Cuba’s electrical grid went down Friday after one of the island’s major power plants failed, a day after a massive blackout swept across the Caribbean island and with no official estimate for when service will be restored. The Cuban energy ministry announced that the grid had gone down hours after the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant had ceased operations, at about 11 a.m. local time Friday. It said state-owned power company UNE was using distributed generation to provide power to some areas and that a gas-fired thermoelectric plant was starting operations. Mexico's president slams US aid for Ukraine and sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba But as darkness started to fall, millions of Cubans remained without power. Even in a country accustomed to frequent outages amid a deepening economic crisis, Friday’s supply collapse was unprecedented in modern times, aside from incidents involving intense hurricanes, like one in 2022. Various calls by The Associated Press seeking to clarify the extent of the blackout on Friday weren’t answered. In addition to the Antonio Guiteras plant, Cuba has several others and it wasn’t immediately clear whether or not they remained functional. “The power went out at 8 in the morning and it is now 5 in the afternoon and there is no electricity anywhere,” said Luis González, a 73-year-old retiree in Havana. Early Friday, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero had sought to assuage concerned citizens about the blackout Thursday evening, which was already the nation's worst in at least two years. Officials said that 1.64 gigawatts went offline during peak hours, about half the total demand at the time. Millions were left without power, and on Friday the government implemented emergency measures to slash demand, including suspending classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling non-essential services. “The situation has worsened in recent days,” Marrero said in a special address on national television in the early hours of Friday. “We must be fully transparent ... we have been halting economic activities to ensure energy for the population.” During Marrero's address, he was accompanied by Alfredo López, the chief of UNE, who said the outage Thursday stemmed from increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residences’ air conditioners, as well as breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven’t been properly maintained and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities. 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 also being considered, Marrero said. Marrero sought to provide reassurance about the outage, citing an expected influx of fuel supply from Cuba's state-owned oil company. “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.” The blackout has left millions of Cubans on edge. Thursday night, residents shut their doors and windows they typically leave open at night, and candles or lanterns were visible inside their homes. By Friday night, there was no indication that a solution was imminent. Prolonged electricity outages in the past have affected services like water supply and Yasunay Pérez, a Havana resident, said, with sarcasm, that she’s willing and able to bathe in the sea. “We can use all our survival (skills),” she said.

Bangladesh has stressed the need for strengthening the G-77 forum under the current presidency of Cuba and for coming up with a strong statement against interference in the internal affairs of other countries at the upcoming G-77 Summit. The Summit will be held in Havana in September 2023 to promote and safeguard the interests of developing countries. Bangladesh High Commissioner to Canada, Dr. Khalilur Rahman, presented his credentials — as concurrent Ambassador to the Republic of Cuba — to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez at the Presidential Palace in Havana on Saturday (April 15, 2023). The Ambassador received a guard of honour from the presidential guard at the palace. Read more: Want security in the region but no defence pact: Momen on Indo-Pacific Strategy After the presentation of the letters of credence, a discussion was held with the Cuban president in presence of Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla, foreign minister of Cuba. The president of Cuba highlighted the long-standing and friendly bilateral relations laid down by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Cuban Revolutionary leader and its former president Fidel Castro. He also highlighted the bond of existing friendship ever since diplomatic relations were established between the two countries. He deeply appreciated Bangladesh’s support to Cuba in different international organizations and looked forward to continuing collaboration between the two countries. On his part, the ambassador also recalled the support of the Cuban people and its government led by the revolutionary leader Fidel Castro during Bangladesh’s war of liberation in 1971, and personal friendship between Bangabandhu and Castro. Read more: US wants Bangladesh to set a strong example of free, fair election The ambassador specifically mentioned that in recognition to the support to Liberation War by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, the Government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina awarded him ‘Bangladesh Liberation War Honour’ on March 24, 2013.

