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President Trump is expected to make a speech in Miami, Fla., on June 16, 2017, to announce changes on U.S. policy toward Cuba.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

MIAMI When President Trump travels to this Cuban-American enclave on Friday to announce curbs on recentU.S. ties withCuba, he'llbe flanked by supporters of his moves and confronted by protesters opposed to his rollback of one of President Barack Obama'ssignature achievements.

Trump, who has assailed Obama's renewed relations with Cuba's communist government after more than 50 years of estrangement, plans to fulfill a campaign promise to those in the Cuban-American community mostly older Republicanswho wantto maintain harsh sanctions against the regime of President RalCastro. Trump is scheduled to deliver his speech with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and other anti-Castro lawmakers who helped craft Trump'spolicy by his side.

But outside the Little Havana theater where he'llspeak, throngs of predominantly younger Cuban Americansplan to demonstrate against retrenchment fromcloser connectionswith Cuba based on the argument that improved diplomatic, business and travel ties are the best way to spur growth in Cuba's emerging private sector and pressure the government to end its repression ofpolitical freedom. They contend thatrolling back the U.S.-Cuban thaw begun by Obama and Castro in December 2014 will hurt the Cuban people more than their communist leaders.

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Trump to change Cuba policy by limiting travel and business transactions

"It's heartbreaking," said Patrick Hidalgo, a Cuban-American and former director of the White House Business Council under Obama. "We all know that Ral Castro and the leadership in Cuba will be fine. They don't worry where they're going to get breakfast, lunchand dinner. The average Cuban does, and our policy has helped them. This change will have a very direct, negative impact on their daily lives and their morale."

Trump won'tundo all U.S.-Cuban ties, ashe threatened to do while campaigning through South Florida last year. The embassies in Washington, D.C., and Havana that reopened in 2015 will remain, the two governments will continue negotiating on a variety of problemsof mutual concern and commercialU.S. flights and cruises crossing the 90 miles separating the two countries willcontinue.

Rather, advocates on both sides of the issue expect Trump to unveil more modestchanges that would limit the ability of U.S. companies to work directly with state-owned businesses in Cuba, and make sure Americans visit the long-isolated island only for specific and closely monitored purposes, not merely as tourists.

The reasonfor suchchanges, according to the Trump administration and supporters of the move, isCuba's failureto open up its political system, severties with anti-American dictators and end mistreatment of political dissidents.

"The new policy centers on the belief that the oppressed Cuban people rather than the oppressive Castro regimes military and its subsidiaries should benefit from American engagement with the island," said a Trump administration statement obtained by USA TODAY.

"Nothing has changed because of Obama's opening,"saidJaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami."Cuba remains an enemy of the United States.Cuba remains an ally of Iran, of Russia, of North Korea, of Syria."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tolda Senate panel Tuesday thathe wants to maintain the "sunny side" of the opening to Cuba, butthere also is a "dark side" tothe new relationship that the administration needs to correct.

"Political opponents continue to be imprisoned. Dissidents continue to be jailed," Tillerson said. "If we're going to sustain the sunny side of this relationship, Cuba must, absolutely must, begin to address its human rights challenges."

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Some critics ofthat approach accuse Trump of hypocrisy.Marselha Margerin of Amnesty International noted that Trump recently traveled to Saudi Arabia, where helavished its leaders with praise and signed a huge military dealbut ignored their flagrant human rights abuses."It's a bit hypocritical how the U.S. government addresses human rights violations in different countries," she said.

John McCullough, president and CEO of Church World Service, saidreports from church leaders in Cuba indicate the government hasscaled back arrests of political prisoners.In the first five months of 2016, Cuba averaged 1,215 political arrests a month, according to the Havana-based Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Over the same time period in 2017, that average has fallen to 448 arrests a month.

"Our view is that conditions on the ground are, in fact, improving," McCullough said. Church leaders in Cuba, "feel like their voices are being heard and being respected. Increasingly, they feel like they're partners in the development of Cuba."

