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Hurricane Rafael lashes Cuba with life-threatening winds, rain

Havana, Cuba Reuters Hurricane Rafael began lashing Cuba’s south shore as a Category 3 cyclone shortly after noon on Wednesday, the US National Hurricane Center said, packing sustained winds of 185 kph and forcing widespread evacuations of tourists and residents. The hurricane was located about 135 kilometres south of Cuba’s capital Havana at 1pm, and […]

Tropical Storm Rafael gains steam, churns toward Jamaica, Cuba

Havana, Cuba Reuters Tropical Storm Rafael gained steam late on Monday as it churned northward toward Cuba, which is still struggling to recover from a nationwide blackout and hurricane two weeks ago. The US National Hurricane Center said Rafael would see “steady or rapid intensification” before plowing across western Cuba with maximum predicted winds of […]

In Havana’s still dark corners, a protest erupts

Havana, Cuba Reuters Just three or four city blocks in all of central Havana remained without electricity on Monday evening – an island of darkness in the Cuban capital’s sea of flashing lights, pounding reggaeton and jammed bars and cafes. That is where an unusual protest broke out. Cuban police and military stand next to […]

Most of Havana back online as Cuba works to revive power grid

Havana, Cuba Reuters Cuba’s power-grid operator said it had restored electricity to most of the capital Havana on Monday even as Tropical Storm Oscar lashed the island’s eastern end, downing trees and power lines. Strong winds raked the region as the storm stalled over land, uprooting banana plants and tearing roofs off homes, according to […]

Cuba grid collapses again as hurricane looms

Havana, Cuba Reuters Cuba’s electrical grid collapsed again on Sunday, the fourth such failure in 48 hours as a looming hurricane threatened to wreak further havoc on the island’s decrepit infrastructure. Cuba earlier on Sunday had said it was making headway restoring service after multiple false starts, though millions of people remained without electricity more […]

Cuba slowly starts restoring power after island-wide blackout

Havana, Cuba Reuters Cuba restored a trickle of power to its grid by mid-evening on Friday, officials said, hours after the island plunged into a countrywide blackout following the collapse of one of its major power plants. The vast majority of the country’s 10 million residents were still in the dark on Friday night, but […]

US will not renew legal status for hundreds of thousands of migrants

Washington DC, US Reuters The Biden administration will not renew a temporary humanitarian entry program for hundreds of thousands of migrants with US sponsors who arrived in recent years, the US Department of Homeland Security said on Friday. Some 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have entered the US by air since October, […]

Cuba slashes size of daily bread ration as ingredients run thin

Havana, Cuba Reuters Cuba’s communist-run government on Monday slashed by a quarter the weight of its subsidised ration of daily bread, the latest shortage to strain a decades-old subsidies scheme created by the late Fidel Castro. The bread, one of a handful of still subsidised basic food products in Cuba, will be reduced from 80 […]

Hundreds of thousands in Cuba without water

Havana, Cuba Reuters Water shortages in Cuba are increasingly flaring tempers, including in capital Havana, as problems mount for hundreds of thousands of residents already ragged from shortfalls in food, fuel and electricity. Upwards of 600,000 people – more than 1 in 20 on the Caribbean island of 10 million citizens – are suffering from […]