Cuba's Entire Power Grid Collapses As Castro's Grandson Seeks Talks With Trump

 Summary:

• Cuba's Power Grid Collapses 
• Castro's Grandson Ready To Talk With Trump 

Cuba Goes Dark

Hours after USA Today published an interview between one of its journalists and Cuban President Castro's grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the communist-run island experienced an island-wide power grid collapse.

The electrical workers' union said the entire power grid went offline and that officials were investigating the cause. Cuba's energy ministry confirmed the blackout and said crews were working to restore service.

"A total disconnection of the National Electric Power System is occurring. The causes are being investigated," the electrical workers' union wrote on X.

🔴 #AHORA || Ocurre una desconexión total del Sistema Electroenergético Nacional. Se investigan las causas.

Se continuará informando al respecto. pic.twitter.com/F7ksTBTakO

— Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (@OSDE_UNE) July 6, 2026

Time is ticking for the communists in Havana to make a deal with Trump or face further economic collapse, as Havana is a case study in the failure of communism and how that economic system has never succeeded. Yet the Democratic Party is trying to convince people otherwise as it embraces the far left.

"I Can Negotiate": Castro's Grandson Says He's Ready To Discuss Cuba's Future With President Trump 

Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, former Cuban president Castro's grandson and one of the more important shadow figures inside Cuba's communist ruling circle, told USA Today in an exclusive interview that he is prepared to speak directly with President Trump, signaling publicly a potential back-channel opening as the Trump administration intensifies economic pressure on Havana.

"I've never been interested in politics. It's never been a calling of mine," Rodríguez Castro told the outlet over the course of several days in June in Havana. "But if at some point the revolution needs me to step up, I will do it." He said that he would never abandon the principles of Cuba's 1959 revolution or the nation's sovereignty.

Rodríguez Castro is a lesser-known figure outside Havana's communist circles. He holds no formal government position, rarely appears on state television and has never spoken to a US news outlet before.

But the Castro family name gives him unique status inside Havana's opaque power structure and the ability to act as a back-channel liaison with access to the island's communist elite.

Now, the younger Castro is signaling he is ready to negotiate Cuba's future, saying he wants to deal directly with President Trump.

"I can negotiate with anyone designated by the U.S.," Rodríguez Castro said. "If given the opportunity, claro que con Trump." Of course, with Trump.

Why would Rodríguez Castro want to negotiate now and not earlier this year? Well, that's because Trump's gunboat diplomacy has unleashed an economic stranglehold on the communist-run island, and it continues to work, with pressure now crushing the already poorly managed economy and collapsing its tourism sector.

The island drew just 360,000 tourists in the first five months of 2026, down 58% from a year earlier, according to Cuban government data. The neighboring Dominican Republic attracted more than 10 times that number over the same period.

The Trump administration says the pressure campaign is aimed at forcing the communist government to open its political system after generations of economic misery under failed communism.

Havana can't turn to help from the socialists in Venezuela because the Maduro regime was taken out by US Delta Force operators. The Chinese and Russians won't dare send their militaries to the island en masse because of the US naval presence in the region.

For Havana, the regime's external lifelines have been disappearing one by one over the last six months.

Recall that CIA Director John Ratcliffe was recently in Havana meeting with communist officials. Now, Rodríguez Castro speaking with a US media outlet is another promising signal, suggesting that back-channel talks are likely already underway as pressure builds on the island's ruling elite.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/i-can-negotiate-castros-grandson-says-hes-ready-discuss-cubas-future-president-trump

'AI and Tech Companies Seek to End Respiratory Viruses, Starting With Cold and Flu'

A new philanthropic effort — backed by money from some of the biggest names in AI — is taking aim at eliminating respiratory viruses, starting with the common cold and influenza.

Intercept is starting with $500 million in seed funding from Anthropic, OpenAI Foundation, and the payment company Stripe, along with venture capitalists at Jane Street, and from Bill Gates, through a philanthropic entity.

The organization is going after cold and flu viruses first, citing the huge economic and health burden these common infections cause each year. And anything that targets these viruses is likely to “meaningfully reduce pandemic risk,” according to an online post by the fund that explains its mission.

