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Cuba’s power system suffers total collapse | CNN
Monday March 16th, 2026 at 3:40 PM

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Cuba’s electrical grid suffered a total collapse on Monday, the country’s power operator said, marking the latest nationwide blackout in recent years, and the first since the US effectively shut off the flow of oil to Cuba.

Efforts are underway to restore power across the Caribbean island, the state-owned operator said.

Nationwide power outages have been reported frequently over the past few years. Cuban officials have previously attributed them to US economic sanctions, though critics have also faulted a lack of investment in the island’s ailing generation system.

Cuba heavily relies on oil for electricity generation. The effective blockade of fuel shipments has worsened the country’s energy crisis, causing intermittent power cuts, a rationing of medical supplies and a decrease in tourism, officials have said. Fuel prices have skyrocketed so much that it can cost up to $300 in the unofficial market to fill up a car’s gas tank.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Friday that no oil had been delivered to the island in the last three months. He also said on Friday that Cuban officials have held talks with the United States to “identify the bilateral problems that need a solution.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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200,000 Immigrant Truck Drivers Are Officially Losing Their CDLs Which Will Almost Certainly Make Everything Even More Expensive
Monday March 16th, 2026 at 2:44 PM

Jalopnik - Obsessed with the culture of cars
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President Donald Trump has scored another victory for himself and his base that is sure to hurt people of color and those who were already struggling to afford daily necessities. About 200,000 immigrant truck drivers are losing their commercial driver's licenses, thanks to a new rule from the Trump administration that takes effect March 16. It's sure to put the already-struggling trucking industry in an even more dire situation as energy costs surge thanks to the President's ill-advised war with Iran that he cosigned with Israel. Things are bleak, friends.

The rule is just about as nonsensical as nonsensical gets. It bars immigrants who are asylum seekers, refugees or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients from obtaining a CDL, according to The Washington Post. That's right, people who are here legally are barred from getting a license to drive a semi-truck because of, well, racism. Those who currently have a valid CDL will lose their privileges as their licenses expire, not immediately.

The Trump administration will point to high-profile fatal crashes involving immigrant truck drivers last summer as a reason for the ban, but that's really a load of dogshit at the end of the day. Show me one immigrant-related (legal status be damned) truck crash, and I'm sure there are dozens — if not hundreds or thousands — of REAL PATRIOT truck drivers who have done something similar on the road. In a vile statement, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, "For far too long, America has allowed dangerous foreign drivers to abuse our truck licensing systems — wreaking havoc on our roadways." Of course, a lawyer who is leading a lawsuit against the rule contends that even the Trump administration has conceded that there's no empirical relationship between a person's nationality and their safety behind the wheel.

Those 200,000 drivers make up about 5% of all commercial vehicle licenses, according to The Washington Post. Because of long hours, low pay, dangerous road conditions and extended periods away from home, there's a ton of turnover in the industry. As Americans leave, immigrants have moved in and found worsening working conditions and deregulation.

WaPo spoke with Aleksei Semenovskii, a long-haul trucker from Pennsylvania who has been on the road since 2020. He's now set to lose his license in September despite having no accidents or violations on his record.

"They're roasting me under open fire for not having anything done illegal," the 41-year-old Russian asylum seeker told the Post.

Semenovskii is incredibly nervous over what this new rule means for his ability to support his wife and 14-year-old daughter. Semenovskii — a lawyer by trade — and his family fled Russia for the U.S. in 2019 with three suitcases after he faced threats of a fabricated criminal case related to his opposition to Vladimir Putin's government. During the Pandemic, he took out a near-$200,000 loan for a tractor and a trailer that he's still working to pay back, the outlet reports. For the past four years, he's been transporting heavy machinery, building materials, food and Amazon merchandise across all the Lower 48 states.

"This [rule] is devastating for my family," said Semenovskii, breaking down in tears. "I've built this small business relying on my driving privileges. I didn't think anyone could take this away from me for just being an immigrant."

