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Fire at Cuban Oil Facility Leaves Dozens Injured, Hundreds Evacuated

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HAVANA — Lightning struck a crude oil storage facility on the northern coast of Cuba, igniting a fire that on Saturday had left dozens of people injured, 17 firefighters missing and prompted the evacuation of some 800 people, according to the authorities.

Images of the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, in Matanzas Province, 60 miles east of Havana, the capital, were shared by the Cuban Energy Ministry on social media and show enormous flames rising from the facility, with plumes of smoke blackening the sky.

Military helicopters were seen trying to douse the inferno as dozens of firefighters rushed to the scene.

The fire began at one oil tank during a thunderstorm on Friday evening, according to state news media, and spread to a second tank early on Saturday morning. That tank was estimated to hold some 52,000 cubic meters of fuel oil, or over 13 million gallons.

As of Saturday afternoon, there were no reported deaths but 77 people had been hospitalized, according to Matanzas government officials. The 17 firefighters reportedly went missing Saturday morning just as the second tank exploded around 5 a.m.

The base, which stores oil for energy production, is near one of Cuba’s primary power plants. Already, the Caribbean island struggles with widespread power blackouts as a result of chronic fuel shortages and an ailing infrastructure in dire need of maintenance.

While the lights are mostly kept on in the capital, in the Cuban provinces where nine of the country’s 11 million people live, hourslong power cuts have become a grueling part of daily life in recent months. And diesel shortages have motorists waiting in line for days.

“It’s a structural problem with Cuba’s electric power system, which has been operating for over 40 years with no scheduled capital maintenance,” said Jorge Piñon, an energy expert at the University of Texas, Austin. “That puts at risk a total collapse of the system with no short term solution.”

The country’s largest protests in decades were prompted last year in part by power outages, as well as a lack of food and medicine in the country, whose economy has been hard hit by both the pandemic and American sanctions.

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President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba visited the affected area on Saturday along with the country’s prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, touring hospitals and meeting with the wounded.

“The dawn will be long and filled with anguish, as it was last night,” Mr. Díaz-Canel said on Twitter. “There is no precedent for a fire of this magnitude at the Supertanker Base.”

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A journalist since 1994, he also founded DMGlobal Marketing & Public Relations. Glover has an extensive list of clients including corporations, non-profits, government agencies, politics, business owners, PR firms, and attorneys.

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BlackUSA.News Unveils New National Platform Connecting Readers to America’s Leading Black Media

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(NEW YORK – July 2, 2026) – For more than two centuries, the Black Press has documented the triumphs, struggles, businesses, politics, faith, education, and culture of Black America. Today, that tradition enters a new chapter.

BlackUSA.News has launched a newly redesigned national platform that not only delivers original reporting from across the country but also connects readers directly to many of the nation’s most respected Black-owned news organizations.

Visitors can now easily navigate to trusted journalism from publications including:

  • Atlanta Black Star
  • BMORENews.com
  • Washington Informer
  • St. Louis American
  • AFRO-American Newspapers
  • Black Press USA
  • Black Wall Street Times
  • Black Enterprise
  • New York Amsterdam News
  • The Final Call
  • Texas Metro News
  • African Diaspora News Channel

Rather than asking readers to search dozens of websites independently, BlackUSA.News serves as a national gateway—bringing together voices that have informed, educated, and empowered Black communities for generations.

“Our vision has always been bigger than one publication,” said Doni Glover, founder of BlackUSA.News. “The Black Press has never lacked great journalism. What we’ve often lacked is visibility, discoverability, and a common front door. BlackUSA.News helps solve that problem.”

The redesigned platform reflects the publication’s ongoing evolution from a news website into a national knowledge network that documents Black life, leadership, entrepreneurship, education, government, philanthropy, and community institutions across America.

Readers will continue to find original reporting, exclusive interviews, Black Wall Street coverage, business news, political analysis, and community stories while also discovering journalism from historic and emerging Black-owned media organizations nationwide.

As artificial intelligence, search engines, and social media increasingly determine what news people see, BlackUSA.News believes collaboration—not competition—is one of the strongest strategies for ensuring Black stories remain visible and accessible.

“This isn’t about replacing anyone,” Glover said. “It’s about strengthening the entire ecosystem.”

The redesign represents another milestone in BlackUSA.News’ mission to document Black excellence city by city while helping readers connect with trusted Black journalism wherever it is being produced.

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Future versions of BlackUSA.News will continue to expand beyond news, creating one of the nation’s most comprehensive knowledge platforms that document Black-owned businesses, nonprofits, churches, elected officials, educational institutions, media organizations, and community leaders—building a living digital map of Black America.

BlackUSA.News
Connecting Black America, One Story at a Time.

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My ancestors were full-blooded Indians … until the census said otherwise

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(OKLAHOMA – August 17, 2025) – When I first started researching my family’s genealogy, I thought I was just going to fill in a few blanks.
Instead, I uncovered a lie so deep, so systematic, it reshaped everything I thought I knew about who we are as a people.

I want to show you something personal.

Below, you’ll see two official U.S. government records—both documenting one of my direct ancestors. Thomas Jefferson Adams Harjo.

Creek Nation certificate

Creek Nation certificate

📜 The first is from the Dawes Roll, the federal list created in the early 1900s to register members of the Five Civilized Tribes.

As you’ll see, my ancestor is listed as a Full-Blood Indian—a clear acknowledgment of their tribal heritage and cultural identity.

1900 US Census

But then, take a look at the second image:

📄 That’s the federal census record from just a few years later.
Same ancestor.
Same location.
But this time, the government marked them as Negro.

No tribe. No Indian classification.
Just folded into the general Black population—without consent, without explanation.

That wasn’t a mistake.
That was paper genocide.

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This is what happened to millions of Indigenous Black Americans across the South.
Their identities were stripped away on paper—one document at a time—by a system designed to erase, absorb, and exploit.

This wasn’t just about racism. It was about land, power, and control.

By reclassifying tribal people as Negro or Colored, the government could:

  • Deny them land rights

  • Remove them from tribal rolls

  • Steal their inheritance

  • And make sure future generations never knew who they really were

This is why so many of our elders say, “My grandma said we had Indian in us.”
They weren’t lying.
They just didn’t have the tools to prove it.

Now we do.

And I’m not showing you this to just share my story—I’m showing you because this might be your story, too.

If you’re ready to go deeper, tomorrow I’m going to pull back the curtain on how far this went—how the reclassification of Black Indians was not an exception, but the rule across the Southeast.

You’re not crazy.
You’re not reaching.
You’re remembering.

—Mike
Founder, Native Black Ancestry

 

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Voices of West Tampa: District 5 Special Election Forum, Aug. 27th

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(TAMPA, FL – August 12, 2025) – The Black Agenda is coming! Join us this August for a powerful virtual town hall where residents, neighborhood associations, nonprofit leaders, faith communities, and other key stakeholders will come together to share their concerns and discuss solutions.

🎥
 This event will be streamed live and will feature candidates offering their vision for the future of West Tampa.
This will be a street-level, bottom-up dialogue—focused on real voices, real stories, and real strategies to protect and uplift our community.
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/register/n2MwP53TQ-2e9xfih1rrAg

Join us this August for a powerful virtual town hall.

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