Oil prices mixed as coronavirus spike casts shadow over U.S. demand

HAVANA (AP) — Millions of people in Cuba were left without electricity for two days after the nation’s energy grid went down when of the island’s major power plants failed. The widespread blackout that swept across the county was the worst in years.

Authorities were able to restore power to some people by Saturday, but it was unclear when the power would be fully restored across the country.

Here are a few things to know:

What happened and why?

About half of Cuba was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by the entire island on Friday morning after the failure of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas Province east of Havana.

Even in a country that for decades has been accustomed to frequent outages amid a series of economic crises, the grid failure was unprecedented in modern times, aside from incidents involving powerful hurricanes, such as one in 2022.

Even as Cuba worked to fix the power problems Saturday, the country issued hurricane watches for the far eastern Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas provinces as a tropical storm developed into Hurricane Oscar, the 10th hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.

Authorities said the outage that began Thursday stemmed from increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residences’ air conditioners — as many as 100,000 additional ones this year alone. They also blamed breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven’t been properly maintained because of a lack of hard currency due to U.S. sanctions, as well as insufficient fuel to operate some facilities.

Has this happened before?

While some homes have spent up to eight hours a day this year without electricity as the grid has grown more unstable, the current power failure is considered Cuba’s worst in years.

Officials said that 1.64 gigawatts went offline during peak hours, about half the total demand at the time. The government implemented emergency measures to slash demand, suspended classes, and shut down some state-owned workplaces and canceled non-essential services.

Another major collapse occurred two years ago after Hurricane Ian, an intense Category 3 storm, damaged power installations and the government took days to fix them.

Any political consequences?

It’s unknown how Cubans will react if the current blackout endures or recurs.

But problems in the electrical grid have helped sparked street protests several times in recent years, including large demonstrations in July 2021 that led to international criticism of the government for its harsh response. There were also smaller demonstrations due to blackouts in October 2022 and March of this year.

Authorities now say changes to electricity rates for small- and medium-sized companies, which have proliferated since they were first authorized by the communist government in 2021, are being considered.

What’s next?

Officials said the state-owned power company UNE was using distributed generation to provide power to some areas of the island and that a gas-fired thermoelectric plant was starting operations.

Cuba gets its power from huge thermoelectric plants like Antonio Guiteras and some smaller ones, which require crude oil to operate. The country produces about half of the crude needed, but must purchase some of the rest on the international market, which can be difficult and costly due to U.S. sanctions. It has also depended on allies like Venezuela and Russia for cheaper fuel.

Authorities have been working since last year on a project to upgrade the island’s electrical grid through the use of alternative power sources. A project to build 31 centers generating solar energy is under way and projected to be completed next year.

“We are devoting absolute priority to addressing and solving this highly sensitive energy contingency,” Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on X. “There will be no rest until its restoration.”

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SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Authorities said at least seven people were killed Saturday when part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.

Multiple people were taken to hospitals, and crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others were searching the water, according to Natural Resources spokesperson Tyler Jones. The agency operates the dock and ferry boats that transport people between the island and the mainland.

Jones said a gangway at the dock collapsed, sending people plunging into the water.

“There have been seven fatalities confirmed,” Jones said. “There have been multiple people transported to area hospitals, and we are continuing to search the water for individuals.”

Helicopters and boats with side-scanning sonar were used in the search, according to a Department of Natural Resources statement.

Among the dead was a chaplain for the state agency, Jones said.

Jones said he did not know what caused the gangway to collapse, but officials believe there were at least 20 people on it at the time. The gangway connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore.

Sapelo Island is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Savannah, reachable from the mainland by boat.

The deadly collapse happened as island residents, family members and tourists gathered for Cultural Day, an annual fall event spotlighting the island’s tiny community of Hogg Hummock, home to a few dozen Black residents. The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded after the Civil War by former slaves from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding.

Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South — known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia — are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say their separation from the mainland caused residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets.

in 1996, Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was put on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the United States’ treasured historic sites.

But the community’s population has been shrinking for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders who built vacation homes.

Tax increases and zoning changes by the local government in McIntosh County have been met by protests and lawsuits by Hogg Hummock residents and landowners. They have been battling for the past year to undo zoning changes approved by county commissioners in September 2023 that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock.

Residents say they fear larger homes will lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land their families have held for generations.