NPR spoke to Jorge Rivera, who, after being a commercial trucker in the U.S. for over a decade, found out he couldn't renew his CDL. Riviera was brought to the U.S. illegally from Mexico when he was just two years old and is enrolled in the DACA program. It gave him the ability to get his CDL in 2014 and start his own trucking company.

"It was like a slap in the face, because I've done everything the right way," Rivera said. "I've stayed out of trouble. I've been a law-abiding noncitizen, is what I like to say."

[...]

"At this point, I'm just pretty much bracing for the worst," he said.

He told NPR that he doesn't really know what he'll do without a trucking license, saying he's even got his company name tattooed on his body.

As we reported last year, Trump signed an executive order that required truck drivers to speak English... even though it was already a law. Later that summer, cops ticketed two truck drivers for not speaking English at a traffic stop. Now, nearly a year after the executive order, thousands of immigrant drivers have lost their right to drive and about 3,000 driver training centers have had their accreditation revoked for failing to meet these new federal standards.

What might get lost in all of this is the simple fact that having fewer truckers on the road means that the price of everybody's goods is only going to continue to increase. Of course, that's something Trump vigorously campaigned against — not that his supporters will care much. The Post spoke with transportation experts, and, while they don't expect the new rules to have much of an impact on the industry or safety, they could lead to companies charging higher rates as the workforce shrinks. Do you know who ends up footing that bill? You and me, buddy.

"I have not heard any concerns about labor shortages or significant disruption to the supply chain or transportation industry, but this change will be reflected in the cost of doing business," said Gregory Reed, a transportation attorney who specializes in regulatory issues.

When you add in the fact that the average price of a gallon of diesel is now $4.99, according to AAA, things are definitely not going to get cheaper, to say the least. Now, filling up a 300-gallon fuel tank on a tractor-trailer can cost nearly $1,500. Just a month ago, when the average gallon of diesel cost $3.65, that same full tank cost about $1,100.

I'm not really sure how this all ends for immigrant truckers, the Trump administration or for people who rely on the trucking industry (read: everybody in the U.S.), but I do have a real bad feeling that things are going to get much worse before they can get better, and there are going to be a lot of people going without a lot of necessities very soon.

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Iran Has Just Fired the Most Dangerous Shot of This War and it wasn't a missile
Monday March 16th, 2026 at 1:54 AM

European Business & Finance Magazine
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A senior Iranian official has told CNN that Tehran is considering allowing a limited number of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz — but only if cargo is traded in Chinese yuan, not US dollars. The condition, if formalised, would represent the most significant challenge to the petrodollar system in its fifty-two-year history, striking at the financial architecture that underpins American global power rather than at US military assets.

Fourteen days into the war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February, the strategic picture has shifted in ways that no oil price chart yet reflects. While markets have focused on Brent crude’s surge above $100 a barrel and the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding across the Persian Gulf region, a single sentence attributed to a senior Iranian official on Friday may prove more consequential than any of the preceding military exchanges.

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Iran is considering allowing a limited number of oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz on the condition that the cargo is traded in Chinese yuan, a senior Iranian official told CNN. The official described the potential move as part of Tehran’s plan to manage the controlled reopening of the strategic waterway, which has been effectively closed since March 1 following US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

The financial implications deserve more attention than they have so far received.

The Architecture of American Financial Power

To understand why the yuan condition matters, it is necessary to understand what the petrodollar system actually is. Born from the Nixon shock of 1971 and formalised in 1974, the arrangement under which Saudi Arabia and the broader Gulf agreed to denominate all oil sales in US dollars created a self-reinforcing loop that has governed global finance ever since. Because oil — the world’s most traded commodity — must be purchased in dollars, every nation that imports energy must first acquire dollars. Every central bank holds dollar reserves for precisely this reason. The dollar’s status as the world’s primary reserve currency is not an abstract achievement; it flows directly and mechanically from oil.

Global oil is predominantly traded in US dollars, except for sanctioned Russian oil, which is priced in roubles or yuan. Iran’s proposal would extend that exception to the world’s single most critical maritime chokepoint.

