Cuba has completely run out of diesel and fuel oil, the country's Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy has said.

In an interview with state-run media, de la O Levy said there were limited amounts of gas available, but that Cuba's energy system was in a "critical" state as a US-led blockade of oil to the country squeezed supply.

Scattered protests against power cuts broke out in the capital Havana on Wednesday, the Reuters news agency reported.

The US this week reiterated its offer of sending $100m (£74m) in aid to the country in exchange for "meaningful reforms to Cuba's communist system".

"The sum of the different types of fuel: crude oil, fuel oil, of which we have absolutely none; diesel, of which we have absolutely none – I am being repetitive – the only thing we have is gas from our wells, where production has grown," de la O Levy said.

Under the US blockade, parts of Havana have been plunged into 20 to 22-hour blackout periods, he continued.

He also acknowledged that the situation in the country had been "extremely tense".

Hospitals have been unable to function normally, while schools and government offices have been forced to close. Tourism, an economic engine for Cuba, has also been impacted.

Cuba normally relies on Venezuela and Mexico to supply oil to its refinery system. However, the two countries have largely cut off supplies since US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on countries that send fuel to Cuba.

Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Havana had rejected a US offer of humanitarian aid worth $100m (£74m), a claim Cuba denied.

The US State Department repeated its offer on Wednesday, saying the humanitarian assistance would be distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and "reliable" humanitarian organisations.

It continued: "The decision rests with the Cuban regime to accept our offer of assistance or deny critical living-saving aid and ultimately be accountable to the Cuban people for standing in the way of critical assistance."

Washington's blockade on the country ramped up in early May when the US targeted senior Cuban officials in a wave of sanctions accusing them of committing "human rights abuses".

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called the sanctions "illegal and abusive".

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So you've hit a pothole and blown a tyre – what now?

This despairing question has been echoed by many a motorist – often accompanied by stories of drivers having as much difficulty navigating claims as they did steering around the crater-filled surfaces in the first place.

Now a BBC investigation has revealed three in four claims for pothole compensation are being turned down.

So how can you claim, and what are the challenges in doing so?

A pothole is a depression in a road surface – often caused by ground water or wear and tear.

When water gets into cracks in the road, it leads to potholes forming, especially when it freezes and expands.

According to the RAC motoring organisation, there are currently more than one million potholes across the UK. However, the number will vary depending on the season.

It estimates that, on average, there are about six potholes per mile on council-controlled roads in England and Wales.

Meanwhile, the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) – the industry body that oversees road surfacing – warned in March that the cost of fixing all the potholes on local roads in England and Wales would be an estimated £18.6bn.

Take a drive into the town of Netherfield in Nottinghamshire, and you'll soon realise why signs like the below exist.

Resident Reg Patterson said the bumpy roads had become "part of the local environment".

"It's not very good," the 68-year-old added. "There have been some humorous signs around the local area, which are quite entertaining I think.

"In the last few weeks there has been a few temporary repairs I'd say. I think, generally, they're not very good at all."

Fellow Netherfield neighbour Georgina Swann described the state of the roads as an "absolute nightmare".

"There's a Facebook group that's dedicated to potholes around the area," the 57-year-old added.

"The council needs to do more. It's affecting people's cars.

"Last time there was a local election, one of the big things was potholes. Nothing's been done. It's just awful."

Swann's frustration has been echoed by other pothole protesters in Nottinghamshire when they gathered outside County Hall earlier this year.

In response, leader of the Reform UK-run council, Mick Barton, said fixing the roads was one of his top priorities when he unveiled two JCB machines for filling in potholes.

Across the county and much further afield, potholes have been causing headaches on and off the road, and also became the subject at the top of many voters' agenda as they headed to the polls earlier this month.

But as the problem of potholes is widening, what can you do to stop a nasty bump in the road becoming a bigger hit to your wallet?

Our BBC investigation found over 146,000 claims were submitted for pothole-inflicted vehicle damage over the past five years.

