Cuba heads for third night of blackout after efforts to restart electrical grid fail

Dusk has become a particularly frenetic time in Havana, as Cuba descended towards a third night potentially without electricity after repeated failed attempts to restart the national grid.

- Ruaridh Nicoll

Long queues formed for bread in the capital earlier in the day. The previous night, people had emerged from humid homes to search for food, drink and news.

“What's the point of staying at home?” asked Alejandro Hernandez outside a bar in the neighbourhood of Vedado.

Throughout yesterday, much of the island started to receive electricity again, although no one knew if the night could bring another collapse in power, as it had done each night over the weekend.

Jokes, a staple of Cubans' increasingly difficult lives, are growing more acid. “Turn the Morro back on,” people say, referring to Havana's lighthouse. The island has lost more than 10% of its population in the last two years to emigration, well over 1 million people.

It has become dangerous to walk the streets at night - but not because of violence, rather the crumbling pavements and open drains.