Cuba’s national power grid went down on Saturday, cutting electricity for millions, officials said. The outage marks the second nationwide blackout in a week and the third major grid failure in March.
The state utility, Unión Eléctrica, reported on social media that at 18:32 local time (22:32 GMT) the entire National Electric Power System went offline. Authorities later said the failure was caused by a malfunction at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey province, which triggered a cascading shutdown across the grid.
To maintain essential services, the Ministry of Energy and Mines activated “micro-islands” of generating units to supply power to hospitals, water systems, and other critical centres. Officials said restoration efforts are underway.
Frequent blackouts, sometimes lasting up to 12 hours a day, are now common in Cuba due to both fuel shortages and deteriorating infrastructure. Residents face disruptions to cooking, refrigeration, work, and healthcare, with some hospitals forced to cancel surgeries.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Cuba has not received foreign oil supplies for three months. The island produces only about 40% of the fuel it needs to run its economy.
The blackouts have been worsened by a U.S.-imposed oil blockade. Following the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, Cuba lost its key oil supplier. The Trump administration has cut Venezuelan exports to Cuba and threatened tariffs against other countries that sell oil to the island.
While the U.S. has temporarily eased sanctions on Russian oil due to the war in Iran, Cuba remains explicitly excluded from these exemptions. Mexico, another important supplier, has also halted shipments but continues to provide humanitarian aid.
The U.S. government has linked the crisis to Cuba’s command economy, while Havana blames Washington’s blockade for the worsening situation. President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that Cuba’s government is on the verge of collapse and has demanded political reforms in exchange for lifting sanctions.
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Belgium has marked the 10th-anniversary of the 2016 Brussels terror attacks, remembering the victims of the country’s deadliest peacetime attack and reflecting on changes to national security.
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Iran has launched long-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles towards the joint U.S.-UK military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, in what Israeli officials said was a major escalation in the war.
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Belgium has marked the 10th-anniversary of the 2016 Brussels terror attacks, remembering the victims of the country’s deadliest peacetime attack and reflecting on changes to national security.
A drone attack on a hospital in East Darfur, Sudan, has killed at least 64 people and injured 89 more, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Saturday. Victims included children and medical staff, and the attack has put the facility out of service.
A British nuclear-powered submarine armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles has reportedly taken up position in the Arabian Sea, the Daily Mail reported on Saturday (21 March). The deployment gives the UK the ability to carry out long-range strikes if tensions in the Gulf escalate.
Start your day informed with the AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top stories for 22 March, covering the latest developments you need to know.
Robert Mueller, the former special counsel whose investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election shaped much of Donald Trump’s presidency, has died at the age of 81.
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