their celebrations, that s for sure. also celebrating today, is kate cross. she s been named in england s squad for the ashes test with australia after recovering from illness. the pace bowler needed multiple rounds of antibiotics to treat a parasite infection, but has been included in a is player squad for the four day test at trent bridge starting on 22nd june. she said on social media, it s always so special . the test is followed by three t20s and three one day internationals. full details of the squad are on the bbc sport website and app. it s a huge day for women s sport in england. last year was the baroness this morning euros. this summer at the ashes. the winners of the ashes in particular, for us, i think is much as we can we would encourage people to get out. and watch what we are hoping will be some really entertaining cricket. meanwhile, the men s ashes starts in four days time and australia got the perfect warm up by beating india on sunday to become world tes
really important location for china to be. as you mentioned in your intro, it is a couple hundred miles away from florida, where south calm, the us strategic command, the southern command for all of latin america and the caribbean, has its headquarters in miami. so signals intelligence for cuba would be able to monitor the comings and goings of ships and naval and military operations from south calm and that is a significant concern for the security of united states. fii security of united states. of course, is not too long ago that we have that incident where chinese spying balloon was shot down over america. a basic but contextually important question. why is it so important question. why is it so important for china to be spying, especially from areas like cuba, close to the us? especially from areas like cuba, close to the us? well, the last part of our close to the us? well, the last part of your question close to the us? well, the last part of your question cut close to the
i don t really want to live my life in fear that now i ve got a car, i i don t want to drive it anywhere. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. your live with bbc news. you are watching the contract. a us government official has accused china of using cuba as a secret base for its spying operations for years. the unnamed official told the wall streetjournal china had upgraded its intelligence collection facilities on the island which is around 260 miles from miami in 2019. however, us secretary of state antony blinken downplayed concerns about china s intelligence capability, saying the biden administration s diplomatic efforts since 2021 had slowed down beijing s attempts to expand overseas. we can speak now to ryan berg, the director of the americas programme at the centre for strategic and international
studies. thanks forjoining us. interesting, but how surprising is this? president trump, when he was president, and did that normalisation process. is it any surprise that there might be moving towards china? towards china? well, thanks for havini towards china? well, thanks for having me towards china? well, thanks for having me on- towards china? well, thanks for having me on. look, towards china? well, thanks for having me on. look, i towards china? well, thanks for having me on. look, i don t - towards china? well, thanks forl having me on. look, i don t think it s any surprise that our strategic rival, china, is trying to find ways to cosy up to regimes in our hemisphere that don t share our values such as cuba. cuba in particular is such a deal strategically well placed country to cosy up to in terms of the signals intelligence base that is the source of this major story that the wall streetjournal broke last week, but it s not a surprise because it is something that we
location that cuba has two the united states, but if we are looking at this from a strategic competition lens, that china is here to stay in our shared neighbourhood, the closer it can get to us shores and build up real tangible assets in this long term strategic competition with the united states, the better china may well be position. so as i mentioned before, it s notjust in cuba. i think we need to take a broader aperture here and say this isjust one example broader aperture here and say this is just one example of many that we have seen of china trying to build real, tangible assets. a chaplain in venezuela, nicaragua, and it s also happened in argentina, further to the south, where the peeling army runs a full scope space station in the middle of the patagonian desert thatis the middle of the patagonian desert that is described in the media as a black box. the argentines aren t allowed to go inside. so we have seen efforts in the past, five or ten years ago, to build out these ki