“We treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but that’s really not the case,” wrote Nan Ransohoff, co-head of Intercept, and head of Public Goods at Stripe, on a web forum. “Most of us will spend 5% of our lives (!) sick from these viruses, they kill 1M people a year, cost $600B annually in productivity, and periodically threaten civilization through pandemics,” she wrote.

Intercept said it will focus its efforts on two platforms: broad-spectrum preventatives and air-cleaning technologies.

The broad-spectrum products would protect against rhinoviruses, influenza, coronaviruses, and other respiratory viruses simultaneously. The philanthropy said it wants to help develop products that would prevent “more than 75% of symptomatic respiratory infections in as few doses as possible, via easy-to-administer modalities, and that have a credible path to ~60% uptake.

The fund’s goal is to advance two or more products to phase 2 studies, after which it hopes a pharmaceutical company would continue the development.

For air cleaning, Intercept aims to promote technologies that can reduce aerosols by > 75%, and that can be easily adopted at a low cost. Intercept said that many of these technologies — including air filtration, antimicrobial light, and antimicrobial vapors — already exist, but demand has been limited. The fund said it would work with regulators, corporations, and others to ensure that the technologies become more attractive.

Intercept has a roster of advisers who are well-known in the infectious disease and engineering fields and had experience during the COVID pandemic, including Moncef Slaoui, PhD, who led Operation Warp Speed; former FDA official Peter Marks, PhD; Virginia Tech’s Linsey Marr, who has studied the airborne viruses; biochemist David Veesler, whose work helped pioneer the COVID vaccines; and Luciana Borio, who worked in counterterrorism and emerging threats at the FDA, and was director for medical and biodefense preparedness policy at the White House National Security Council.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/ai-and-tech-companies-seek-end-respiratory-viruses-starting-2026a1000mqi

'AP: States Consider Charging Companies With Workers on Medicaid'

 New Jersey is launching a new fee on companies whose workers have Medicaid health coverage instead of being covered by their employers. Other states are considering it, too.

Democratic lawmakers and governors see it as a way to help pay for the joint federal and state insurance program that covers low-income residents, as federal policy changes are expected to make the program more expensive for states and may lead to a reduction in the number of people with coverage.

Proponents also say it's about fairness because employers benefit from having some lower-income workers with taxpayer-funded health coverage.

Business groups object. So do some liberal policy organizations.

New Jersey Is Putting the Fee in Place

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) signed a measure Tuesday night to charge employers that have at least 50 workers covered by Medicaid, and the state budget she approved earlier in the week counts on raising $145 million this year from the program.

Under the plan, companies will be billed for each employee and their dependents receiving Medicaid.

The fees per person would start at $325 a year for companies with 50 to 249 Medicaid beneficiaries and top out at $725 annually for employers with at least 500 recipients.

Federal Medicaid Changes Are Prompting Democratic-Led States to Act

A bill passed this week in California doesn't impose a charge now, but it does direct the state administration to present lawmakers options for doing so next year.

Finishing the job would fall to the successor of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who is leaving office in January. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has made an employer charge part of his election platform.

State Sen. John Laird, a Democrat who sponsored the California proposal, said the big tax and policy law President Donald Trump signed a year ago was a major factor in the need for action because it could prompt the state to spend more on Medicaid to plug holes left by federal changes.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office expects more than 10 million people will be uninsured because of the law by 2034. It requires some beneficiaries to work, be in school, or volunteer -- and requires even more to document whether they meet the requirements. Most employees at the bigger companies would not be at risk of losing Medicaid coverage as long as they're working at least 20 hours a week.

Laird also said there's an equity issue involved.

"If you're a small business person in California, you are quite likely paying for health insurance for your employees. And through your taxes, you're paying for health insurance for some of the biggest employers in California," he said. "And that's not fair."

Legislation with similar intents passed one legislative chamber in both Colorado and Oregon this year, but neither made it to law. A measure was also introduced in Washington.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D), who is seeking a third term in November's election, has called for the same move there with the idea of making it a part of the state budget that would kick in 2 years from now.

Opposition Comes From Business and Some Liberal Groups

It's no surprise that business organizations have criticized the approach, which would add to their expenses.

"The fact remains that many job-creators are still going to be penalized for something they have no control over," Christopher Emigholz, the chief government affairs officer at the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said in a statement. "If an employee declines an employer-provided health plan because they'd rather be on Medicaid, it is unfair to penalize the employer for that employee's decision."