Bangladesh conceded a 1-3 game points defeat against Cuba in the 2nd round of the FIDE World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad held in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan on Monday. In Monday's 2nd round, CM Manon Reja Neer of Bangladesh won against Gonzalez Soler Leduard Manuel of Cuba while three other Bangladeshi players --Jannatul Ferdousi, CM Sakline Mostafa Sajid and Md. Sajidul Haque lost to FM Hidalgo Diaz Daniel, Hernandez Izquierdo Jose A and Caballero Ramos Cuba respectively. Read: World Youth Chess Olympiad: Bangladesh beat South Africa 3-1 points Bangladesh is playing with Malaysia in the 3rd round on Tuesday. Bangladesh team earned two points from two matches.

A fire set off by a lightning strike at an oil storage facility raged uncontrolled Saturday in the city of Matanzas, where four explosions and flames injured 121 people and left 17 firefighters missing, Cuban authorities said. Firefighters and other specialists were still trying to quell the blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, where the fire began during a thunderstorm Friday night, the Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted. Authorities said about 800 people were evacuated from the Dubrocq neighborhood closest to the fire, The government said it had asked for help from international experts in “friendly countries” with experience in the oil sector. Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío said the U.S. government had offered technical help to quell the blaze. On his Twitter account, he said the “proposal is in the hands of specialists for the due coordination.” Minutes later, President Miguel Díaz-Canel thanked Mexico , Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile for their offers of help. The first support flights from Mexico and Venezuela were expected to arrive at Matanzas' airport Saturday night. The official Cuban News Agency said lightning hit one tank, starting a fire, and the blaze later spread to a second tank. As military helicopters flew overhead dropping water on the blaze, dense column of black smoke billowed from the facility and spread westward more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) toward Havana. Read:Supreme Leader acknowledges Iran took Greek oil tankers Roberto de la Torre, head of fire operations in Matanzas, said firefighters were spraying water on intact tanks trying to keep them cool in hopes of preventing the fire from spreading. Cuba's health minister reported late Saturday that 121 people were injured with five of them in critical condition. There were no deaths. The Presidency of the Republic said the 17 people missing were “firefighters who were in the nearest area trying to prevent the spread.” The accident comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages. There was no immediate word on how much oil had burned or was in danger at the storage facility, which has eight giant tanks that hold oil used to fuel electricity generating plants. “I was in the gym when I felt the first explosion. A column of smoke and terrible fire rose through the skies,” resident Adiel Gonzalez told The Associated Press by phone. “The city has a strong smell of sulfur.” He said some people also decided to leave the Versailles district, which is a little farther from the tank farm than Dubrocq. Many ambulances, police and fire engines were seen in the streets of Matanzas, a city with about 140,000 inhabitants that is on Matnzas Bay. Local meteorologist Elier Pila showed satellite images of the area with a dense plume of black smoke moving from the point of the fire westward and reaching east to Havana. “That plume can be close to 150 kilometers long,” Pila wrote on his Twitter account.

