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Just nowPaul Gribben,BBC NewsandHarry SekulichAFP via Getty ImagesA man cooks with firewood during a blackout in HavanaCuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel urged the US to lift its blockade instead of offering $100m (£74m) in aid, hours after rare protests over worsening power cuts erupted on the Communist-run island.Diaz-Canel said conditions on Cuba could be eased faster by lifting the blockade, "since it is known that the humanitarian situation is coldly calculated and induced".Hospitals have been unable to function normally, and schools and government offices have been forced to close. Tourism, an economic engine for Cuba, has also been impacted.Earlier on Thursday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez has said Cuba was "ready to hear the details of the US aid proposal and how it would be implemented".Cuba has in the past relied 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.Meanwhile, a US government plane was seen taking off from Havana's José Martí international airport on Thursday afternoon, according to a Reuters witness.Several people could be seen boarding the blue and white plane carrying luggage prior to its departure, according to the news agency.On Wednesday, the US state department said it was renewing an offer to "provide generous assistance to the Cuban people".Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that Havana had rejected a previous US offer of humanitarian aid worth $100m (£74m), a claim Cuba denied.In its statement, the US state department repeated its offer but made it clear that the aid would have to be distributed "in coordination with the Catholic Church and other reliable independent humanitarian organisations", bypassing the Cuban government.It added that the decision now rested 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".In his response, Cuban Foreign Minister Rodríguez said it was unclear whether the US aid offer would be in cash or in-kind assistance.He added that "the Cuban government does not, as a matter of practice, reject foreign aid offered in good faith and with genuine aims of cooperation, whether bilateral or multilateral".He added that the best way the US could help Cuba would be to "de-escalate energy, economic, commercial, and financial blockade measures, which have intensified as never before in recent months".Thursday's comments by Rodríguez follow a warning from the country's Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy that Cuba had completely run out of diesel and fuel oil.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 due to the US-led blockade of oil.On Wednesday, after the latest power cut affecting large swathes of eastern Cuba as well as parts of the capital, hundreds took to the streets in Havana, blocking roads with burning rubbish and shouting anti-government slogans.It marked the biggest single night of demonstrations in the city since Cuba's energy crisis began in January, Reuters reported.Residents of the San Miguel del Padrón neighbourhood could be heard shouting "turn on the lights!", AFP news agency reported.ReutersProtesters carrying pots and pans running through the streets of HavanaCuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged the "particularly tense" situation across the island, which he blamed on the US."This dramatic worsening has a single cause: the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country, threatening irrational tariffs against any nation that supplies us with fuel," he wrote on social media.ReutersThe Trump administration has essentially shut down all deliveries of crude oil to CubaEPA/ShutterstockPeople in Havana wa