An island-wide blackout plunged Cuba into darkness Monday as the country’s deepening energy crisis continues to strain its fragile power system. 

The outage affected roughly 10 million people before limited electricity service was restored in some areas. 

“A total disconnection of the National Electric Power System is occurring,” Cuba’s state-run Electric Union said Monday morning. “The causes are being investigated.”

Cuba has faced increasingly frequent power outages in recent years as the country struggles with chronic fuel shortages and deteriorating electrical grids. The crisis worsened when President Donald Trump imposed additional sanctions in January and threatened tariffs on countries that provide oil to the island. 

MILLIONS LOSE POWER ACROSS CUBA AS TRUMP SANCTIONS CONTINUE TO FUEL ONGOING ENERGY CRISIS

During Monday’s blackout, public transportation was largely halted, and officials said tens of thousands of surgeries were canceled nationwide, according to The Associated Press (AP).

Authorities later said one generating unit had resumed operations roughly two hours after the collapse. 

“Microsystems are already operational throughout the country, to ensure protection for vital services,” the Electric Union said. 

RUSSIAN ‘DARK FLEET’ TANKER BELIEVED TO BE DELIVERING OIL TO CUBA, DETECTED OFF US COAST AMID TRUMP BAN

The energy minister said officials were working to restore power while accusing the U.S. of contributing to Cuba’s energy struggles. 

“Vital services continue to be protected, amidst this complex situation exacerbated by the energy blockade we face,” Vicente de la O Levy said.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel also blamed U.S. policies, describing the energy blockade as a “genocidal” measure imposed by Washington. 

“While the U.S. tries to induce a social explosion through asphyxiation by blocking fuel access to #Cuba, the UNE mobilizes to reverse the SEN outage,” Díaz-Canel said, referring to Cuba’s National Electric Power System. 

“What the electrical workers are doing in the midst of a genocidal energy blockade is heroic.”

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Cuba’s energy crisis intensified earlier this year after a U.S. military operation captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and halted Venezuelan oil exports, cutting off a key source of fuel for the island. 

While Cuba produces only about 40% of the fuel it needs, a Russian tanker delivered roughly 730,000 barrels of oil to the country in March, supplies that were depleted by the end of April, according to The AP.

To conserve fuel, the Cuban government has imposed scheduled power outages that have lasted more than 24 consecutive hours in some areas, the outlet said. 

A blackout in early March affected Cuba’s western provinces, while a separate outage in mid-March plunged the entire island into darkness. 

People in Cuba already faced an ongoing economic and humanitarian crisis, largely due to a US blockade.

Cuba has suffered its third nationwide power blackout since the start of the year, as the country’s fuel reserves diminish and its electric grid crumbles due to an energy crisis precipitated by the US fuel blockade.

The blackout in the country of nearly 10 million people was reported on Monday by the state-run Electric Union, which said that the cause is under investigation.

Cuba’s Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy said protocols were quickly activated to restore electricity throughout Cuba after the outage.

“Vital services continue to be protected, amidst this complex situation exacerbated by the energy blockade we face,” he said.

Grid operator UNE said it was providing electricity to some vital services, including hospitals and food production centres, but by late afternoon was able to serve only 1 percent of the capital, Havana’s, ⁠demand.

Cuba was already struggling with fuel supplies before US President Donald Trump cut off oil deliveries from Venezuela to the island in January. But Trump’s actions, including threatening tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba, have made things significantly worse, and deepened the island’s financial crisis. As a result, blackouts and power cuts have accelerated.

Since January, Washington has only allowed one oil tanker, from Russia, to pass its blockade and dock in Cuba, as part of a sanctions campaign aimed at ending more than six decades of communist government in Havana.

Trump has pointed to the US abduction of Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, in January, and his replacement with a successor that can be pressured to work with the US, as a potential blueprint for Cuba.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel accused the US of trying to “incite social unrest by strangling Cuba’s fuel supply”.

“The actions of electrical workers in the midst of a genocidal energy blockade are heroic,” he wrote on social media.

The blackout is the eighth on the island of 9.6 million people since late 2024. It comes as the state imposes power cuts across the country – over 30 hours straight in parts of Havana and over 70 hours in some rural areas – in a desperate attempt to preserve fuel.

“Living like this is agony,” Meyboll Font, a 51-year-old self-employed social media community manager, told the AFP news agency.

Font said her Havana neighbourhood has been surviving on just “three or four hours of power a day”, but that the blackout was worse because “you never know when it [electricity] will return”.

MADRID (AP) — A large wildfire in the south of France prompted Tour de France organizers to ban fans on Monday from attending the finale of the third stage of the cycling showpiece race.

After a couple of days in Spain, the race entered France with a stage to the Pyrenees town of Les Angles, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from a fire that has burned almost 1,821 hectares (4,500 acres) of land.

Tour de France organizers said the large wildfire currently in the Pyrénées-Orientales required a large mobilization of wildfire-fighting resources, internal security forces, and other government agencies.

“The top priority remains the protection of people, property, and natural areas, as well as bringing the fire under control,” authorities said.

As a result, organizers decided that once the peloton reaches France for the last 40 kilometers (25 miles), the publicity caravan — a 10-kilometer (6-mile) procession of sponsor vehicles that precedes the race — would not be able to operate.

Only riders and vehicles essential to the race would be allowed on the route, and spectators were asked not to gather on the roadside or at the finish area.

Stage 3 started from the Spanish town of Granollers, where temperatures reached around 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), race organizers said, quoting the Spanish Meteorological Agency.

Nearly 700 firefighters were battling the blaze, which led authorities on Sunday night to order the evacuation of more than two dozen villages.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Globally, 2025 was the third-hottest year on record, bringing severe heatwaves across Europe.

Scores of wildfires break out in Greece

In Greece, 96 wildfires had broken out over the past 48 hours, the country’s government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said Monday. The vast majority were quickly brought under control before they could spread, he said.

Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.

The most significant fire broke out Sunday afternoon in the Mandra area west of the capital, Athens. Authorities deployed 29 aircraft and more than 200 firefighters in a race to tame the blaze before nightfall, when firefighting planes can no longer operate. By Monday, the fire had abated, although it had not been fully extinguished.

Several parts of the country were listed as being at a high or very high risk of wildfires on Monday due to strong winds. One wildfire that broke out in the southern island of Crete triggered evacuation orders for a village near the town of Ierapetra. The blaze, which was burning through mainly agricultural land, was being fanned by strong winds, the fire department said.

Another heatwave in Spain and Portugal

In the Iberian Peninsula, another surge in heat spread across Spain and Portugal, where hundreds of firefighters were also working to contain wildfires.

Spain’s weather agency AEMET warned that a heatwave that began Sunday would endure at least until Thursday, bringing elevated daytime and nighttime temperatures. Across much of Spain, including the capital Madrid, daytime highs were expected to range between 37 C and 42 C (99 F and 108 F) on Monday and Tuesday.

Overnight conditions were also forecast to be uncomfortably hot, with temperatures easily exceeding 20 C (68 F) — which scientists refer to as ‘tropical nights’. This means people might not be recovering properly from daytime heat in the overnight hours.

In Portugal, inland locations saw temperatures soar Monday, while coastal Lisbon also baked under temperatures reaching 33 C (91 F). Temperatures were expected to drop later in the week.

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Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed to this report