Relatives of the missing in Cuba’s capital desperately searched Saturday for victims of an explosion at one of Havana's most luxurious hotels that killed at least 27 people. They checked the morgue, hospitals and if unsuccessful, they returned to the partially collapsed Hotel Saratoga, where rescuers used dogs to hunt for survivors. A natural gas leak was the apparent cause of Friday’s blast at the 96-room hotel. The 19th-century structure in the Old Havana neighborhood did not have any guests at the time because it was undergoing renovations ahead of a planned Tuesday reopening after being closed for two years during the pandemic. On Saturday evening, Dr. Julio Guerra Izquierdo, chief of hospital services at the Ministry of Health, raised the death toll to 27 with 81 people injured. The dead included four children and a pregnant woman. Spain's President Pedro Sánchez said via Twitter that a Spanish tourist was among the dead and that another Spaniard was seriously injured. Cuban authorities confirmed the tourist’s death and said her partner was injured. They were not staying at the hotel. Tourism Minister Dalila González said a Cuban-American tourist was also injured. Representatives of Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA, which owns the hotel, said during a news conference Saturday that 51 workers had been inside the hotel at the time, as well as two people working on renovations. Of those, 11 were killed, 13 remained missing and six were hospitalized. González said the cause of the blast was still under investigation, but a large crane hoisted a charred gas tanker from the hotel's rubble early Saturday. Search and rescue teams worked through the night and into Saturday, using ladders to descend through the rubble and twisted metal into the hotel’s basement as heavy machinery gingerly moved away piles of the building’s façade to allow access. Above, chunks of drywall dangled from wires, desks sat seemingly undisturbed inches from the void where the front of the building cleaved away. READ: Rescuers look for victims at Cuba hotel after blast kills 25 At least one survivor was found early Saturday in the shattered ruins, and rescuers using search dogs clambered over huge chunks of concrete looking for more. Relatives of missing people remained at the site while others gathered at hospitals where the injured were being treated. A desperate Yatmara Cobas stood outside the perimeter waiting for word of her daughter, 27-year-old housekeeper Shaidis Cobas. “My daughter is in the Saratoga; she’s been there since 8 a.m. (Friday), and at this time I don’t know anything about her,” Cobas said. “She’s not at the morgue, she’s not in the hospital.” The mother said she had gone everywhere seeking answers from authorities, but coming up empty. “I’m tired of the lies,” she said. Gov. Reinaldo García Zapata said Saturday evening that 19 families have reported loved ones missing and that rescue efforts would continue. Lt. Col. Enrique Peña briefed Comandante Ramiro Valdés, who fought alongside Fidel Castro, on the search efforts at the site. Peña said the presence of people had been detected on the first floor and in the basement and four teams of search dogs and handlers were working. He did not know if the victims were alive or dead. “I don’t want to move from here,” Cristina Avellar told The Associated Press near the hotel. Avellar was waiting for news of Odalys Barrera, a 57-year-old cashier who has worked at the hotel for five years. She is the godmother of Barrera’s daughters and considers her like a sister. Neighbors were still in shock a day after the explosion. “I thought it was a bomb,” said Guillermo Madan, a 73-year-old retiree, who lives just meters from the building, but was not injured. The three-decade resident of the neighborhood was cooking and watching television when he heard the blast. “My room moved from here to there. My neighbor’s window broke, the plates, everything.” Katerine Marrero, 31, was shopping at the time. “I left the store, I felt the explosion,” she said. “Everyone started to run.” Although no tourists were reported injured, the explosion is another blow to the country’s crucial tourism industry. Even before the coronavirus pandemic kept tourists away from Cuba, the country was struggling with tightened sanctions imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump and kept in place the Biden administration. Those limited visits by U.S. tourists to the islands and restricted remittances from Cubans in the U.S. to their families in Cuba. Tourism had started to revive somewhat early this year, but the war in Ukraine deflated a boom of Russian visitors, who accounted for almost a third of the tourists arriving in Cuba last year. A 300-student school next to the hotel was evacuated. The emblematic hotel had a stunning view of Cuba's center, including the domed Capitol building about 110 yards (100 meters) away. The Capitol suffered broken glass and damaged masonry from the explosion. The hotel was renovated in 2005 as part of the Cuban government’s revival of Old Havana and is owned by the Cuban military’s tourism business arm, Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA. The company said it was investigating the cause of the blast and did not respond to an email from the AP seeking more details about the hotel and the renovation it was undergoing. In the past, the Hotel Saratoga has been used by visiting VIPs and political figures, including high-ranking U.S. government delegations. Beyoncé and Jay-Z stayed there in 2013. García Zapata said structures adjacent to the hotel were being evaluated, including two badly damaged apartment buildings. Díaz-Canel said families in affected buildings had been transferred to safer locations. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador arrived in Havana for a visit late Saturday. He was scheduled to meet with Diaz Canel Sunday morning and return to Mexico Sunday night.

