What happened
Cuba’s national electricity network has failed, cutting power to the island’s roughly 10 million residents and worsening an already severe energy crisis.

The outage comes as the country struggles to deal with a sharp decline in fuel imports. Oil shipments from Venezuela – once the island’s main supplier – have stopped this year, while only two small deliveries have arrived from other countries. Analysts say the shortages have pushed Cuba’s aging power infrastructure to breaking point.

The blackout follows a weekend of unrest in which residents protested about extended outages and deteriorating living conditions.

Who said what
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the situation on Washington’s sanctions, saying the crisis stemmed from “the energy blockade that has been imposed on us”.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump suggested that the US could assert control over the island, with the president telling reporters: “I do believe I’ll have the honour of taking Cuba.” According to The New York Times, US officials have “signalled to Cuban negotiators that the president must go” during their ongoing talks.

What next?
Officials in both countries are continuing to hold discussions that could potentially ease the economic stand-off.

What happened
Hummus, alcohol-free beer, dashboard cameras and pet grooming have all been added to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) metaphorical shopping basket, which is used to calculate inflation.

Twenty-seven indicators have been added, while 19 objects, including wrapping paper, have been removed, making up a total of 760 items.

Who said what
The revisions will give Bank of England policymakers “further food for thought before they set interest rates every eight weeks”, said City A.M.

These latest additions reflect “broader shifts in consumer behaviour” and the fact that shoppers are “increasingly embracing healthier, protein-focused diets”, said The Times. The history of the ONS basket offers a “fascinating insight into our changing tastes, trends and lifestyles”, said the BBC. When the first list was created in 1947, wild rabbit was one of the items included, while tea bags only replaced loose leaf tea in the 1980s.

What next?
The ONS will also adopt a “new method of data collection”, according to the BBC. Instead of manually gathering price information, the bureau will now collect millions of prices automatically using “supermarket scanner data”.

A viral video of a young girl being pushed over as she posed for a photo in the street has sparked consternation about safety in Japan’s public spaces.

The clip, posted last week by a Taiwanese social media user, was filmed in February at Tokyo’s famous Shibuya crossing. Like others around her, the girl pauses to smile for the camera before someone in a mask “strides up from behind” and “shoves the girl, who falls to the ground”, said the South China Morning Post. “This was no accidental clash of shoulders in a crowded place,” said The Guardian. It was “one of the most visible examples” of butsukari otoko – literally meaning “bumping men” – incidents in Japan.

The butsukari otoko phenomenon “entered the Japanese public consciousness in 2018”, according to The Guardian, after a video went viral of a man “deliberately barging” into women at the busy Shinjuku railway station. The term refers to men who purposely collide with others (mostly women) in crowded public spaces like stations and crossings.

It is a “reflection of modern society”, said Kiryu Masayuki, a specialist in criminal psychology at Toyo University, last year. “Old-fashioned ideas” about gender roles and male superiority “are still deeply rooted” in Japanese society.

The trend has begun to spread from Japan to other large cities around the world such as New York and London. It’s “commonly associated with misogynistic subcultures and self-identifying incels”, said Glamour. “I’m struck by what this trend exposes: a deeper, systemic discomfort with women taking up space,” clinical psychologist Dr Arianna Masotti told the magazine. “It’s about reminding women, in a visceral way, that their bodies don’t belong in public.”