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Chapter 1: What is causing Cuba's aviation fuel crisis?
Cuba faces its worst fuel crisis in decades. Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Guy Kilty. Good morning. Cuba's tourism industry has suffered a major blow after dozens of flights were cancelled because of a lack of aviation fuel.
Air Canada, which flies many tourists to the Caribbean island, suspended flights on Monday because of the shortages. The scarcity of jet fuel is the latest result of efforts by the Trump administration to impose an effective oil blockade on the communist nation. The White House is threatening tariffs on any country which supplies Havana and local people are already feeling the pain.
I've spent two hours waiting for the fuel tanker to arrive and no sign of it. We don't know if it's coming. And this is paying in dollars. I've been here for five hours. No tanker yet and no idea if it's coming. They say it's coming, but who knows? In Cuban pesos or foreign currency, whatever. So what does this mean for air travel to and from Cuba?
The BBC's Will Grant reports.
It's pretty significant first and foremost because Canada is the primary source of tourists to Cuba. So the immediate impact will be there and Air Canada is saying that it's suspending its flights, that it will be ferrying out those customers who are still there, around about 3,000 they believe are still in the country and getting them home.
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Chapter 2: How are airlines like Air Canada affected by the fuel shortage?
But of course this is having an effect on other airlines who are looking at their services, wondering exactly how they're going to do things because it's quite simple to They cannot refuel in Havana. So short-haul flights to Mexico and Miami should still run, but it is going to get increasingly tough for those flights from Turkey, Russia, Madrid and so on.
I think ultimately the intention of the Trump administration is to squeeze the island in every which way possible over fuel. and by doing so, really damage its tourism industry in the short term and medium term. Those airlines are watching this very, very closely, working out if they can refuel elsewhere and then jump across.
Chapter 3: What impact does the US oil blockade have on Cuba's tourism?
But that might not be possible. So this is having a huge knock-on effect, because it's not the only way that oil supply is harming life in Cuba. Rationing is taking place, of course, in terms of cars. People can only fill... About half a tank they can only pay in US dollars. Health services are being affected, public transport, schools are being shuttered.
I mean, it is a very, very bleak picture on the island right now.
Will Grant there. Let's do the numbers. Shares in Heineken were up around 5% after the Dutch brewing giant reported a rise in annual operating profit. The company also said it plans to cut 5,000 to 6,000 jobs over the next two years, around 7% of its global staff. And China's consumer inflation rose less than expected in January, up 0.2% from a year earlier.
The British department store Harrods says more than 180 survivors of abuse by the store's former owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed, have applied for financial compensation. Hundreds of women have accused the late Egyptian billionaire of rape and sexual assault while working at Harrods. The luxury retailer says around 50 women have received payments to date.
Sales of electric motorbikes are growing and it's no longer just the preserve of niche manufacturers. The BBC's Elizabeth Hotson's been looking at this rapidly growing market.
When we talk about electric vehicles, we're usually thinking about cars, but the electric motorbike market is also growing. For the last decade, it's been dominated by high-volume, low-cost Chinese and Indian models, but now some of the most famous names in biking are getting involved. Honda is one of them.
Later this year, its first high-powered electric motorbike, the WN7, is being rolled out globally. Andrew Mineko is head of motorcycles for the company's UK division.
there's a belief not just from Honda but from a lot of people in the industry that once a mainstream manufacturer enters the market then it will kind of break the glass ceiling
According to research firm Motorcycle Data, global sales of electric motorbikes were up 7% in the first half of 2025. At the recent Motorcycle Live show in the UK city of Birmingham, Tony Campbell, CEO of the UK's Motorcycle Industry Association, told me that as batteries improve, Honda could be followed by other global manufacturers.
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