Miguel Diaz-Canel, First Secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party Central Committee and Cuban President regretted the passing of Chilean communist leader Guillermo Teillier at 79 and described him as a compatriot of our Americas, like Salvador Allende and Fidel Castro.

Roberto Morales Ojeda, secretary of organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, mourned today the death of Guillermo Teillier, president of the Communist Party of Chile, at 79.

Major General Ramon Pardo Guerra, chief of the National General Staff of the Civil Defense, checked today the actions being carried out in the Sandino municipality, in the province of Pinar del Rio, in the face of the impact of Hurricane Idalia.

Due to the speed of maximum winds averaged in just one minute, tropical storm Idalia in the early hours of this morning became a hurricane category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of a maximum of five, and thus increased its scourge in western Cuba.

The Cuban Electrical Company (UNE by its Spanish acronym) reported that 129 megawatts (MW) are affected this morning due to the passage of Hurricane Idalia, 54 of them in the province of Pinar del Rio and 75 in Artemisa.

The Temporary Working Group created in the province of Sancti Spiritus before possible heavy rains associated with hurricane Idalia, warned in this city the main measures to be taken to minimize the effects that could cause these precipitations.

The Cuyaguateje River, Pinar del Rio's main waterway, has burst its banks and has already cut off several towns in the municipality of Guane, as a result of the rainfall associated with the now Hurricane Idalia.

The Institute of Meteorology reported in its Tropical Cyclone Warning No.14 that during the early hours of this morning Idalia gained in organization and intensity while over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, becoming the third hurricane of the current hurricane season.

Cuba’s National Civil Defense chief, Division General Ramon Pardo Guerra called on the people in the western province of Pinar del Rio to abide by the rules and not to take any risks during the impact of storm Idalia.

The Institute of Meteorology reported that Tropical Storm Idalia keeps moving northward at a slow 11 km/h with heavy rains, high winds and a minimum pressure of 989 hP.

Assisted by provincial divisions of the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment and several universities, Cuban experts from the National Center for Seismological Research and foreign specialists from the Norwegian Seismic Array, Swedish Consultants, and the University of Bergen in Norway, developed a methodology to assess seismic hazard, vulnerability and risks based on a specific case study of southeastern Cuba.

The 4th Ibero-American Night of Women Researchers will be held for the first time in Cuba on September 29 and 30, according to the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA).

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel arrived today in Mozambique on an official visit, as part of a tour of Africa that began in Angola and then continued to South Africa, where he attended the 15th BRICS Summit.

Tropical storm Franklin is moving north in the seas east of the Bahamas, according to the Cuban Institute of Meteorology (INSMET) in a weather report issued at 6:00 p.m. Thursday.

“Reaching a more just and sustainable future demands our collective action now, not tomorrow,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stressed at 15th BRICS Summit currently under way in Johannesburg, South Africa as he called for joint efforts in defense of the claims and problems facing nations today.