Sitting on her mother’s lap, 2-year-old Lucía looked at the illustrations in her book while around her several children watched the doctors in white coats and nurses with thermometers in amazement. In an adjoining room, Danielito, also 2, sniffled while getting a shot as a clown tried to distract him. Cuba on Thursday began a massive vaccination campaign for children between the ages of 2 and 10, becoming one of the first nations to do so. Health officials here say Cuba’s homegrown vaccines have been found safe to give to young children. “Our country would not put (infants) even at a minimal risk if the vaccines were not proven save and highly effective when put into children,” Aurolis Otaño, director of the Vedado Polyclinic University, told The Associated Press in a vaccination room. Also read: UK OKs vaccines for 12 year olds, aims to avoid lockdowns Otaño said the circulation of the Delta variant produced an increase in infections among the youngest, so Cuba’s scientific community decided to “take the vaccine to clinical trial” and it was approved for children. The Polyclinic expects to vaccinate about 300 children between 2 and 5. Those between 5 and 10 are receiving their first shot at their schools. Lucía’s mother, Denisse González, watched the children in the vaccination room while waiting the hour that her daughter had to be under observation after being vaccinated. “I was very doubtful and worried at first, really, but I informed myself,” she said. “Our children’s health is first and foremost, which is the main thing and (contagion) is a risk because young children are always playing on the floor,” added González, a 36-year-old engineer. In previous weeks, the vaccination of Cubans between 11 and 18 began. The plan includes two doses of Soberana 02 vaccine and one of Soberana Plus, as was done with adults. Cuba faces a persistent COVID-19 outbreak that almost collapsed its health-care system. Provinces such as Matanzas, Ciego de Ávila and Cienfuegos received support from doctors from other parts of the country and even from international donors. Also read: Global vaccine disparity gets sharper amid talk of boosters In addition to the Soberanas, Cuba has developed another national vaccine, Abdala. According to Cuba’s Ministry of Health, 776,125 positive cases of COVID-19 have been registered with 6,601 deaths. In June, Chinese regulators approved the use of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines for children ages 3 to 17. The United States and many European countries currently allow COVID-19 vaccinations for children 12 and older. Children have largely escaped the worst of the pandemic and show less severe symptoms when they contract the virus. But experts say children can pass the virus on to others and suffer negative consequences. “As more adults receive their COVID-19 vaccines, children, who are not yet eligible for vaccines in most countries, account for a higher percentage of hospitalizations and even deaths,” said Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization. “We must be clear: children and young people also face significant risks.”

Less than a week after a rare series of antigovernment protests were broken up by police and government sympathizers, and elicited self-criticism from President Miguel Díaz-Canel, things appear calm in Cuba. But many wonder for how much longer. Squares and parks were occupied by government sympathizers with flags on Friday, and the circulation of traffic and people was normalizing. But mobile internet data service – which authorities cut on Sunday – remained limited. Read: Police patrol Havana in large numbers after rare protests “There is political and social erosion ... There is a lot of disgust, we must talk more, do more things and things that were done wrong should be rectified,” said Abel Alba, a 50-year-old civil engineer. “The president has tried to smooth things over a bit” but he waited “too long” to listen to the demands of the people in the streets. The protests began Sunday when thousands of Cubans marched on Havana’s Malecon promenade and elsewhere to protest food and medicine shortages, power outages and some even calling for political change. The protests continued in smaller numbers into Monday and Tuesday. Díaz-Canel initially responded by looking for culprits, pointing to U.S. economic sanctions, the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic and a social media campaign by Cuban American groups. But he later acknowledged some responsibility by Cuba’s leaders. With this in mind, Cuban Cabinet ministers announced a mix of measures including permits for travelers to import food and medicine without limits and allowing the emergency registration of Cubans’ supply books by people outside their place of origin. “The Cuban government has just shown that it could have allowed the entry of food and medicine without quantity limits or tariffs all along but chose not to do so for more than a year of the pandemic,” wrote José Jasan Nieves, director of the independent digital newspaper, El Toque. “People twisted their arms.” Authorities reiterated their intentions to finish authorizing the operation of small and medium-sized companies as a source of