Trump also has caughtheat from members of his own party on Capitol Hill.Three Republican senators who support an opening with Cuba Jeff Flake of Arizona,Mike Enzi of Wyoming and John Boozman of Arkansas wrote a letter to Tillerson last week urging him to reconsider any drastic changes with the island.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., calls himself "the absolute strongest supporter" of Trump, but he said the president will position himself on the "wrong side of history" by rolling back the opening with Cuba. Emmer lamented that Trump seems to be crafting his Cuba policy with only hardline Cuban-American legislators whispering in his ear rather than listening to the growing chorus of Americans, and Cuban-Americans, who want closer ties with their Caribbean neighbors.

"We've tried to communicate with the White House as best we can," Emmer said. "Unfortunately, I think he might be listening to a very small group of voices. Until I hear otherwise, I'm going to hold out hope that the president will listen to some rational voices."

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Trump to face protests over rollback of Obama's Cuba opening - USA TODAY

Church bells rang out and Cubans strung American flags from their windows when President Barack Obama announced in December 2014 that the U.S. would stop trying to push Cuba toward collapse.

Obama's new policy of engagement unleashed a flood of American visitors, pumping cash into Cuba's nascent private sector, even as the centrally planned economy hit its first recession in nearly a quarter century. Many Cubans did better. But most lives remained a grinding daily struggle. Jubilation faded to resignation.

President Donald Trump on Friday is expected to give America's Cuba policy its second 180-degree spin in three years during an appearance in Miami, reviving the Cold War goal of starving Cuba's communist system of cash while inciting the population to overthrow it. On the table: cutbacks on U.S. travel to Cuba and a ban on doing business with the military-linked conglomerate that controls much of the Cuban economy.

Ordinary Cubans are bracing for the worst. Across the island, people of all ages, professions and political beliefs expect rising tensions, fewer American visitors and a harder time seeing relatives in the U.S. And while some Cuban exiles in South Florida are celebrating, others question the wisdom of undoing a policy that had started showing results by increasing the number of Cubans economically independent of the government.

In 1980, some 125,000 Cubans fled the port of Mariel on boats to the U.S. in the largest single exodus of refugees in modern Cuban history. Today, the city 30 miles west of Havana is home to the county's main cargo facility, where freighters unload containers of supplies for the country's booming tourism industry.

A few miles from the gates of the port, 42-year-old Yosvani Reinoso works as a self-employed locksmith from a stand on Mariel's main square

He hasn't seen his life improve much since the U.S. and Cuba re-established friendly relations, but the restart of commercial flights after a half-century gave his wife hope she could afford to visit her 19-year-old son who emigrated to the U.S. two years ago.

Trump's looming policy change has her worried that the cheaper, more convenient flights could soon be a thing of the past.

"All of the problems between the two countries need to end so she can go to the U.S. Embassy and say, 'I want to see my son,' buy a ticket and go for the weekend," Reinoso said. "The best thing that can happen for the two countries is for all of these problems to end, for everything to be normal."

In Havana, 53-year-old hairdresser Dioslans Castillo said Obama's 2016 visit to Havana and his calls for Cubans to seize control of their economic destiny had inspired him to try to open a bar with gourmet food and cultural activities for LGBT Cubans.

"Obama incentivized entrepreneurship," Castillo said. "His visit influenced society because the people saw the so-called opening, despite it happening in slow steps compared to the rhetoric. But with Trump, it's all going to crash."

Speaking from Miami, where he was working with anti-Castro Cuban-American groups ahead of Friday's announcement, Cuban dissident Antonio Rodiles said he supports Trump's plans and many ordinary Cubans do as well.

"Many, many people are telling me that we have to squeeze the government once and for all," Rodiles said. "And many people I meet in the street have much tougher opinions than mine."

Also in Miami, Roberto Pique, who left Cuba at age 15 in 1961, said that even though he wanted the Castro family to leave power, Obama's actions had allowed Cubans to have more access to information. The number of Cuban-Americans traveling to Cuba has increased and the government has opened hundreds of public Wi-Fi spots since the warming, greatly expanding internet access.

