Energy & Food Supply Shock: Cuba’s cooking oil crunch is worsening into a “grease strike,” with pork fat also scarce and queues starting at dawn as substitutes fail to arrive and prices stay out of reach. Energy & Power Infrastructure: In Havana’s Guanabacoa, Díaz-Canel pushed “local solutions” for outages, waste buildup, and water problems tied to June’s municipal autonomy and price decentralization push. Retail Payments vs Real Supply Chains: Holguín retailers face a dead end: they must accept CUP transfers from customers, but key suppliers tied to hubs like Mariel often demand USD or cash, leaving merchants with unusable digital balances. Agribusiness & Imports: China delivered a third 15,000-ton rice shipment (part of 60,000 tons total) as emergency food aid, with Cuba’s foreign minister framing it as solidarity amid the crisis. Industry & Refining: Granma reports the Hermanos Díaz refinery completed a third run on Cuban crude, producing naphtha and fuel oil while adapting to heavy, acidic, sulfur-heavy inputs. Education & Consumer Costs: The state appears to have stepped back from school uniforms, pushing production and sales to private businesses at higher prices, leaving some families priced out. Sports Development: Cuban youth baseball is stuck in months without competition after the national commission suspended Sub-12/Sub-15/Sub-18 events, citing the energy crisis and transport limits. Diplomacy & Sanctions Pressure: Cuba’s FM Bruno Rodríguez denounced U.S. “maximum pressure” aimed at cutting external income, while reporting the Trump approach is shifting toward sanctions and economic strangulation rather than military options.