The Strait as a Financial Weapon

The Strait of Hormuz, a major maritime choke point for global energy trade, has experienced ongoing geopolitical and economic disruption since 28 February 2026, following joint military strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran, which included the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Starting on March 4, 2026, Iranian forces declared the Strait “closed,” threatening and carrying out attacks on ships attempting to transit. The disruption is not marginal. The conflict disrupted approximately 20% of global oil supplies transiting the Strait of Hormuz, causing prices on the Brent crude oil market to rise from around $70 to over $110 per barrel within days.

At least 16 oil tankers, cargo ships and other vessels have been attacked in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman since the war began two weeks ago, according to the UK’s maritime agency. War-risk insurance through the strait has become effectively prohibitive for most commercial operators.

The United States has responded to the blockade with escalating military pressure. Trump said the US bombed “every military target” on Iran’s Kharg Island and threatened to attack the island’s oil infrastructure if Iran continues to block ships from traversing the strait.

Iran’s response was not another missile strike. It was the yuan condition.

A Bifurcated Oil Market Takes Shape

What makes the Iranian proposal structurally significant is not simply that it challenges the dollar — de-dollarisation rhetoric has circulated for years without materialising into meaningful change. What is different here is the mechanism. Tehran is not merely proposing that some bilateral trade occur in yuan. It is proposing that access to the world’s most critical energy chokepoint be conditional on currency denomination.

The practical consequence, if even partially adopted, would be a bifurcated global oil market: yuan-denominated barrels flowing through Hormuz for those willing to pay in China’s currency, dollar-denominated barrels rerouted at significant additional cost and time for those who are not. The war premium that Western energy importers are already absorbing would become structural rather than temporary.

This is not hypothetical infrastructure. Since 28 February, between 11.7 and 16.5 million barrels of Iranian crude have transited the Strait to China via shadow fleet under IRGC protection while every other nation’s shipping is locked out. China pays in yuan. China’s tankers move freely. The architecture for a parallel yuan-denominated energy corridor already exists and is already operating.

On March 5, the IRGC announced that Iran would keep the Strait of Hormuz closed only to ships from the US, Israel and their Western allies. On March 13, Turkey’s transport minister said that Iran approved the passage of a Turkish ship through the strait. It was also reported that two Indian-flagged gas carriers and a Saudi oil tanker with one million barrels for India were allowed to pass.

Selective passage is already the reality. The yuan condition would formalise the criteria.

Washington’s Dilemma

The United States faces a set of choices, none of them comfortable. Forcing the Strait open militarily — the option Trump has repeatedly signalled — would require sustained naval operations against an adversary with mines, shore-based missiles, submarines and drone swarms in confined waters. The Congressional Research Service, in a report delivered to Congress on 11 March, noted that while there had been consensus among analysts that the US military has the capacity to counter Iran’s forces and restore the flow of shipping, such an effort would likely take some time — days, weeks, or perhaps months — depending on what forms an Iranian attempt to close the Gulf to shipping might take.

Every week of delay is a week in which energy-importing nations confront the practical reality of the yuan alternative. India, which received Iranian assurances of safe passage directly from Tehran’s ambassador, is already navigating that calculus. So are Turkey, and the Gulf states now diverting oil through the East-West pipelines to Yanbu and Fujairah — pipelines that cannot absorb the full volume that previously transited Hormuz.

The capacity of these pipelines is unable to match the amount of oil shipped through the strait, with a deficit of about 12 million barrels per day. The arithmetic of energy desperation is working in Iran’s favour.

The Longer Game

It would be analytically premature to conclude that the petrodollar system is imminently at risk of collapse. The dollar remains the world’s primary reserve currency, underpinned by the depth and liquidity of US capital markets, decades of institutional trust, and the absence of any credible single alternative. China has sought for years to expand the use of yuan in oil transactions, but the dollar remains the world’s primary reserve currency.

