TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has banned its sports teams from traveling to countries it considers “hostile,” Iranian state TV reported Thursday ahead of Tractor FC’s scheduled soccer game in Saudi Arabia.

The ban announced by Iran’s Ministry of Sports in Tehran didn’t mention the World Cup which starts June 11 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The ministry’s statement singled out the Tractor game against Shabab Al Ahli of Dubai that was set to be played in Saudi Arabia. It’s a playoff game in the Asian Champions League Elite.

“The presence of national and club teams in countries that are considered hostile and are unable to ensure the security of Iranian athletes and team members is prohibited until further notice,” it said.

The Iran war has impacted the region, with nearly every country in the Middle East sustaining damage from missile hits, drone strikes or shrapnel.

Tractor’s playoff game in Saudi Arabia was the result of the Asian Football Confederation’s draw Wednesday to determine the quarterfinal pairings, a day after announcing that the western zone playoffs that were postponed because of the war in the Middle East have been rescheduled for April 13-14 in Jeddah.

The Saudi city is also slated to host the tournament quarterfinals, semifinals and final from April 16-25, with organizers setting the dates and hoping for peace in the region.

The Iranian ministry added that the soccer federation and clubs “will be responsible for notifying the Asian Football Confederation of this matter in order to relocate the games.”

The Iranian ambassador in Mexico City has said the country was negotiating with FIFA to move Iran’s three group-stage matches from the United States to Mexico after U.S. President Donald Trump discouraged the team from attending the 48-nation tournament, citing safety concerns.

Last week, however, FIFA President Gianni Infantino further dampened Iran’s attempts to move its World Cup matches, saying global soccer’s governing body wants the tournament “to go ahead as scheduled.”

Iranian government and soccer officials have said they do not want to boycott the World Cup but that it is not possible for the national team to come to the U.S. because of military attacks on the country by Israel and U.S. since Feb. 28.

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AP soccer:

Iran claimed that the US is negotiating with itself as the regime fired back at President Trump’s 15-point plan to end the war on Wednesday.

Top military spokesperson Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari criticized any talk of a deal between Washington and Tehran, warning “Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you,” according to a video shared by the state-run Fars News Agency.

Zolfaghari didn’t refer to the US by name, but essentially branded Operation Epic Fury a “defeat” and accused Washington of making empty promises.

“The strategic power you used to talk about has turned into a strategic failure,” he said.

“The one claiming to be a global superpower would have already gotten out of this mess if it could. Don’t dress up your defeat as an agreement. Your era of empty promises has come to an end.

“Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?”

“Our first and last word has been the same from day one, and it will stay that way: Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you. Not now, not ever.”

The top official also warned the US wouldn’t see a return to pre-war oil prices unless stability in Tehran was ensured by “the powerful hand of our armed forces.”

“Stability comes through strength,” he said.

The demands put forward by Washington predominantly related to Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but also called for the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane to stay open, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The outlet reported 14 of 15 demands conveyed to Iran:

1. Iran must dismantle existing nuclear capabilities
2. Iran must commit never to pursue nuclear weapons.
3. No uranium enrichment on Iranian territory.
4. Iran must hand its stockpile of enriched uranium to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 
5. The Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo nuclear facilities must be dismantled.
6. The IAEA must be granted full access to Iran’s nuclear facilities.
7. Iran must abandon its “regional proxy paradigm.”
8. Iran must cease the funding, directing and arming its proxies.
9. The Strait of Hormuz must remain open. 
10. Iran’s missile program must be limited in both range and quantity.
11. Iran must limit its use of missiles to self-defense.

Iran would benefit from:

1. The end of sanctions imposed by the international community.
2. US assistance to advance its civilian nuclear program. 
3. A “snapback” mechanism allowing for the automatic reimposition of sanctions if Iran fails to comply would be removed.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt signaled that the US military operations against Iran will continue until Trump’s objectives are met.  

The Pentagon is gearing to deploy a 3,000 person brigade combat team from the Army’s 82nd Infantry Division to the Middle East — just days after dispatching a three ship unit with approximately 2,500 Marines aboard.

