Not from politicians. From ordinary Cubans - people living through an unceasing crisis shaped by a failing economic experiment, an ageing but entrenched communist system and the pressure of a hostile superpower.

I met people who told me this is the hardest period they have lived through in decades.

Harder, some said, than the Special Period that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. They spoke of endless blackouts, empty shelves, collapsing salaries and young people leaving because they no longer believe their future lies here.

And yet, they refused to surrender.

That resilience is remarkable because the scale of the crisis is impossible to ignore.

Havana remains one of the world's most captivating cities, but today it feels like a city stuck between its past and an uncertain future.

Revolutionary Square, where Fidel Castro once addressed hundreds of thousands of Cubans for hours on end, is almost silent.

The giant steel portraits of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos still dominate the skyline, but the conversations taking place beneath them are no longer about revolution. They are about survival.

Across the capital, the signs are everywhere.

Petrol stations without fuel. Rubbish piling up in neighbourhood after neighbourhood. Hospital wards struggling with shortages of medicines and basic supplies. Streets that once bustled now feel quieter, as wave after wave of Cubans have left in search of opportunities elsewhere.

Then there are the blackouts.

One woman told me she no longer sets an alarm. The electricity decides when she wakes. If it comes at three in the morning, that is when the washing gets done, the food gets cooked, the phones get charged and the water gets pumped before the lights disappear again.

In Cuba today, many families no longer organise their lives around the clock. They organise them around the electricity.

Dialogue, not submission

The government says the US blockade is responsible for the country's economic collapse.

There is no doubt decades of sanctions have inflicted enormous damage, made worse by the Trump administration's latest campaign of maximum pressure. Fuel has become harder to secure. Trade has become more difficult. Every new restriction is felt.

But as I travelled across Havana, I also heard another argument.

Many Cubans told me the blockade could no longer explain everything. They spoke about an economy that has struggled to reform itself, bureaucracy, salaries that no longer cover the basics and a generation that increasingly sees its future somewhere else.

When I sat down with President Miguel Diaz-Canel, I put those arguments to him directly.

I asked whether decades of economic mismanagement had left Cuba dangerously exposed. Whether corruption and an unwillingness to embrace deeper reform had compounded the suffering I had witnessed. Whether, after more than six decades of communist rule, he could still argue the system was delivering for ordinary Cubans. And whether the time had finally come to open the economy.

He pushed back on every point.

The man who succeeded Raul Castro after six decades of rule by the Castro brothers was unwilling to accept that the system had failed.

Cuba, he insisted, would not bow to external pressure. The blockade remained the overwhelming cause of the country's crisis. It wanted dialogue, not submission. It would negotiate, but it would never capitulate.

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Unwavering determination

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continues to raise the stakes - sanctioning Diaz-Canel, indicting Raul Castro and insisting the US could one day "take" Cuba.

For the people I met, however, the debate over who bears the greater responsibility means little because they have to deal with the harsh realities of the escalating tensions between the US and Cuba.

An American pressure campaign that has a stranglehold over the island. And a system that many Cubans themselves believe is no longer capable of delivering the life they were promised.

Perhaps nowhere is that more visible than in the country's exodus. Hundreds of thousands have left in recent years, many of them young, taking with them skills, ambition and hope. Those who remain often do so because they cannot leave - or because they still believe this country is worth staying for.

What I found was not a nation that had given up.

I found a nation exhausted, proud and deeply uncertain.

Above all, I found people determined to hold on - to their dignity, to their sovereignty and to the hope that somehow there is still a way forward.

Shabir Ahmed served 14 years for multiple rape and sexual offences against young girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Ahmed has been stripped of his British citizenship, leaving him with only Pakistani nationality.

There had been calls to deport the 73-year-old but documents published online, apparently sent from the Probation Service to one of his victims, state he cannot be deported back to Pakistan due to a 55-year-old law that bars his removal.

Sir Keir Starmer has now asked Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to review the case amid calls for the law to be changed to allow him to be deported.

Downing Street said the prime minister had asked Ms Mahmood to consider options for ensuring Ahmed's deportation, describing his case as "particularly heinous".

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In a statement, Number 10 said: "We are absolutely clear that where foreign nationals commit offences in the UK we will do everything in our power to remove them."

Ahmed's impending release brought calls for action from politicians, including the likely future prime minister Andy Burnham - who urged senior ministers to "review all possible options" for his deportation.

In the Commons, the Labour MP for Rochdale, Paul Waugh, said Ahmed should be deported, urging the Foreign Office to "do everything possible within their power" to ensure he is forced out of the country.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said her party would attempt to amend the government's Immigration and Asylum Bill "to close the loophole so that this man can be deported immediately".

Victims have expressed concern over Ahmed's release.

One, identified only as "Ruby", is being supported by The Maggie Oliver Foundation, set up by Ms Oliver, an ex-police detective turned whistleblower over grooming gangs.

Ruby said: "I'm scared for my safety and my kids' safety.

"The main ringleader is getting out of prison, who is well known in Rochdale, Oldham and Middleton, so even if he's not in that area, he still knows people and has a chance to talk to people from that area and that makes me unsafe."

