--- description: Watch #KnowRightNow to catch up on today's trending story title: Know Right Now: U.S. and Cuba Reevaluate Relationship image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt991fdd1d04437950/698770205f570f251bb1458c/krn121914_gif3.gif?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Know Right Now](/tag/know-right-now/) ## Know Right Now Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Know Right Now: U.S. and Cuba Reevaluate Relationship by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 19, 2014 5:04 PM CUT  by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 19, 2014 5:04 PM CUT This week, prisoners were exchanged between the United States and Cuba as part of a joint effort to ease decades of tension between the two countries. Alan Gross was released from Cuba on humanitarian grounds. In exchange, three prisoners who were part of the famed Cuban Five were released by the United States. That exchange came amid a historic thawing in relations between the U.S. and Cuba, as the President announced plans to ease the decades-long embargo on the island. Certain American exports will be allowed to go to Cuba, and the caps on remittances will be raised as well. However, President Obama cannot single-handedly lift the embargo, as only Congress has that power. Watch today’s _#KnowRightNow_ to find out more. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3641853/know-right-know-us-cuba/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3641853/know-right-know-us-cuba/"},"headline":"Know Right Now: U.S. and Cuba Reevaluate Relationship","datePublished":"2014-12-19T17:04:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:00:53.490Z","description":"Watch #KnowRightNow to catch up on today's trending story","url":"https://time.com/3641853/know-right-know-us-cuba/","keywords":["Know Right Now","Obama","Cuba topic","United States","Embargo"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt991fdd1d04437950/698770205f570f251bb1458c/krn121914_gif3.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt991fdd1d04437950/698770205f570f251bb1458c/krn121914_gif3.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"krn121914_gif3.gif","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/know-right-now/","name":"Know Right Now"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3641853/know-right-know-us-cuba/","name":"Know Right Now: U.S. and Cuba Reevaluate Relationship"}}]}] ```