Iran has made a set of demands in return, which a US official branded “ridiculous and unrealistic,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

On top of the lifting of sanctions, Tehran called for the closure of all US military bases in the Persian Gulf.

The Islamic Republic has called for a system where it would collect tolls from ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz

The regime has since confirmed so-called non-hostile ships would be allow to pass through the chokepoint, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil per day.

Despite talk of negotiations, Iran fired missiles toward central Israel and the country’s military intercepted a missile fired at Eilat – a city in the south of the country.

With Post wires

A woman is celebrating her third wedding anniversary after marrying a river.

Mrs. Meg Avon, 29, was blessed in holy matrimony with the River Avon in the South West of England.

The Bristol-born researcher, activist, and writer explains how she and her “darling” still keep their romance alive as they celebrate their third anniversary.

She married the River Avon in a “joyful” ceremony to protect it and raise awareness of water pollution on 17 June 2023.

Meg – née Trump – says she and the river are still “very much in love” three years on.

Meg said: “I am still finding time to swim in the river every week – even in the winter when it has been particularly wet, which always feels riskier!

“But I am committed, and every experience I have in the water is lush.

“I’ve even been finding new ways to connect with the river – from swimming in various spots along the stretch to meeting people from various art and environmental communities at different points.”

The keen open water swimmer said their campaign for water protection is still “very much” in the public consciousness – particularly with the recent release of the C4 doc ‘Dirty Business’, which explores the UK sewage crisis.

Meg said, “It really is lovely to see the recognition.

“People still really connect with our local story and how much it influences the wider national story.

“A lot of the law feels incomprehensible and hard to reach and understand for a big majority of the population, so having a story that makes it relatable is so powerful.

“We all understand marriage because it’s about love and law – the governing forces!”

The campaign group Meg is also a part of, Conham Bathers, set out to initially obtain designated bathing water status in the river Avon, which they have been unable to acquire due to it’s poor water quality.

Meg said, “I’m not surprised by the water quality results.

“I think a lot of people are angry and upset still, and it is important to make people aware of what’s going on.

“It really is sad, but I still see so much beauty.

“The water doesn’t feel disgusting and awful every day.

“On the days when water is clearer, it makes me hopeful that the river can be like that every day.

“Getting in the water is one of the quickest and easiest ways to completely immerse yourself in nature, which is what young people need now more than ever before, with the rise of technology.

“It’s important to keep raising awareness of how people can use that fear and outrage into something that is motivating and not off-putting!”

Her campaign group also hopes to obtain personhood rights for the river Avon, which would not only help in the fight to protect it, but also enable the two to “renew their vows” and be “officially” wed.

Meg said, “I don’t believe the river is an object.

“I think it is an actual entity that deserves rights like any other living thing.

“Though in legal terms, the river is still viewed as an object and not a subject with rights – so you can’t legally marry an object.

“But if we obtain these rights for the river, hopefully I’ll be able to renew my vows and legally marry the river!

“I might even wear a suit this time.

“We are likely to put the charter forward this year – it would be amazing if it came into effect, and it is possible.”

Meg says she is meeting with councillors across the country in an attempt to bring about the UK’s first cross council charter recognising the rights of the river.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish voters went to the polls Tuesday in a general election, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeking a third term at the helm of the Scandinavian country after a standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump over the future of the kingdom’s semiautonomous territory of Greenland.

More than 4.3 million people are eligible to have their say in the vote for the new Folketing, or parliament, in Copenhagen, which is elected for a four-year term.

Frederiksen called the election last month, going to the country several months before she had to in apparent hopes that her resolute image in the crisis over Greenland would help her with voters in the European Union and NATO member country.

In her second term, her support had waned as the cost of living rose — something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.

The 48-year-old center-left Social Democrat is known for strong support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration — continuing a tradition in Danish politics that now goes back two decades.