employment as well as a program for state companies to pay more than the current salary scale. What officials also made clear is that they are not willing to make changes to the island’s political model. Street vendor Marlén Rodríguez, 66, was not optimistic following the government’s announcements. “There are no medicines, there is nothing, there is no food.” According to Díaz-Canel, there were four sectors involved in the protests: radical supporters of the United States who waved that country’s flag during the protests and demanded a humanitarian intervention from Washington, criminal groups who took advantage of the situation to loot, people genuinely desperate due to the impact of the crisis on their daily lives and young who have no projects in society. Read: Tropical Storm Elsa moving across west Cuba, then to Florida The marches turned violent with police clashing with protesters, patrol cars being destroyed, shops looted, windows broken, stones thrown and violent arrests and injuries. Some Cubans were upset by the vandalism and groups of government supporters took to the streets and clashed with protesters. “They were coming down the Calzada de San Miguel (del Padrón) while we were going up. We tried to persuade them, but these comrades were violent and threw stones at us,” said Julio César Pérez, a Communist Party member and employee of the Ministry of Construction. He said several members of his group were injured in the brawl. One government opponent died in the protests and the exact number of people arrested is not known. Government opponents have said on social media that the number is more than 100. On Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called for release of the protesters. The measures announced by the government “are positive measures, but they are insufficient,” said Cuban economist Omar Everleny Pérez. “Without affecting the ideology, there is a lot of space in which the state can take action,” he said, mentioning permits for private entrepreneurs to import goods without going through the state monopoly, allowing foreign companies to install retail markets or raising the ceiling for agricultural prices in order to increase supply. But political analysts said the economic challenges are great. “I think the government is just trying to signal to people that it understands their desperation and that it’s going to try to alleviate some of the misery that they’re experiencing. The problem is that the government just doesn’t have much in the way of resources that it can devote to doing that,” said William LeoGrande, an expert on Cuba at the American University in the United States. LeoGrande said the unrest in Cuba and the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse have put the Caribbean back on the agenda of U.S. President Joe Biden. “There is no question that the demonstrations in Cuba and the assassination of Haiti’s president and the resulting unrest there have pushed the Caribbean to the top of President Biden’s foreign policy agenda, even though they would have preferred that it stayed on the back burner for a much longer time,” he said. “What the administration will do on Cuba is still very much up in the air.”

Large contingents of Cuban police patrolled the capital of Havana on Monday following rare protests around the island nation against food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus crisis. Cuba’s president said the demonstrations were stirred up on social media by Cuban-Americans in the United States. Many young people took part in the Sunday protests in Havana, which disrupted traffic until police moved in after several hours and broke up the march when a few protesters threw rocks. Cuba is going through its worst economic crisis in decades, along with a resurgence of coronavirus cases, as it suffers the consequences of U.S. sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump’s administration. The demonstrations in Havana and other communities around the tightly controlled country marked some of the biggest displays of antigovernment sentiment in decades, and authorities appeared determined to put a stop to them. Internet service was also spotty, possibly indicating an effort to prevent protesters from communicating with each other. READ: "Wonder City" Havana celebrates 500th anniversary “We’ve seen how the campaign against Cuba was growing on social media in the past few weeks,″ President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Monday in a nationally televised appearance in which his entire Cabinet was also present. “That’s the way it’s done: Try to create inconformity, dissatisfaction by manipulating emotions and feelings.” In a statement Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden said Cuban protesters were asserting their basic rights. ’’We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,″ Biden said. The U.S. urges the Cuban government to serve their people ’’rather than enriching themselves,″ Biden added. U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq on Monday stressed the U.N. position “on the need for freedom of expression and peaceful assembly to be respected fully, and we expect that that will be the case.” The demonstrations