Figures – obtained through freedom of information requests – show councils across Britain have paid out about £13.5m in response to claims. However, this only covers a fraction of the total number of claims submitted.

Out of 207 local authorities that hold the information, 147 told us of the number of pothole claims received in the last five years and the ones that were successful. On average, these councils paid out 24% of pothole claims.

Back in Netherfield, further along Victoria Road, Mick Hampshire is four decades into his career as a mechanic.

He estimates he sees about five customers coming in every week after hitting a pothole – in his 40 years, he said he had never had to replace so many suspension struts, coil springs and new tyres.

"We have seen vehicles coming back with snapped coil springs again," he said.

He then shows me under a lifted car in his garage.

"When they're going over a pothole… what's that?" he said, while rapping the bottom of the vehicle with his fist.

"That's a fuel tank. Cars bottom in and it's hitting the fuel tank, which is potentially a sitting time bomb.

"I'm potentially seeing it now when lives are being put at risk, and the roads are a seriously dangerous place to be on."

Nadia Kerr, a solicitor at the firm Fletchers, has worked in the field of personal injury and highway claims for many years.

She said most of the claims she used to deal with related to crashes between cyclists and drivers. More recently, the focus has shifted to pothole claims.

"There has been an increase," Kerr added. "The state of the roads, we all know, is dreadful.

"Even though the local authorities are complying with the local policy, the number of incidents that are on the road are increasing and increasing."

However, the route to a successful claim is not always straightforward.

"You really need to know what you're doing and you need to find an expert in the field, because lots of people give up along the process," Kerr said.

"As soon as the local authority denies a claim, they tend to just advise there's nothing else you can do and they will close the file."

The quickest way for a council to dismiss a claim is by saying they did not know it was there to begin with, Kerr said.

"The best you can do as a road user is report the defects you can see," she added.

"As soon as they're reported, the local authority are on notice that they are there and they need some attention; and if they fail to have that attention… and then an accident happens, then they are much less likely to rely on that defence to avoid paying compensation."

To report a pothole in England or Wales, enter the postcode of the road where you found the pothole on the GOV.UK website.

In Northern Ireland, you can report potholes by marking them on a map and in Scotland, you can report potholes by selecting the relevant local council here.

Kerr said third-party apps like FixMyStreet or Fill That Hole were more accessible to road users. But there's a catch.

"The problem is that not all local authorities will accept reports from those apps," she said.

"Sometimes they require to set up an account, a login, a password, by which time in my opinion some people give up the task of reporting a pothole."

According to the solicitor, there are a number of reasons why a claim might be turned down.

"The local authority would often argue that they followed their processes and their policies, that they inspected the stretch of the highway as frequently as they needed to comply with their policy and that they reacted promptly to any problems," Kerr said.

"What we try and find is a number of reports from the members of the public that the council will not have acted on.

"We often see challenges when a defect has been seen but the local authority do not think it's problematic enough that it ought to be repaired, so we challenge that, providing evidence of measurements of the location."

A Nottinghamshire County Council spokesperson said: "Each claim is investigated based on the evidence provided to determine whether the council has adhered to its policy and the requirements of the Highways Act 1980, the legal framework in place to deal with the management and operations of the road network in England and Wales.

"If the council can evidence that it has adhered to its policy, the claim will be repudiated, however if it is found the council has not adhered to its policy and is found to be legally liable for the incident, then the claim will be settled."

Local authorities have also had to deal with a rise in fake or exaggerated pothole damage claims, due to the cost-of-living crisis driving a rise in fraud.

The insurance group Zurich Municipal, for example, has previously said it had detected a rising number of fraudulent claims made against councils worth millions.

A Department for Transport spokesperson added: "We're backing local councils with a record £7.3bn to fix potholes and are already seeing results, with 15% more prevention works carried out in 2025 compared to 2024."

Sarah Gray, from Sherwood in Nottingham, said she would be left hundreds of pounds out of pocket once she got her blue Peugeot 308 repaire

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A fish and chip shop owner says he is installing self-service tills to protect staff from customers with "abrupt" questions about price rises.