Seeking to counter pressure from the right and pointing to a possible surge in migration because of the Iran war, Frederiksen announced proposals this month that include a potential “emergency brake” on asylum and tighter controls on criminals who lack legal residence. Her government had already unveiled a plan to allow the deportation of foreigners who have been sentenced to at least one year in prison for serious crimes.

Two center-right challengers hope to oust Frederiksen as prime minister. One is in her current government — Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen of the Liberal, or Venstre, party, which headed several recent administrations.

The other is Alex Vanopslagh, 34, of the opposition Liberal Alliance, which calls for lower taxes and less bureaucracy, and for Denmark to abandon its refusal to use nuclear power. But a recent admission from Vanopslagh to taking cocaine earlier in his time as party leader may have dented his chances.

Further to the right, the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party looks well-placed to bounce back from a very weak showing at the last election in 2022.

No single party is expected to come anywhere near winning a majority. Denmark’s system of proportional representation typically produces coalition governments, traditionally made up of several parties from either the “red bloc” on the left or the “blue bloc” on the right, after weeks of negotiations.

Frederiksen’s outgoing three-party administration was the first in decades to straddle the political divide. It remains to be seen whether this election will result in a repeat, with the centrist Moderate party of Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen possibly acting as the kingmaker.

Greenland, which took up much of the government’s energy in recent months, hasn’t been a significant issue in the campaign because there is broad agreement on its place in the kingdom.

Frederiksen warned in January that an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO. But the crisis has simmered down, at least for now.

After Trump backed down on threats to impose tariffs on Denmark and other European countries that opposed the U.S. taking control of the vast Arctic island, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland started technical talks on an Arctic security deal.

Denmark’s single-chamber parliament has 179 seats. Of those, 175 go to lawmakers from Denmark itself and two each for representatives from thinly populated Greenland and the kingdom’s other semiautonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.

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Moulson reported from Berlin.

Iran launched a fresh wave of missiles at Israel Tuesday – and six people were left injured following a strike in Tel Aviv. 

Air raid sirens rang out across parts of Israel and one munition which damaged buildings and cars in Tel Aviv contained 100 kilograms of explosives, the Times of Israel reported.

Iran also fired missiles on southern Israel but no injuries were reported, according to the Jewish State.

Tehran’s fresh onslaught comes just hours after President Trump announced US military forces would not strike any part of Iran’s power and energy infrastructure for five days.

He postponed his ultimatum to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants, saying Washington and Tehran had engaged in “very good and productive talks” during the weekend.

Trump’s claims were disputed by the clerical regime. 

“Remarks by the US president are part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans,” Iran’s foreign ministry told state media.

“While there have been initiatives by regional countries to de-escalate tensions, Iran’s response has been clear: It did not start the war and all such requests should be directed to Washington.”

With Post wires

Prime ministers evacuated, theaters shut down, death threats issued and tires slashed — it’s all par for the course, performers say, when a certain Chinese dance troupe rolls into town.

“These things follow us everywhere we go to perform,” Ying Chen, vice-president of Shen Yun, told The Post. “We’re airing the CCP’s dirty laundry across the globe.”

Founded in 2006 by members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, the New York-based nonprofit Shen Yun Performing Arts company is best known to many for their ubiquitous ads on the subway and local TV. But a new documentary, “Unbroken: The Untold Story of Shen Yun,” premiering Tuesday, details claims that Beijing has long had it out for the dance group, the Chinese consulate in New York calling it a “cult’s propaganda” in a statement last year.

Spokespeople for Shen Yun, which has eight companies touring the world, claim the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its allies are responsible for the persistent threats against them and those who allow them to perform.

In February, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was evacuated from his official residence after emails threatened to bomb the house if Shen Yun didn’t cancel an upcoming performance in his country.

One email written in Chinese and sent to Shen Yun administrators warned: “If you insist on proceeding with the performance, then the Prime Minister’s Lodge will be blown into ruins and blood will flow like a river.”

That same month, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, was evacuated due to similar threats ahead of a Shen Yun performance. On March 15, a Shen Yun show in Mississauga, Ontario, proceeded despite another bomb threat aimed at that performance.