Some left-leaning policy organizations also oppose the charges.

Gideon Lukens, PhD, who analyzes health policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said that while the idea may be well-intentioned, it could lead companies to employ fewer people from low-income households or single parents. He said companies could also consider the policy in decisions about whom to hire or lay off -- and also on where to locate or how many workers to employ.

And, he said, it could make employees -- or potential employees -- less likely to enroll in Medicaid knowing it would make them less attractive to employers.

"Usually, when I see a tax on something it's going to discourage whatever's being taxed," he said in an interview.

New Jersey's legislation tries to address some of the concerns. It would exempt temporary, seasonal, and part-time employees. It would also bar employment decisions based on a worker's Medicaid status.

Idea Has Come Up Before, Though It's Never Stuck for Long

Charging companies whose workers are covered by Medicaid isn't a new idea. At least two states have previously enacted it, and it's been proposed in Congress.

Massachusetts lawmakers in 2017 adopted a charge on employers up to $750 per nondisabled worker who was covered through Medicaid or a state-subsidized health exchange plan. The program began in 2018 but was not renewed when it expired the next year.

An even earlier policy in Maryland, in 2006, immediately affected only Walmart. An industry group challenged it in court and won, stopping the fees. A federal judge found that it required the company to track and allocate employment benefits differently in Maryland than in other states in violation of a federal law that governs self-insured employee health plans.

The latest generation of proposals may avoid that legal pitfall by not referencing those health plans in the legislation.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/medicaid/122032

'AP: AI Ready to Take Over Prescriptions? Doctors Are Wary of Utah's Refill Program'

 A prescription refill program that quietly launched in Utah earlier this year has kicked off a big medical debate: Is artificial intelligence (AI) ready to take over tasks that, until now, could only be performed by doctors?

The program allows Utah residents to skip the doctor's office and get their prescriptions refilled online by an AI chatbot called Doctronic. It's a seemingly simple step toward making healthcare more convenient for patients and prescribers.

But it's also a precedent-shattering milestone that has set off alarm bells for doctors, lawyers, and public health experts. The pilot program has laid bare a host of questions about the role of AI in medicine, including how it should be regulated, whether doctors should be able to veto it, and what kind of safety measures are needed to protect patients.

At the center of the debate: state and federal laws limit prescribing to licensed medical professionals. Proponents say those laws, which have underwritten American medicine for over 100 years, should be updated to include AI chatbots and other new technologies.

"We have crossed a threshold in terms of giving something that is not human a medical license, whether or not we want to call it that," said Eric Bressman, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania.

AI Cannot Practice Medicine Under Current Laws

Bressman and other experts say they aren't opposed to AI prescribing. But they say it should have to meet rigorous standards akin to human doctors, who undergo years of testing and training before being licensed to practice medicine.

In Utah, Doctronic was able to launch thanks to a "regulatory sandbox" that allows state officials to waive laws for AI companies offering promising technology.

The refill program is currently overseen by a five-member board of AI specialists, none of whom are doctors, who say they have implemented numerous safeguards. During the program's initial phase, for example, human doctors review all Doctronic refill orders. The company expects to soon transition to fully automated refills.

The head of the state's medical licensing board says he and his colleagues learned of the program when its January launch was reported in the news. In a March letter to the state, 11 board members called for the program to be halted, citing the risks of automatically renewing medicines that can have side effects or drug interactions.

"We were essentially told: 'Yes this is going on. And no, you don't have a say in it,'" said Alan Smith, MD, a family physician who heads the board but said he was speaking only for himself.

Complicating the picture is the fact that medical technology is traditionally regulated at the federal level, while medical professionals are overseen by states.

Doctronic executives consider their AI part of the state-regulated practice of medicine. But the FDA is supposed to oversee AI that directly impacts medical care or decision making, a line that some experts believe Doctronic has crossed.

Some States Are Clearing the Way for AI in Healthcare

In an interview, Doctronic's executives wouldn't say whether they have sought permission from the FDA.

"Our goal here is really just to meet patients where they need healthcare," said Adam Oskowitz, MD, who co-founded the company with a tech industry entrepreneur. "We try not to get too deep into the weeds on the regulatory side."