Rhys McLoughlin, co-owner of Môr Ffres in Dinas Cross, Pembrokeshire, said there were "lots of questions being asked" and he did not think people understood that "incoming prices are going up and up".

"We have no control over that, so either we work [for] no money, or we follow the price increase and, unfortunately, we have to pass it on," he said.

The average price of takeaway fish and chips rose to £11.17 in March, according to the ONS. In 2019, the average cost was £6.48.

The National Federation of Fish Friers said rising prices had "affected frequency of visits and footfall" in "the majority of [fish and chip] shops".

"The word on the street is cod could actually double in price by September," said McLoughlin.

"That would just be unfeasible for us to even entertain selling it because, ultimately, it's cod and chips. It's not a fillet steak.

"National minimum wage has gone up, oil is going up, the price of fuel," he said, adding that he feared potato costs could also rise "because the price of diesel has gone up".

"If these prices continue to go up, who's going to buy fish and chips for £21? Who can afford that?"

McLoughlin said he would install digital kiosks where customers can place and pay for their own orders, in part "because it's quite a small building that we've got here and in the summer it does get quite full on".

But he said it was also due to the pressure his staff came under about costs.

"With prices, there's a lot of questions being asked," he said.

"We have got young staff working here and at the end of the day, sometimes this is their first port of business, this is their first stepping stone out of school."

He added: "It's no fun for a boy or girl to come to work to be asked, not abused, but asked pretty abrupt questions on the spot with 20 people in the chip shop.

"We have actually lost a few members of staff through that."

Sy Crockford, at Marina Fish & Chips in Saundersfoot, said offering the traditional seaside classic at an affordable price had become very challenging.

"Fish alone, we've never seen anything like it. Cod alone has gone up 50%," he said.

"One thing we don't want to do is out-price fish and chips. It's a nostalgia, it's a romance, to come to the beach and have fish and chips, we definitely don't want to outprice."

Crockford said cod and haddock were becoming "a luxury not a necessity", adding that offering "more sustainable" fish options at a "budget that everyone can afford" could see a change in chip shop menus.

But would customers be open to trying different types of fish?

Nicola Bratherton, 54, visiting Saundersfoot from Northampton, said she "generally would stick to cod" as she's "not that experimental".

Pauline Webb, 71, on holiday from the Midlands, said: "I have realised that [the price] has gone up, but of course, everything is going up. I know fish has gone up tremendously."

Away from the seaside, chip shops in rural villages are also struggling to justify their prices.

"About a year and a half ago I was paying about £36 a box [of cod]," said Sioned Phillips, owner of Cegin-24 in Crymych, Pembrokeshire.

"Now you're paying between £50, and some places £60, a box for cod."

Like many, she's had to increase her prices.

"When I opened, it was £6.95 for a piece of cod. I've had to raise it to £9, and that's being quite reasonable.

"If I wanted to make a normal amount of profit that I should be making, it should be about £11-£12 for a piece of cod.

"For me, we're in such a rural community area here in Crymych, to justify charging your elderly people, your local people so much for a piece of cod is just absolutely ridiculous."

Having tried offering alternative fish options, Sioned said her customers remained loyal to cod.

"We were telling them, look, the haddock is cheaper and it's bigger and they were like, 'no, we still want the cod, it's fine'.

"But you can see where people are trying to save money. They will order less chips.

"They'll order two cods and one chips to share, I think that's their way of trying to save their money."

The National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF) said cod price increases were mainly due to "the reduction in the cod quota in the Barents Sea from 1m tonnes in 2019 to 285k tonnes this year, a 16% reduction compared to 2025".

''Sanctions on Russian fish also play a part in the increased price," a spokesperson said.

Andrew Crook, NFFF president, said "the majority understand that fish is a premium protein and therefore should not be cheap and are happy to pay for quality, but it has affected frequency of visits and footfall in general in the majority of shops".

He suggested shops should "keep a close eye on their portion sizes and explore alternative [fish] species".

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