Chen said the Canada troupe’s tour bus then had its tires slashed.

Multiple bomb threats targeting a Shen Yun performance in Taiwan were traced back to Xian, China, according to local reports.

Human rights groups say the history of Beijing’s beef with Falun Gong is far darker than false flags and smear campaigns.  

“The CCP has their claws in every government and the world doesn’t understand what’s going on. It’s a complete genocide,” human-rights activist Mitchell Gerber, an American, told The Post from an undisclosed location near the western Chinese border, where he has lived since 2021 to raise awareness of Falun Gong persecution.

The religion, which is based in Buddhism and traces its origins back centuries, members say, spread like wildfire in China after its founding in 1992 by guru Li Hongzhi, now in his 70s.

According to internal Chinese government figures, Falun Gong attracted at least 70 million practitioners in the country — larger than the Communist Party at the time, which had only 61 million members — before then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin outlawed it in 1999, calling it an “evil cult.” 

“The Chinese regime has spent who knows how many trillions of dollars trying to root out traditional Chinese culture and shove Marxism on people,” Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, told The Post.

“This was after decades and decades of the communist regime trying to destroy religions, destroy spirituality, destroy the authentic culture so it could turn everybody into good communists,” Browde added. “Falun Gong …was a hearken back to the days before communism.”

Indeed, “China before communism” is the motto used in ads for Shen Yun, which was founded in 2006 and conducts performances depicting ancient legends and historical stories through classical Chinese dance and acrobatics.

Touring dancers, primarily ethnic Chinese in their 20s or 30s, are Falun Gong practitioners and considered world-class professionals in classical Chinese dance. The majority of them train at Shen Yun’s Fei Tian Academy, some 80 miles northwest of Manhattan.

It’s a religious-based school, said Chen, where high school age students — about half are Americans — live on campus.

Today, the number of Falun Gong followers inside China is estimated to be between seven and 20 million.

According to the US State Department and several independent groups, CCP authorities have arrested or detained hundreds of thousands — and possibly over a million — practitioners in prisons and labor camps.

In 2020 the independent China Tribunal claimed that forced organ harvesting from primarily Falun Gong prisoners occurred on a substantial scale. The following year, UN human rights experts expressed alarm over reports of detainees subjected to blood tests and organ examinations consistent with harvesting preparation.

The gruesome accusations appear to be backed up by peer-reviewed studies casting doubt on China’s official organ transplant numbers and citing the often extraordinarily short waiting times for organs in China.  

Patient intake forms from China-based organ transplant centers shared with The Post showed clinics advertising vital organs like livers available “within two weeks” after patients signed up — a wait that takes months or years in many countries.

According to a 2025 investigation by The Epoch Times, which was founded by Falun Gong members in 2000, the social media platform X removed thousands of bot accounts suspected of links to the CCP that were amplifying a series of New York Times articles critical of Shen Yun.

The NYT series claimed that “[Shen Yun] performers were prohibited from reading articles from unapproved news outlets” and “managers told them that any mistakes they made onstage could doom their audience to hell.” The paper accused the Epoch Times of being Shen Yun’s main “publicity machine” and reported claims that performers faced “abusive conditions” and “emotional manipulation.”

The Epoch Times responded by reporting that the NYT published 10 anti-Shen Yun hit pieces in 2024, eight of them published only in Chinese.

The NYT did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Following the NYT series, the New York State Department of Labor announced it was actively investigating Shen Yun for alleged violations of state child labor and wage laws, including claims that underage performers endured grueling unpaid or underpaid schedules.

The investigation is ongoing.

Last April, two former Shen Yun dancers, husband and wife Sun Zan and Cheng Qingling, filed a federal lawsuit in New York, accusing the group of exploiting an “army of child laborers” through brutal working conditions and a culture of fear that forced them to perform while injured.

Sun said he was forced to perform extreme side splits that caused internal bleeding and had to dance with a sprained ankle. Cheng alleges she was forced to endure an untreated shoulder injury.

