbal cues modeled for them.

You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Now you're in the know. Thanks for listening. Big headlines is proudly supported by Canadian blood services.

Experience what you get when you give. You can make an appointment by visiting blood.ca, the give blood app, or call 1-882-08 to book a donation appointment.

Make sure you follow, share, and review big headlines.

Enrique Amaturo is our lead producer. I'm Vergesh Dave. We'll talk to you tomorrow.