"Obama was a very wise man. He had something in mind, like playing chess with those people, the communists over there," he said. "The Cubans have more access to what's happening in the world because there are so many people traveling over there, their families." said Pique, a retired juvenile probation officer. "I don't think anything that (Trump) will do will help us get rid of those communists in Cuba. They have survived worse, unfortunately."

Even opponents of Obama's policy said they didn't expect much from Trump's proposal.

"He will make the same promises than the last 10 presidents have made Cuban-Americans here in Miami and nothing happens," said Raul Masvidal, 75, a financial adviser who arrived in the U.S. in 1960 from the eastern Cuban city of Camaguey. "Outside the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 when you really look back to the last 50 years, nothing has been done. Castro is still there. Different first name."

Standing in front of a primary school in Mariel, 56-year-old teacher Juan Manuel Lemus said he had hoped Obama's opening would lead Cuban-Americans to invest in businesses in his decaying industrial hometown, the same way many had poured money into tourist centers like Havana.

"There are a lot of Americans and Cuban-Americans who have family here and more investment would be good for us," he said.

But his immediate worry was much more personal.

"I have a son, my oldest, in the United States," he said. "I'm afraid, really, about what happens if Trump cuts back relations. He's in Tampa, painting houses, and the more open things are between the U.S. and Cuba, the better."

Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Gisela Salomon in Miami also contributed.

Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein

Adriana Gomez Licon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/agomezlicon

Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

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Cubans brace for worst as Trump takes aim at Obama opening - ABC News

Story highlights

"I do want to put some of this at the feet of Barack Obama," the Iowa congressman said in an interview with Simon Conway on WHO Iowa radio. "He contributed mightily to dividing us. He focused on our differences rather than our things that unify us. And this is some of the fruits of that labor."

The host had asked King whose responsibility it was to "shut down the crazy" elements of American politics and how to do so.

"Our whole society and culture has to come together on this," King replied. "And those are just not platitudes on my part. I'm saying we've got leaders out there that can help pull us together but in the end it traces back to our families, to our fathers, to our mothers, to good examples, to the right things being said around the kitchen table, in the living room, in church and in school. And if the culture is gonna be divided, it's been divided core back to there."

"And if it's gonna be united, it's gotta be united all the way back to the principle subsidiarity, which I speak to occasionally, as close to the individual and as close to the people that's close to the individual, which means family first, is where it needs to be," King continued, before arguing that Obama deserves some blame for the present environment.

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GOP Rep. Steve King: Obama partly to blame for climate that led to Scalise shooting - CNN International

Recent food rule delays are sowing chaos in the industry.

Maddie OatmanJun. 15, 2017 6:00 AM

Wavebreakmedia/iStock/Getty

On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration announcedit would delay indefinitely the launch of the redesigned nutrition facts labels that large food companies were supposed to comply with by July 26 of next year. The FDA says the extension is meant to give companies more time to figure out how to get the new labels onto their products, but those who have already hustled or spent extra money to comply with the deadline arent too happy about the shift in plans.

The delay is one in a series of changes to Obama-era reforms that has sent the food world reeling in the last couple of months. After a May decision to put off requirements to list calorie counts on menus, the Center for Science in the Public Interests Director of Nutrition Policy Margo G. Wootan remarked that the Trump administration is randomly sowing chaos.

Heres the lowdown on some of these recent food policy delays:

Nutrition labels: Any packaged food you buy has a label with its nutritional information. After years of complaints about the format and content of this standardized label, in May 2016 the FDA finalized a new label that would make it easier for consumers to make better informed food choices. The font is bigger, for one thing. And perhaps even more importantly, now added sugars (sweeteners added to a product during the processing) will have to be displayedalong with a percent of the recommended daily amount those sugars constitute.