What the Hormuz crisis does represent, however, is the most operationally specific challenge to dollar energy dominance since the system was established. Previous de-dollarisation discussions were theoretical. This one comes with a chokepoint, a shadow fleet, an operational payment system, and a geopolitical crisis that has already lasted two weeks with no clear resolution in sight.

The bombs are visible. The financial architecture being renegotiated behind them is not.

FAQs

What is the petrodollar system and why does the yuan condition threaten it? The petrodollar system refers to the post-1974 arrangement under which oil is priced and traded globally in US dollars, creating structural global demand for dollar reserves. Iran’s condition that Hormuz passage be paid in yuan would, if adopted by energy importers, redirect a portion of that structural demand away from the dollar and toward China’s currency, weakening one of the foundational pillars of dollar reserve dominance.

Has Iran actually closed the Strait of Hormuz before? Iran has previously threatened closure but never fully implemented it at this scale. The February-March 2026 conflict represents the most severe disruption to Hormuz traffic in the waterway’s modern history, with tanker traffic dropping to near zero following the US-Israeli strikes that began on 28 February.

Could the yuan realistically replace the dollar in global oil trade? Not quickly, and not fully. China’s CIPS payment system has expanded significantly, and yuan-denominated oil trades already occur with Russian and Iranian crude. However, the dollar’s reserve currency status is reinforced by capital market depth, liquidity, and institutional inertia that no single crisis is likely to dissolve. The more likely near-term outcome is a fragmented market with parallel pricing systems rather than a clean currency transition.

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Le Consentement (livre) — Wikipédia
Sunday March 15th, 2026 at 11:02 PM

Wikipédia - Modifications récentes [fr]
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Page d’aide sur l’homonymie

Pour les articles homonymes, voir Le Consentement.

Le Consentement Auteur Vanessa Springora Pays France Genre récit autobiographique Éditeur Édition Grasset Date de parution Nombre de pages 216 ISBN 978-2246822691 modifier 

Le Consentement est un récit autobiographique de Vanessa Springora, publié le 2 janvier 2020.

Vanessa Springora publie Le Consentement en janvier 2020 aux éditions Grasset. Elle y raconte, sous forme autobiographique, sa relation avec Gabriel Matzneff, qu’elle rencontre en 1986 à Paris, alors qu’elle avait 14 ans et lui environ 50 ans. Elle s’attache à décrire les mécanismes d’emprise mis en place par Matzneff — charme, discours intellectuels, confiance accordée par l’entourage familial et littéraire —, ainsi que l’acceptation tacite de cette relation au sein d’un milieu où sa réputation d’écrivain primé lui offrait une protection sociale. En exposant ces faits, Springora souligne l’absence de discernement quant à la capacité de consentement d’une adolescente et questionne la responsabilité collective, avant de choisir l’écriture comme moyen de se libérer et de contrer symboliquement Matzneff dans le texte .

À travers cet acte d'écriture, Vanessa Springora cherche à enfermer dans un livre son prédateur, une démarche qu'elle exprime dans son prologue où elle écrit : « Jusqu'au jour où la solution se présente enfin là, sous mes yeux, comme une évidence: prendre le chasseur à son propre piège, l'enfermer dans un livre ». Elle cherche par conséquent à se détacher de cet homme qui l'a suivie toute sa vie. À travers les nombreuses tentatives de continuer de rentrer en contact avec elle, de faire en sorte qu'il ait toujours un impact sur elle, qu'elle ne l'oublie pas. En effet, l'emprise qu'il avait sur ces jeunes filles se prolongeait aussi dans le milieu littéraire, car il écrivait des livres sur ces relations.