In Utah, residents can visit a Doctronic website built for the refill program. After confirming their identity, the AI chatbot asks users about their prescriptions and medical history, verifying that they have a valid prescription by tapping into a national pharmacy database. If there are no issues, the AI can renew the prescription and send it to a local pharmacy. If the request requires more attention, the chatbot transfers the patient to a doctor who works for Doctronic's telehealth service.

Oskowitz envisions a future where many routine medical tasks, including ordering tests and analyzing results, can be offloaded to Doctronic, allowing doctors to manage thousands more patients than they can today.

Other states are also waiving rules for AI, including Texas and Wyoming.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Iowa, Idaho, and elsewhere have introduced legislation to formally license AI medical services. Many of the bills are based on a template from the nonprofit Cicero Institute, a pro-AI think tank founded by Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of the AI software company Palantir.

Pushback against medical AI mainly stems from the economic fears of doctors and other health workers, says Cicero's director for health policy.

"Whoever goes first is going to take the slings and arrows because there's economic interests, concerns about the workforce, and what that's going to mean for jobs," said Cicero's Adam Meier.

Doctors See Potential Risks to AI Prescription Refills

Smith, the medical board chair, says the risks to patients are real. He points out that Doctronic's list of 190 refillable medications includes blood thinners, which can become dangerous if patients develop stomach ulcers or other conditions that cause internal bleeding.

"Many times when I see people after 6 months I find that their medical history or situation has changed," Smith said. "Just because something was prescribed before does not mean it's appropriate now."

The American Medical Association has voiced similar concerns, warning that "prescription renewals aren't routine checkboxes."

Zach Boyd, who heads Utah's AI office, said Doctronic has thus far been overly cautious, often elevating uncontroversial decisions to doctors. In response to safety concerns, several medications have been removed from the list eligible for refills, including a drug for arrhythmias.

Utah has released some initial data on the program and Doctronic plans to publish peer-reviewed studies later this year. Currently the only publication about its technology is a paper written by company scientists that was not independently reviewed.

The study looked at whether Doctronic could correctly diagnose medical conditions based on records from 500 telehealth consultations. In the study, Doctronic's diagnoses matched that of human doctors 80% of the time.

The FDA Is Taking a Hands-Off Approach

Bressman says Utah should have demanded data on prescription refills up front, not after Doctronic was up and running.

"Mostly they're accepting the company's word on good faith that they're up to the task," he said.

The current approach to AI mirrors the haphazard medical standards of the early 20th century, Bressman says, before medical schools, medical boards, and other authorities agreed on national benchmarks for training and licensing.

National guidelines on medical technology would typically come from the FDA, but the agency has indicated it plans to take a hands-off approach, at least under the current administration.

An FDA spokesperson said the agency has not authorized any AI chatbots but "is committed to encouraging medical innovation and helping bring promising new technologies to patients, while keeping safety at the center of every decision."

For now, Doctronic and other companies are likely to expand across states with different regulatory approaches.

"Companies may benefit in the short term by expanding their business models and kind of having the technology go beyond the evidence," says Daniel Aaron, MD, of University of Utah's law school. "But in the long-term, I think they risk compromising public trust and fueling backlash."

https://www.medpagetoday.com/pharmacy/pharmacy/122055

NJ Passes Bill To Establish Large Load Data Center Tariff

 By Zachary Skidmore of DataCenterDynamics

New Jersey lawmakers have passed a bill that will direct the state's Board of Public Utilities (PUC) to establish a dedicated data center tariff for facilities with a capacity of 50MW or more, in an attempt to shield other ratepayers from cost increases tied to new builds.

A similar bill was originally proposed in June of last year by Democratic assemblymen Dave Bailey and Joe Danielsen. However, that initial bill was pocket-vetoed by then-governor Phil Murphy, who did not sign it before his term ended.

CoreSite’s NY3 data center is located in Secaucus and offers more than 138,000 square feet of capacity.CoreSite

Following the veto, the bill was replaced with S731, which proposed broader protections than the previous bill. It will now head to Democratic governor Mikie Sherrill for final approval. Assemblyman David Bailey Jr. said Sherrill's office was involved in drafting the latest version and expressed optimism she would sign it.