Three quarters of packaged foods contain added sugars, and Americans consume, on average, several times the amount of sugar deemed healthy every day. Besides helping consumers make more informed choices, the new labels should also spur food manufacturers to add less sugar to their products, stated CSPI President Michael F. Jacobson. Heres a side-by-side comparison of the old and new Nutrition Facts Label:

But with the delay of the compliance deadline, now only some foods you buy will show these new labels, at least for now. The delay came about as a result of heavy lobbying by some food groups, who see the new labels as an onerous change. But that leaves the companies that have already complied on certain productslike Nabiscos Wheat Thins and PepsiCos Lays potato chipswith a potential disadvantage. Well have the added sugar declaration and the percent daily value, but our competitors wont? Mars executive Brad Figel told theWashington Post. That just ends up confusing customers.

Calorie counts: Former President Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, included a provision that required chain restaurants, grocery stores, and other food establishments to disclose on signs and menus the number of calories a customer might find in any prepared foods and beverages. Americans tend to underestimate the number of calories in dishes, especially when they are out to eatand we consume one third of all calories outside the home. The calorie count rule was an effort to curb obesity and encourage restaurants to offer healthier choices and smaller portions. It garnered widespread support from industry groupsand consumers, 80 percent of whom supported labeling in chain restaurants in one survey.

On May 4, a day before restaurants were supposed to begin displaying this information, the FDA delayed the requirement for another year. Some industry groups had lobbied the agency to drag its feet on the rules implementation; for instance, the National Association of Convenience Stores and the National Grocers Association had complained in an April letter that the rule was unclear and costly. But Earthjustice lawyer Peter Lehner, who is representing the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the National Consumers League in a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture, sees the delay as another example of the Trump Administrations willingness to accommodate even unfounded and partial industry opposition to the detriment of the health and welfare of people and families across the country.

School lunch: On May 1, the USDA put out a press release entitled Ag Secretary Perdue Moves to Make School Meals Great Again. The very Trumpian decree, which promised to provide greater flexibility in nutrition requirements for school meal programs, does so by loosening stipulations that schools must provide whole-grain-rich breads and pastas; rolling back targets for reducing sodium intake in school lunches; and easing the requirements on the allowable fat content of chocolate milk. Schools were going to have to decrease the amount of salt in meals from 1,230 milligrams to 935 milligrams by 2020*; now, they wont need to change the amount of sodium until after 2020.

The American Heart Association was miffed at Perdues announcement, warning that children who eat high levels of sodium are about 35 percent more likely to have elevated blood pressure, which can ultimately lead to heart disease or stroke.

Salt: The Obama administration released voluntary sodium reduction guidelines in June 2016 to try to encourage Americans to reduce their sodium intake from 3,400 milligrams a day to under the recommended 2,300 mg.

Fast forward a year, andPoliticoreports thatthe new 2017 appropriations billnow prohibits the FDA from using any funding to develop, issue, promote, or advance any regulations applicable to food manufacturers for population-wide sodium reduction actions or to develop, issue, promote, or advance final guidance applicable to food manufacturers for long term population-wide sodium reduction actions until the date on which a dietary reference intake report with respect to sodium is completed. AsFood Politics blogger Marion Nestle writes, this dietary reference intake report by the way, will take years.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the timeline of the original sodium reduction targets for school lunches. The target for 2020 was under 935 mg of sodium with the goal of reducing intake to under 650 mg by 2022.

This article has been revised.

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Trump Is Slowly Undermining Obama's Work on Healthy Food - Mother Jones

Inside Higher Ed

Reset of Rules Aimed at For-Profits Begins Inside Higher Ed The U.S. Department of Education is hitting pause on two of the Obama administration's primary rules aimed at reining in for-profit colleges. Department officials said they will block a rule, set to take effect next month, that clarifies how student ... Betsy DeVos delays 2 Obama-era rules designed to protect students from predatory for-profit collegesWashington Post Betsy DeVos freezes Obama-era rules meant to protect student borrowersCNNMoney DeVos to redo two Obama-era rules on for-profit schoolsThe Hill The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) all 127 news articles »

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Reset of Rules Aimed at For-Profits Begins - Inside Higher Ed