In a statement issued through the foundation, Ruby said victims of abuse had been given "false promises" and left to "fend for themselves" through a lack of support from the authorities, and called for a change in the law to get grooming gang members deported.

Ahmed was sentenced to 19 years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court in 2012 as one of nine men convicted of offences against five girls.

Officers fired tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon at demonstrators outside parliament in the capital Tirana on Thursday after some protesters threw rocks, eggs and plastic bottles.

Authorities said 12 police officers were injured and 18 protesters were detained.

The demonstration is part of a wave of daily protests known as the "flamingo revolution", which began more than a month ago over plans for a luxury development at Narta Lagoon on Albania's Adriatic coast.

Campaigners say the project could threaten habitats used by protected migratory birds, including flamingos.

But the protests have since widened into broader demonstrations against Prime Minister Edi Rama and his socialist government.

Thousands have taken to the streets in recent weeks, blowing whistles and carrying cardboard cut-outs of flamingos.

On Thursday, several hundred protesters gathered outside the Albanian parliament, calling for Mr Rama to resign and chanting "Rama has to go to jail."

Some demonstrators used part of a metal barrier to smash the windows of a police car before officers moved in to disperse the crowd.

"The protesters want their voice to be heard inside (the parliament), as the prime minister for so many days has not heard them and has ignored them," said protester Agustela Thoma.

"But enough is enough."

Albania's government says the resort would be transformational for the former communist country as it tries to develop its high-end tourism sector and pursue European Union membership.

But the project, which covers an abandoned island and a nearby stretch of coastline, has faced strong opposition from environmental groups as well as critics of Mr Rama's administration.

Interior Minister Besfort Lamallari condemned "the acts of vandalism and criminal violence" against the police.

"Police officers are public servants, citizens of the Republic, and family members just like everyone else.

"They serve the law, public order, and the safety of every citizen, without distinction. An attack against them is an attack against the state," the minister added.

A 49-year-old woman was injured after being struck by a vehicle on Clippens Road, Linwood, on Tuesday afternoon.

The incident occurred near a bus stop at about 3.45pm.

The woman was taken to Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) for treatment and later released.

Suspect Liam MacLeod, 18, was arrested and charged in connection with the incident.

The teenager appeared before Paisley Sheriff Court on Thursday, where he made no plea to four charges.

He has been accused of assault to injury, danger of life and attempted murder; assault; carrying an offensive weapon or weapons; and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.

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MacLeod, of Paisley, was granted bail ahead of his next court appearance, which is yet to be confirmed.

Cameron Ross, 39, carried out his serious sexual assaults in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in 2012 and 2014. He then abused his third victim in Inverness between 2019 and 2022.

His crimes included rape, domestic abuse, attempting to pervert the course of justice and threatening or abusive behaviour.

Ross was suspended from Police Scotland when the allegations first came to light in June 2022 and resigned last month following his conviction in May after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Judge Alison Stirling said custody was the only appropriate disposal due to the "serious nature" of the offending.

The judge told the court on Thursday that Ross continues to deny any wrongdoing and has the support of his family and partner, adding: "I note from the criminal justice social work report that you do not accept your convictions and that you intend to appeal."

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said prosecutors were able to show how Ross "engaged in a pattern of sexual and physical abuse against women".

During the trial, jurors heard how Ross raped the first woman after they met at a party between August and October 2012.

The woman told the court how Ross "pinned her down" on a bed before carrying out the attack, testifying: "I didn't say anything. I froze."

She said the incident had left her traumatised.

A second woman told of how Ross sat on her and restrained her before raping her in June 2014.

He went on to subject a third woman to a course of abusive behaviour between October 2019 and June 2022.

In evidence, the court was told Ross repeatedly pushed and pulled her, seized her by the body and hair, threw her to the ground and twisted her arm behind her back.

He additionally brandished a knife at her.

Ross also shouted, swore and threatened to kill the victim, punched her in the face, sat on top of her and forced fingers into her mouth, gripped her throat and pressed down on the back of her neck, restricting her breathing.

Ross was also convicted of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner on 5 June 2022 at an address in Inverness, where he shouted, swore and acted aggressively.

He later attempted to pervert the course of justice on that date by trying to speak to a woman who was providing a witness statement to a police officer.

The judge said Ross was promoted to sergeant within the force as a dog handler and "earned a good salary".

Chief Superintendent Helen Harrison, head of professional standards at Police Scotland, said: "Ross was a serving officer at the time of these offences and when the report was received in June 2022, we immediately suspended him.

"He has since resigned from the service. If he had remained, we would have progressed gross misconduct proceedings and he would have been dismissed as his actions and behaviour will not be tolerated in Police Scotland.

"I want to thank those who came forward and recognise how difficult that can be when the perpetrator is a police officer."

Ross was convicted of five charges. As well as the 10-year jail term, he has also been placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Faye Cook, procurator fiscal for high court sexual offences at COPFS, said: "Cameron Ross carried out deliberate and repeated acts of abuse against women over the course of a decade.

"This was sustained offending, which caused significant harm.

"As a police officer, he was in a position of trust. Instead of upholding the law, he chose to break it in a serious and persistent way.

"I would urge anyone affected by similar offending to come forward and report it.

"The Crown is committed to prosecuting those responsible for sexual and domestic abuse, regardless of who they are."