The new bill is broader than the previously vetoed bill, applying to both existing and new facilities, and lowering the threshold from 100MW. It also aggregates facilities that are under common ownership or on contiguous sites, treating them as a single large data center for purposes of the threshold.

Other provisions in the bill include requiring data centers to demonstrate their project is not proposed elsewhere to avoid speculative applications, providing financial guarantees to take or pay for at least 85 percent of the requested service for ten years, and committing to demand response and flexibility programs. In addition, the bill mandates that large data center customers be curtailed before residential customers during grid emergencies.

It will also require the PUC to prioritize interconnection for data centers that make binding commitments to bring their own clean generation or storage.

The bill is the latest to be passed within a state legislature, with several already enshrined in law, and many others currently making their way through the approval process.

Last month, regulators in Oregon approved a new rate class for data centers and other large loads, which is now in effect.

Before this, Oklahoma’s governor, Kevin Stitt, signed into law a new bill aimed at protecting ratepayers in the state from rising utility and infrastructure costs associated with data centers. This closely followed Florida, whose governor signed into law a similar bill that prohibited utilities from passing data center infrastructure costs on to residential and small-business ratepayers and required large-scale users to bear their full cost of service.

Other states to see similar rules proposed and passed include Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia, to name a few.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/new-jersey-lawmakers-pass-bill-establish-large-load-data-center-tariff

Russia's Rosatom to return staff to Iran’s Bushehr plant from mid-July - IFX

 

Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom will begin returning personnel to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant from mid-July, the company’s head said, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/liveblog/202607049017

Saudi Arabia Sells Oil At Discount in 1st Since COVID Crash, China Demand Collapses

 We previously discussed the unprecedented collapse observed in recent months in Chinese oil demand and imports, which led to the bizarre scenario where even Iran can't find buyers (read China) for its temporarily unsanctioned oil armada (see "Iran Runs Into Big Problem: No Buyers For Its Oil, As Full Tankers Pile Up Off China") and which prompted even JPM to point out that something bigger is going on behind the scenes.

Understandably, with such a huge source of demand sidelined, today Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia has made big reductions to its main crude oil prices for buyers in Asia, selling barrels at a discount for the first time since it embarked on a price war in 2020, as a surge of global supply heightens competition to find buyers.

State producer Saudi Aramco will lower Arab Light oil for next month by $11 a barrel to a $1.50 discount over the regional benchmark, according to a price list seen by Bloomberg. The last two times it sold the grade at a discount were during price wars in 2020 and 2015.

The large drop in prices, the biggest in at least 26 years, follows a surge at the height of the Iran war when the disruption to the Strait of Hormuz restricted the kingdom’s flows; it is also bigger than the $8 decline expected in a Bloomberg survey.

The surprise price cut underscores the surging volumes of oil that are now available on global markets, as the interim US-Iran peace deal enables Gulf producers to ramp up exports at the same time as a flood of trapped barrels escape through the Strait of Hormuz. The size of the cutback also raises questions whether other Middle East producers might be forced into steeper cuts to their prices as they compete for customers (mostly China, as India is quite happy importing cheap Russian oil) that are inundated with supply.

Aramco’s August prices are for buyers who purchase crude on long-term contracts, the main way in which the kingdom markets its barrels. Some traders who spoke to Bloomberg said even with such a large reduction, the barrels are more expensive than spot supplies from other regional producers that are available for immediate purchase on an adhoc basis.

According to Bloomberg, official prices from other producers in the region are expected to be released in the coming days.

Oil has plunged since the agreement between US and Iran came into effect in the middle of June, allowing traffic to resume through the Strait of Hormuz, the key chokepoint that had been largely blocked since the start of hostilities. Brent crude has given up all its wartime gains, and was trading below $72 a barrel on Tuesday.

Before the war, Saudi Arabia loaded most of its crude from within the Persian Gulf. However, Aramco diverted a chunk of those flows to its Red Sea facility at Yanbu as the war effectively blocked Hormuz. The kingdom made the rare move of selling some cargoes on a so-called spot basis in recent days, as it got resumed flows of shipments that had been trapped inside the Persian Gulf.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/saudi-arabia-sells-oil-discount-first-time-covid-crash-china-demand-collapses