Parmi les éléments qui l'ont amenée à rédiger ce récit, à dénoncer et à mettre en lumière les agissements de Gabriel Matzneff, Vanessa Springora évoque par exemple l'attribution du prix Renaudot à Gabriel Matzneff en 2013[1], un prix littéraire français. Gabriel Matzneff est un auteur qui n'a jamais caché avoir des relations avec de jeunes filles. Dans l'émission Apostrophes[2] datant de 1990, à la suite de la publication de son livre Mes amours décomposés, Gabriel Matzneff assume avoir des relations avec des jeunes filles mineures et cela ne semble choquer personne sur le plateau de l’émission mis à part l'écrivaine Denise Bombardier. Cette dernière dénonce les agissements de l'auteur et remet en perspective le fait que des jeunes filles soient folles de cet homme, elle met en avant l'utilisation de sa réputation afin d'attirer ces jeunes filles, elle dénonce ainsi un « abus de pouvoir » de la part de cet homme. Elle questionne aussi l'impact de cet abus de pouvoir sur ces filles pour le reste de leur vie. Par ailleurs, ce n'est pas seulement sur les plateaux télévisés que Gabriel Matzneff assume son attirance pour les jeunes filles mais aussi à travers ses livres.

À la suite des révélations de Vanessa Springora dans son œuvre, une enquête pour « viol sur mineure » a été ouverte[3].

La réalisatrice Vanessa Filho adapte le récit de Vanessa Springora dans le film Le Consentement, avec notamment comme acteurs Jean-Paul Rouve, Kim Higelin, Laetitia Casta et Élodie Bouchez[4]. L'adaptation sort le 11 octobre 2023 au cinéma[4].

Le film est interdit aux moins de 12 ans en raison des scènes de sexe explicites mais aussi de son sujet difficile mais néanmoins importants de dénoncer.

Le film au début cumulant peu d'entrées, a attiré plus de monde notamment grâce au numérique et aux réseaux sociaux [5]. En effet de nombreuses vidéos évoquant ce film et publiées sur l'application TikTok ont contribué à multiplier les entrées notamment auprès d'un jeune public. Le film attiré 40% de spectateurs en plus la deuxième semaine alors que normalement sur cette période les films font moins d'entrées[6].

  1. ↑ « Vanessa Springora : "Par son statut d'écrivain, Gabriel Matzneff redoublait son entreprise de prédation par une exploitation littéraire" », sur France Culture, (consulté le )
  2. ↑ [vidéo] « 1990 : Gabriel Matzneff face à Denise Bombardier dans "Apostrophes" | Archive INA - #CulturePrime » (consulté le )
  3. ↑ « Affaire Matzneff : l’écrivain visé par une nouvelle enquête pour viols sur mineure », sur Le Figaro, (consulté le )
  4. ↑ a et b « "Le Consentement", adaptation glaçante du livre choc de Vanessa Springora au cinéma », sur Franceinfo, (consulté le )
  5. ↑ « « En assurant le succès du film “Le Consentement”, grâce à un public jeune et populaire, TikTok réussit là où des politiques culturelles échouent depuis des décennies » », Le Monde.fr,‎ (lire en ligne, consulté le )
  6. ↑ « Comment TikTok a dopé le succès du “Consentement” au cinéma », sur <a href="http://www.telerama.fr" rel="nofollow">www.telerama.fr</a>, (consulté le )
  7. ↑ « « Le Consentement », meilleure autobiographie de l'année », sur 20 Minutes, (consulté le )
  8. ↑ « Grand Prix des Lectrices ELLE 2020 : Vanessa Springora, Grand Prix du document - Elle », sur elle.fr, (consulté le )
Ce document provient de « https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Le_Consentement_(livre)&oldid=230829388 ».
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Statistics reach a 'crisis point': nations struggle with a critical lack of data
Sunday March 15th, 2026 at 10:04 PM

Nature
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“Uncertainty.”

“Loss of trust.”

“Definitely a crisis.”

These are some of the ways in which researchers describe the state of affairs for government data in many countries.

Do you really know the way the world is heading? Take this quiz on plans to save humanity.

“There is a new type of politics that is undermining the credibility of official statistics,” says João Pedro Azevedo, chief statistician for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF in New York City.

Official statistics are data collected and validated by both national statistical agencies and international organizations. Nearly every country has an agency for official statistics. They collect information and organize it into statistics about myriad aspects of life, including what people earn, how many individuals are employed, how well children perform in school, the quality of nutrition, how long patients have to wait for an operation, levels of air pollution and increases to average temperatures.