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CLEVELAND (AP) — Dua Lipa and Cher opened the Rock & Roll Hall Fame induction ceremony on Saturday night singing “Believe” before giving way to a medley of rump shakers by funk masters Kool & the Gang and a powerhouse performance by Dionne Warwick, bringing the house down at 83.

The inductees this year also include: Mary J. Blige, A Tribe Called Quest, Ozzy Osbourne, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, Dave Matthews Band, the late Jimmy Buffett, MC5, the late Alexis Korner, the late John Mayall and the late Big Mama Thornton.

Zendaya inducted Cher. “Where do I even begin? Cher is not one person,” the actor said. “Her name is just as legendary as her legacy.” Zendaya noted that Cher is the only woman to have a No. 1 hit on a Billboard chart in each of the past seven decades. “Cher has got the goods,” Zendaya said before Cher performed a rocking version of “If I Could Turn Back Time.”

In her speech, Cher said she was inspired by Cinderella and thanked her mother for instilling in her to always get back up after defeat. “The one thing I got from my mom is to never give up,” she said. “I never give up. I’m talking to the women — down and out, we keep going.”

Chuck D inducted Kool & the Gang, saying “This is a long-due celebration.” The band had 12 Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 including the 1980 chart-topper “Celebration” as well as “Cherish,” “Get Down On It,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Ladies Night” and “Joanna.” They’ve been eligible for the hall since 1994.

The Roots helped the band do a medley of hits that got the crowd grooving — led by Robert “Kool” Bell — bass guitarist, co-founder and last original member — and longtime singer James “JT” Taylor. Confetti shot into the arena and Taylor asked the crowd to use their cellphone lights as he read off the names of 10 members who were critical to the band’s success.

Warwick arrived at the ceremony only a few days after attending a memorial to her longtime friend and collaborator, Cissy Houston, in Newark, New Jersey. Teyana Taylor called her “truly one of a kind” as well as telling off the teleprompter operator for not putting “Ms.” before her name. Jennifer Hudson sang “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and was joined by Warwick, who also sang “Walk On By.”

She said this was the third time she was nominated. “I am so pleased to be here,” she said. “I’m just going to say this and get off the stage: Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Saturday’s induction ceremony is being held at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, where the Hall has promised to return to every few years. It streams live on Disney+ and a special with performance highlights will air on ABC on Jan. 1.

The Hall says the Dave Matthews Band, Blige, Foreigner and Frampton also will be performing live. When the names of the nominees were read before the telecast, it was the Dave Matthews Band that got the biggest cheer in the auditorium.

Warwick, Cher — who, in addition to her hits, was a pioneer in the use of Auto-Tune — and Blige, with eight multi-platinum albums and nine Grammy Awards, will help boost the number of women in the Hall, which critics say is too low.

Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before they’re eligible for induction. Nominees were voted on by more than 1,000 artists, historians and music industry professionals.

John Sykes, president of entertainment enterprises at iHeartMedia and the chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said Saturday that he and the Hall are trying to bring the inductions back to rock’s roots, not expand the category.

“What I’m trying to do is bring over the aperture back up to where it was in the late ’50s, where you had Brenda Lee and Hank Williams right next to Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, the Beatles. It was, at that time, this gumbo of artists. It kind of narrowed down over the years. All I can do is bring it back to its original roots.”

There had been a starry push to get Foreigner — with the hits “Urgent” and “Hot Blooded” — into the Hall, with Mark Ronson, Jack Black, Slash, Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney all publicly backing the move. Ronson’s stepfather is Mick Jones, Foreigner’s founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist.

Other members of rock, pop and hip-hop royalty will be on hand to help usher the class in, including Busta Rhymes,Demi Lovato, Ella Mai, James Taylor, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Lucky Daye, Mac McAnally, Method Man, Roger Daltrey, Sammy Hagar, Slash and The Roots.

Julia Roberts will help induct the Dave Matthews Band — she’s a self-avowed superfan and she appeared in the band’s video for the 2005 single, “Dreamgirl.” Busta Rhymes will be performing with A Tribe Called Quest.

While no country act is being inducted this year, country artists will be heard. Kenny Chesney and Mac McAnally will team up to pay tribute to Buffett, while Urban will play in honor of Frampton. Meanwhile, Hagar revealed he’ll be part of the team inducting Foreigner and will sing “Hot Blooded.”