The Cuban island has been facing a serious energy crisis since mid-2024, a situation intensified in January due to the oil embargo imposed by the United States of America (USA). The United Nations considers this measure contrary to international law.
This crisis is intrinsically linked to the operation of old thermal power plants, which lack the necessary investments and thus present constant failures in the generating units. On Tuesday, it was recorded for the third time in a week and the fifth since the beginning of the year that the National Electric System (SEN) suffered a total disconnection.
After the reconnection of the SEN, power cuts affected up to 72% of Cuban territory during peak hours this week. In Havana, blackouts exceeded 24 hours, while in the provinces, they lasted up to two consecutive days. Currently, eight out of the sixteen thermal generation units in the country are inoperative due to maintenance or breakdowns.
The thermal source, which accounts for 40% of the energy, uses domestic crude oil and is not impacted by the blockade. Another 40% depends on generation engines that require imported diesel and fuel oil. The remaining 20% is supplied by gas and renewable sources, recently benefiting from the incentive for solar energy with Chinese support.
The Cuban Government admits that the condition of the island's SEN is 'serious, critical, and extremely tense,' aggravated both by the US embargo and the obsolescence of the energy system. It is estimated that the Caribbean island needs just over 100,000 barrels of oil daily, of which approximately 40,000 are produced domestically.
The last foreign oil tanker to arrive in Cuba transported Russian oil, commanded by Anatoli Kolodkin. This ship docked in Matanzas Bay on March 31, bringing about 730,000 barrels, an amount insufficient to meet energy demand for more than two weeks last April. The energy crisis almost completely paralyzed the state economy, which projects a minimum contraction of 6.5% this year, after having fallen by more than 15% in the preceding five years.
Starting from October 1, 2026, a new mechanism for issuing permits to begin construction work will come into effect in the country. Now, permission to start construction of facilities is possible only after obtaining an identification number in the Unified Identifier System.
The new regulation is designed to improve digital management in the construction industry, ensure process transparency, and strengthen control. These changes are being introduced with the aim of digitizing the construction sector and increasing supervision over construction procedures in the country.
This new procedure is enshrined in the President's decree regarding 'Accelerating reforms in urbanization and housing construction.' According to this document, starting from October 1, 2026, it will be prohibited to issue permits to begin construction work for objects without an assigned identification number in the Unified Identifier System.
In accordance with the new procedure, the Unified Identifier System is being implemented based on the unified digital platform for urbanization 'Uy-joy,' which allows monitoring all stages of construction in digital format. This system integrates with the 'Transparent Construction' information system. Within this system, a unified identifier for a prospective construction area and a digital passport for the project, as well as a digital passport for a capital construction object, are formed.
These documents serve to consolidate key information about the construction object in a single electronic database, ensure regular updating of this data, and guarantee the transparency of the entire construction process.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Construction and Communal Services, together with the National Committee for the Urbanization Market, will prepare a draft Government Resolution on the procedure for assigning an identification number in the Unified Identifier System within two months and submit it for consideration by the Council of Ministers.
The draft resolution considers issues such as the description of the digital project passport and the digital passport of a capital construction object, the procedure for their formation and continuous updating, as well as the mandatory use of the Unified Identifier when providing public services and accounting for construction objects in the 'Uy-joy' information and analytical system and the 'Transparent Construction' system. The development of criteria and methodology for classifying capital construction objects and distributing them into corresponding categories is also planned.
It is expected that these innovations will lead to the improvement of digital management in construction, the standardization of permit issuance processes, increased efficiency of state supervision, and the prevention of illegal construction.
The intensifying El Niño phenomenon, combined with global warming, is causing changes in the pattern of monsoon rainfall in India, leading to more unpredictable weather conditions. These changes jeopardize agricultural production and place a strain on power grids.
This year's monsoon began with the fifth driest June on record, when rainfall was nearly 40% below normal. However, shortly after, there was a sudden heavy downpour that dumped about a month's worth of rain in a week on cities like Mumbai. Since then, the weather system has entered a new period of lull, and as of July 19, the nationwide rainfall was approximately 24% below the average for this time of year.
Raguram Murtugudde, an invited professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and a professor at the University of Maryland, noted that previously, the distribution of rainy days was more uniform, allowing farmers to plan their sowing calendars. He explained that global warming, combined with El Niño, causes the atmosphere to behave like a sponge: it absorbs a large amount of water and then releases it all in one place.
Since about half of the country's agricultural land still relies on rainfall for irrigation, sharp swings between droughts and heavy rains disrupt the sowing of summer crops, threatening rural incomes and increasing the risk of food price hikes. Simultaneously, sudden pauses in the monsoon lead to urban areas experiencing suffocating humidity, which increases the demand for electricity for cooling.
G.P. Sharma, president of meteorology at the private company Skymet Weather Services, emphasized that the Indian monsoon is a long season with a pulsating effect, but this time it is behaving somewhat abnormally. According to him, the unpredictability is due to steering currents at altitudes of 20,000–25,000 feet above sea level. Rain-bearing systems encounter atmospheric blocking patterns at this height, causing monsoon depressions to either stall or deviate from their course.
Murtugudde added that prolonged breaks in the normal monsoon pattern are exacerbated by the impact of El Niño. This phenomenon forces the air over the subcontinent to sink rather than rise. Even when monsoon winds carry moisture from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, the descending motion acts like an atmospheric lid, preventing cloud formation and turning ambient humidity into 'stifling heat.'
In Bangalore, located in southern India, the hottest day of July in 112 years was recorded last week. The Indian Meteorological Department warned that in several regions, daytime temperatures exceed normal by 3–5°C. Murtugudde explained that more breaks mean more heat spells, which is what El Niño does. He compared India to a 'popcorn coffee pot,' which is very difficult to predict. Although the long-term assessment by IMD forecasts an overall seasonal rainfall volume at 94% of the long-term average, private meteorologists believe that the second half of the monsoon could bring a more significant rainfall deficit.