National agencies collect data through surveys and from secondary sources. These data sets are used by governments to inform policy, by businesses to plan for the future, and by researchers and advocacy organizations. Official statistics, such as those measuring nations’ gross domestic product (GDP), are also the foundation for monitoring progress towards the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, the world’s plan to end poverty and achieve environmental sustainability.

“Official statistics are like the backbone of a nation’s data infrastructure,” says Steve Pierson, director of science policy at the American Statistical Association (ASA) in Washington DC. “Just like any other infrastructure — roads, bridges and highways — they cannot fail.”

People who work with or study official statistics say that they have never experienced a period similar to today’s situation. Those who call the current state a crisis think it has been triggered by an accumulation of overlapping factors. These include falling response rates to national surveys, cuts to funding and, in some cases, government interference.

Although funded by governments, national statistics offices are expected to operate independently of politicians, not least so that they are free to report the data as measured — much as academic research operates at arm’s length from its public-funding bodies. Moreover, rules established by an assembly of the world’s national statisticians and endorsed by the UN require that some data sets meet international standards, which state that official statistics should be accurate, impartial, trustworthy and grounded in evidence.

Although there is a history of inappropriate government involvement in the collection and reporting of national statistics (A. V. Georgiou Stat. J. IAOS 37, 85–105; 2021), there is a record of statistics agencies calling out the misuse of such data, too. But researchers worry that this might not be the case in future. “I fear that it is becoming harder for official statisticians to do their jobs,” says Diane Coyle, research director at the Bennett School of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Nature explores problems with official statistics in four countries that are causing concern for researchers and statisticians.

United States: make statistics great again

The US national system is approaching a “crisis point” because of political interference and funding cuts that are threatening long-established data sets. That’s according to a report published last December by the ASA, the professional body for US statisticians (C. M. Bowen et al. The Nation’s Data at Risk: 2025 Report; ASA, 2025).

Unlike most countries, the United States doesn’t have a single national agency for official statistics, although it does have the post of chief statistician. Instead, the system for official statistics comprises 16 agencies and units. In 2023, under then-president Joe Biden, the ASA began investigating the health of US official statistics, culminating in the first edition of its report at the end of 2024.

Some problems, such as long-term budget cuts to agencies, have been building for more than a decade. Although the country has seen several instances of inappropriate political interference in the past, the ASA reports that the magnitude of these problems has increased since US President Donald Trump regained office in January 2025.

GDP is getting a makeover — what it means for economies, health and the planet

Events came to a head last August when Trump abruptly fired Erika McEntarfer, then the head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) in Washington DC, after the agency published US employment data showing that the unemployment rate had increased to 4.2% in July, compared with the previous month’s rate of 4.1%.

The president’s actions shocked statisticians. In a statement, a group known as Friends of BLS, which is co-chaired by two former BLS chiefs, called the move an escalation of the president’s “unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system”.

Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, described in a statement sent to Nature why the Trump administration made changes to the BLS leadership: “For years the BLS has been failing America’s businesses, policymakers, and families by publishing jobs reports with vastly inaccurate data.”

Specialists point to other threats to the country’s official statistics, too, such as the termination of several long-established data sets. Last September, for example, the US Department of Agriculture ended its 30-year-long survey of household food insecurity, calling it “redundant, costly, politicized”. However, researchers say that the data set provides crucial information about the more than 40 million people in the United States who are unable to feed themselves without assistance.

Congress is pushing back on the Trump administration’s attempts to slash budgets. For example, the US National Center for Education Statistics, which provides publicly available data on student achievement, education finance and other measures, lost all but three of its staff members when its budget was cut last March. But Congress has since restored its funding, and the centre is slowly starting to hire people again.

Argentina: inflation nation

Argentina is a rare country in which the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (known by its Spanish acronym INDEC) is a household name. The country has a history of severe inflation, and INDEC is the guardian of the nation’s inflation data.