Both joined Shen Yun’s Fei Tian Academy in Cuddebackville, NY, as teenagers — Sun at 15 in 2008; Cheng at 13 in 2010 — and claim they performed in over 1,000 shows before both being dismissed in 2015.

Shen Yun, which runs out of a 400-acre complex called Dragon Springs that includes the affiliated dance academies, stated that medical care was available to the dancers. The troupe also claims the couple boasted about their time at the academy but changed their tune after a trip to Beijing, and that the lawsuit is another CCP smear operation.

“We will have no comment,” a lawyer for the couple told The Post.

The Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, said in a statement that Falun Gong is “an anti-human, anti-science and anti-society cult … The so-called ‘persecution’ and ‘organ harvesting’ are purely malicious and sensational lies.”

Shen Yun has been a major moneymaker for the nonprofit Falun Gong, with tax records showing an annual revenue of $40-50 million. The new documentary, directed by filmmaker Fiona Young, is timed for the 20th season of Shen Yun and will have a red carpet premiere at Manhattan’s AMC Lincoln Center on Tuesday.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini has been killed in ‌strikes ⁠launched by the US and Israel, ⁠Iranian state TV reported ⁠on Friday.

Naini, also the agency’s deputy of public relations, is the latest Iranian official to be assassinated in recent days. Hours before his death, Naini insisted that Tehran was still able to build missiles despite the US forces’ bombardment from Operation Epic Fury.

“These people expect the war to continue until the enemy is completely exhausted,” he said. “This war must end when the shadow of war is lifted from the country.”

Naini’s remarks were in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming Iran “has no ability to enrich uranium and no ability to produce ballistic missiles.”

“We are continuing to crush these capabilities. We will crush them to dust, to ashes,” Netanyahu said at a press conference on Thursday, according to the Times of Israel.

Earlier this week, Naini dismissed claims that Iran’s navy had been obliterated – warning President Trump that the US could send vessels into the Persian Gulf if he dared.

“The Strait of Hormuz is completely under the management of the IRGC Navy and Iran has complete sovereignty,” he said, according to the Tasnim News Agency.

“Doesn’t Trump say that he destroyed the Iranian Navy? So if he dares, he can send his ships into the Persian Gulf region.”

CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper revealed Monday that more than 100 Iranian naval vessels had been destroyed. He also warned the Tehran regime that US forces “aren’t done.”

CENTCOM also released fresh footage showing forces wiping out Iranian vessels threatening the Strait of Hormuz –  a narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.

The Trump Administration has reportedly discussed using ground forces to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump had been urging allied nations to take a more active role in safeguarding the strait.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, called out. Tehran over its “attempts to block the Strait [of Hormuz] to commercial shipping.”

With Post wires

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

LONDON — British police have charged two men with spying on the U.K.’s Jewish community on behalf of Iran.

Iranian-British national Nematollah Shahsavani, 40, and 22-year-old Iranian citizen Alireza Farasati have been charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service. Prosecutors said the country the charges relate to is Iran.

Frank Ferguson, head of counterterrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, said the charge “relates to carrying out activities in the U.K. such as gathering information and undertaking reconnaissance of targets.”

Both suspects live in London and are due to make their first court appearance Thursday at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

The men were arrested March 6. Two other British-Iranian nationals arrested that day as part of the same investigation have been released without charge.

The head of Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service, Ken McCallum, said in October that more than 20 “potentially lethal Iran-backed plots” had been disrupted in the previous 12 months.

A fraternity brother of missing University of Alabama student James Paul Gracey recalled the last moments he spent with the 20-year-old inside a Barcelona nightclub before his disappearance.

Gracey, who goes by Jimmy, had been hanging out with a group of friends during his spring break trip to Spain when he was separated from his pals inside the world-renowned Shocko club on Tuesday morning.

“Unfortunately, he was separated from the rest of the group later into the night, and that was the last time we’ve heard from him,” Cavin McLay told WBMA on Wednesday.