were extremely unusual on an island where little dissent against the government is tolerated. The last major public demonstration of discontent, over economic hardship, took place nearly 30 years in 1994. Last year, there were small demonstrations by artists and other groups, but nothing as big or widespread as what erupted this past weekend. In the Havana protest on Sunday, police initially trailed behind as protesters chanted, “Freedom!” “Enough!” and “Unite!” One motorcyclist pulled out a U.S. flag, but it was snatched from him by others. READ: Spanish king grants highest civilian honor to Havana historian “We are fed up with the queues, the shortages. That’s why I’m here,” one middle-age protester told The Associated Press. He declined to identify himself for fear of being arrested later. Later, about 300 pro-government protesters arrived with a large Cuban flag, shouting slogans in favor of the late President Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution. Some assaulted an AP videojournalist, smashing his camera. AP photojournalist Ramón Espinosa was then beaten by a group of police officers in uniforms and civilian clothes; he suffered a broken nose and an eye injury.The demonstration grew to a few thousand in the vicinity of Galeano Avenue and the marchers pressed on despite a few charges by police officers and tear gas barrages. People standing on many balconies along the central artery in the Centro Habana neighborhood applauded the protesters passing by. Others joined in the march. Although many people tried to take out their cellphones and broadcast the protest live, Cuban authorities shut down internet service throughout the afternoon. About 2 1/2 hours into the march, some protesters pulled up cobblestones and threw them at police, at which point officers began arresting people and the marchers dispersed. AP journalists counted at least 20 people who were taken away in police cars or by individuals in civilian clothes. READ: University of Havana honors Russian PM with doctorate Demonstrations were also held elsewhere on the island, including in the small town of San Antonio de los Baños, where people protested power outages and were visited by Díaz-Canel. He entered a few homes, where he took questions from residents.

Cuba prepared to evacuate people along the island’s southern region on Sunday amid fears that Tropical Storm Elsa could unleash heavy flooding after battering several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people. The government opened shelters and moved to protect sugarcane and cocoa crops ahead of the storm, whose next target was Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 15 counties, including in Miami-Dade County where the high-rise condominium building collapsed last week. Elsa was located about 175 miles (280 kilometers) east-southeast of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and was speeding west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph). It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm killed one person in St. Lucia, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency. Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman died Saturday in separate events in the Dominican Republic after walls collapsed on them, according to a statement from the Emergency Operations Center. Elsa was a Category 1 hurricane up until Saturday morning, causing widespread damage in several eastern Caribbean islands on Friday as the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. Among the hardest hit was Barbados, where more than 1,100 people reported damaged houses, including 62 homes that completely collapsed as the government promised to find and fund temporary housing to avoid clustering people in shelters amid the pandemic. Also Read: How Cyclone Yaas was named Downed trees also were reported in Haiti, which is especially vulnerable to floods and landslides because of widespread erosion and deforestation. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Jamaica and from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to the southern border with the Dominican Republic. A hurricane watch was issued for the Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Las Tunas, and Santiago de Cuba. Some of those provinces have reported a high number of COVID-19 infections, raising concerns that the storm could force large groups of people to seek shelter together. Read Khulna preparing for cyclone Yash Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record and also broke the record as the tropic’s fastest-moving hurricane, clocking in at 31 mph on Saturday morning, according to Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami. Also Read: Cyclone Yaas: Maritime ports in Bangladesh asked to hoist signal no 2 It is forecast to drop 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain with maximum totals of 15 inches (38 centimeters) across portions of southern Hispaniola and Jamaica.

Three Cubans who capsized and survived 33 days on coconut water, shellfish and rats atop a deserted rocky islet south of Florida were in U.S. immigration custody Thursday, and legal experts said they may be allowed to stay under current federal policies.