- Equity markets rally after jumbo US rate cut
- Late Harrods owner Al-Fayed accused of rape: BBC
- Hong Kong man sentenced 14 months for wearing 'seditious' T-shirt
- Lebanon's Hezbollah in disarray after second wave of deadly blasts
- Equity markets, yen rally after jumbo US rate cut
- Meta and Spotify blast EU decisions on AI
- Hasan takes three as Bangladesh rattle India in first Test
- Two killed during police operation in New Caledonia
- Flood-hit region leaders to meet in Poland to discuss EU aid
- Sri Lanka to vote in first poll since economic collapse
- Hong Kong probe finds Cathay Airbus defect could cause 'extensive' damage
- AI development cannot be left to market whim, UN experts warn
- All Blacks primed for 'hell' of a Wallabies clash
- Japan firm says no longer makes radio reportedly used in Lebanon blasts
- Zoom fatigue? Try some nature in your background: study
- Boeing to start large-scale furloughs with Seattle strike talks stalled
- Japan walkie-talkie maker says investigating after Lebanon blasts
- Slipper to become most-capped Wallaby in All Blacks clash
- Tokyo surges on weak yen as Asian traders cheer big US rate cut
- Vast France building project sunk by sea level rise fears
- UK campaigners in green energy standoff reject 'nimby' label
- Rainbow warriors: Three things to watch at cycling world championships
- Lebanon's Hezbollah in disarray after second wave of device blasts
- China's 'full-time dads' challenge patriarchal norms
- What we know about the fire 'pandemic' plaguing Brazil
- X says Brazil service restoration 'inadvertent' and 'temporary'
- Amazon drought leaves Colombian border town high and dry
- Some Cubans depend on sugar water as food shortages bite
- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
Hurricane Ian a 'catastrophe' for Cuba's vital cigar sector
Western Cuba's tobacco growing heartland has been left devastated by Hurricane Ian with piles of wood and tiles where once stood farms.
A triangle of three municipalities in the Vuelta Abajo region of Pilar del Rio province, the Cuban region worst affected by the tropical storm, is where the best tobacco leaves grow and is a pillar of the island nation's ravaged economy.
"We've never had a catastrophe of this scale," Maritza Carpio, who runs a tobacco estate in San Luis, told AFP.
Winds that reached speeds of more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour left "an extremely difficult situation for all farmers."
With Cuba's economy already in crisis and its vital tourism industry grinding to a halt during the coronavirus pandemic, "we don't know how we can face this," said Carpio.
The hurricane could not have struck at a worse time with the tobacco planting season due to begin in October.
The winds and rain smashed makeshift wooden constructions where tobacco leaves are left to dry and benefit from the sun, air and humidity of Cuba.
Ian also eroded the crop fields that were being prepared for planting.
"It's a blow that slows down the development of the planting season" given that the fields had already been ploughed, said tobacco farmer Sergio Luis Martinez, 59, whose tobacco house in Pinar del Rio was destroyed.
Pilar del Rio produces 65 percent of Cuban tobacco, while Vuelta Abajo is the only region where the three different types of leaves used in the country's world famous cigars grow.
In San Luis alone, 226 tons of tobacco harvested in August was damaged, local television said.
In 2021, Cuba exported $568 million worth of cigars, a 15 percent increase on the previous year, according to Habanos S.A, the manufacturing company that controls promotion, distribution and export of cigars.
The state-owned Tabacuba company, which buys 95 percent of private producers' harvests, was not spared by the hurricane, with many of its warehouses, sorting centers and offices destroyed.
- 'Everything is ugly' -
The Category 3 hurricane battered Pinar del Rio for six hours on Tuesday, leaving three people dead. Authorities had evacuated 50,000 people as a precaution.
The national electricity grid was also badly damaged with a total nationwide power cut lasting 18 hours, leaving 11.2 million people in the dark.
Two days later, power had still not been restored in the west.
In a matter of hours, decades of work was ruined.
On Carpio's estate, trees were uprooted and a young banana plantation devastated.
"Before you breathed country air, you could say 'how beautiful', and now everything is ugly," said Carpio, who is putting up her neighbor Caridad Alvarez, a 59-year-old farmhand whose house was destroyed.
The impact is not just economic, but also sentimental.
"It was an old farm, build with hard wood by my grandfather, repaired by my father, who died in April at 93," said Carpio.
- 'Great damage' -
President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited Pinar del Rio on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"There is great damage, even though we haven't yet been able to evaluate it," he wrote on Twitter.
Carpio's estate is classified as a "Vega fina", a certification needed to grow the tobacco used in Cuban cigars.
This year she harvested 4.8 tons of the tobacco leaf used to carefully make the cigars.
Carpio knows that she is going to have to rebuild her farm quickly to avoid missing out on the next harvest, but for that she says she will need government help.
B.Finley--AMWN