Gracey and McLay are both part of the Theta Chi fraternity at the University of Alabama, where the pair met as freshmen and rushed together, according to WVTM.

Gracey, an Elmhurst, Illinois, native who is studying accounting, was reported missing after he failed to return to the Airbnb where he had been staying.

The junior was seen on surveillance footage leaving the hip nightclub with an unidentified person at around 3 a.m. Tuesday, a reporter for the Spanish newspaper El Periódico told CBS 42.

That footage led police to suspect somebody might be involved in Gracey’s disappearance.

McLay described his missing “brother” as a “great person, a man of upstanding character. One of those people that’s there for anyone when they ever need it,” he told WVTM.

In October, Gracey was elected to serve as the chaplain of the fraternity’s executive board, saying he was looking forward to “leading with integrity, promoting a values-based culture and supporting the personal and spiritual growth of the chapter,” according to his LinkedIn.

“He serves as a mentor for our younger guys and guides our brothers on their journey with their faith,” McLay told the outlet. “And he also serves as one of our philanthropy chairmen and devotes his time to giving back to others.”

Since his disappearance, the group of friends has come together with Gracey’s family, helping in the search for the college student.

“They’re out on the beach right now handing out flyers just getting as many eyes as we possibly can looking out for him,” McLay said.

“It’s tough. We’re doing everything we can to keep our heads up and remain hopeful that we find him safe, but it’s a tough time. And, you know, we’re scared,” McLay said.

“His dad landed here this morning. We’ve been working closely with local authorities and Sen. (Katie) Britt’s office, the State Department, US embassy here in Barcelona.”

Catalonia police have opened an investigation into Gracey’s disappearance, revealing his phone was recovered by officials.

“We went into the station, and they told us that they had his phone,” McLay told WBMA.

HAVANA — The Trump administration made clear Tuesday that it sees Cuba as the next country where the U.S. can play out its desires on the world stage.

A day after Cuba’s third nationwide blackout in four months as the socialist island’s economy suffers under U.S. sanctions, President Donald Trump said, “Cuba right now is in very bad shape.”

“And we’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon,” the president added.

The Trump administration is looking for President Miguel Díaz-Canel to leave as the U.S. continues negotiating with the Cuban government, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge of talks between Washington and Havana. No detail has been offered about who the administration might like to see come to power.

Many Cubans do not believe that Díaz-Canel holds much power in Cuba, anyway, as opposed to revolutionary founding father Raúl Castro and his family.

Electricity was slowly being restored to hospitals and some homes Tuesday afternoon, but officials warned that the crumbling power network could fail again.

The government blames its woes on a U.S. energy blockade after Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban heritage, said the island “has an economy that doesn’t work in a political and governmental system. They can’t fix it.”

A Cuban official said Monday that Cuba is open to trading with U.S. companies, but such promises have been made before.

“So they have to change dramatically,” Rubio said. “What they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It’s not going to fix it.”

The Trump administration is also demanding that Cuba release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for a lifting of sanctions. Trump has also raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover of Cuba.”

While Cuba produces 40% of its petroleum and has been generating its own power, it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand as its electric grid continues to crumble.

Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said on X that the island had restored the electrical system in the western town of Pinar del Rio and the southeastern province of Holguin and that some “microsystems” were beginning to operate in various territories.

State-owned media reported that by late Monday power had been restored to 5% of residents in the capital, Havana, representing some 42,000 customers.

The city’s residents are concerned about food spoiling and simply trying to maneuver in homes with no lighting.

“The power outages are driving me crazy,” said 48-year-old Dalba Obiedo. “Last night I fell down a 27-step staircase. Now I have to have surgery on my jaw. I fell because the lights went out.”

Havana resident Tomás David Velázquez Felipe, 61, said the relentless outages make him think that Cubans who can should just pack up and leave the island. “What little we have to eat spoils,” he said. “Our people are too old to keep suffering.”

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Seung Min Kim and Aamer Madhani contributed from Washington.

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