“In 95% of countries, if you ask people on the street what’s the name of the country’s statistical institute, they don’t know. It’s not an issue, it’s not controversial,” says Leopoldo Tornarolli, an economist at Argentina’s National University of La Plata. “In Argentina, my parents, my friends, everyone knows what the INDEC is.”

Between 2007 and 2015, “statistics on inflation and poverty were widely criticized as being politically influenced”, says Azevedo, who previously worked at the World Bank on statistics concerning Latin American countries. This situation led in 2013 to warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, which lends to Argentina, to correct the data “without further delay”.

After a change in government in December 2015, INDEC regained its independence. But a fresh controversy over the calculation of inflation has alarmed researchers.

This has erupted under the presidency of Javier Milei, an economist. Since Milei took office two years ago, inflation has decreased from an annual rate of 211% to 32%. The current controversy revolves around how exactly to calculate inflation.

Why we need to measure people’s well-being — lessons from a global survey

Last year, INDEC began discussing an update to a national survey of household expenditures, one of the sources for its inflation calculation. By international standards, household-spending surveys used for inflation calculations should be updated every five years. But INDEC had been using data from a 2004–05 survey that did not capture current consumption patterns, such as the amount that people spend on online streaming platforms, including Netflix and Spotify.

Last October, INDEC announced that it would start using the results of a 2017–18 survey to update the inflation calculations, starting in January 2026. January’s inflation figures were scheduled to be published on 10 February. However, in interviews with Argentinian media outlets in early February, economy minister Luis Caputo said that the decision to adopt the new formula would be indefinitely delayed because he and the president did not agree to the changes. On 2 February, Marco Lavagna stepped down as INDEC’s director.

The reversal worries researchers. Tornarolli says that the change to the underlying data set needed to be made, “whether it meant that inflation will go up or down. It was the right thing to do”. Susana Kidyba, a former senior INDEC official, agrees. “I think it does affect the credibility of the INDEC, the fact that they announced something and didn’t publish it.”

Both INDEC and the Ministry of Economy declined to answer questions from Nature.

India: concerns about independence

Problems with statistics in India, too, have been building for many years, culminating last November in an IMF report highlighting key shortcomings in economic data.

The IMF noted several concerns, including use of an outdated base year for economic statistics and not accurately counting the contribution of the informal sector, such as people working in open-air markets, to the economy. In January, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) announced that it is enacting a plan to rectify these issues, starting by using 2022–23 as the base year for economic statistics and by including sample surveys of those smaller businesses it needs to better measure the performance of this sector.

In addition to these issues, researchers have broader concerns about what they see as increasing government influence over India’s statistical processes and shrinking methodological transparency of some official data sets.

In 2019, two members of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), a public-sector organization with responsibility for verifying the quality of official data, resigned over concerns that it was being sidelined by the government, for example through delays to the publication of employment statistics.

Seven years later, things do not seem to have improved, according to members of India’s Parliament. Last December, a parliamentary committee recommended that the NSC be given statutory powers to report to the parliament instead of the government — a move intended to shore up its autonomy. The statistics ministry has said that the NSC already has sufficient autonomy.

MoSPI’s secretary, Saurabh Garg, told Nature that the ministry regularly consults with the NSC about reviews and suggestions for its statistical products and methodologies. Garg added that the NSC, which comprises five independent specialists, “has the requisite autonomy to discharge its functions effectively and efficiently”.

Some researchers point to another concern about official statistics in India: the lack of information about how the data are collected and analysed.

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Deadly US Strike on Iranian Warship Puts India's Modi Under Pressure - Bloomberg
Saturday March 14th, 2026 at 8:06 PM

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At a scenic beach spot along India’s eastern coastline last month, local cadet Dileep Palla was fast becoming friends with the young Iranian sailors he was assigned to show around.

The young men played music and posed for photos as they finally enjoyed some down time after participating along with 70 other countries in one of the world’s largest naval exercises. Using Google Translate on their phones to overcome the language barrier, the Iranians peppered Palla with questions about the local shopping scene.

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sarcozona
1 day ago
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Epiphyte City
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