Yesterday, the Justice Department unveiled a criminal indictment against the former Cuban president for his alleged role in the downing of two civilian planes that killed four people in 1996.

The formal indictment represents the culmination of a decades-long pursuit for accountability by survivors and the families of victims affected by the tragedy.

Prosecutors allege Castro, who was Cuba’s defense minister at the time, authorized the operation in which Cuban fighter jets shot down the pair of planes over international waters. At the time:

The pair of brothers also claimed they were searching for people attempting to flee the regime by sea. Since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, over a million Cubans have immigrated to the United States to escape political oppression and economic hardships. See the rafts they used here.

What is Castro charged with? The DOJ has brought forth several charges, including conspiracy to kill US nationals, murder, and destruction of aircraft, offenses that could carry life sentences or the death penalty if prosecuted in the US.

What happens now? The charges come as the White House intensifies pressure on Cuba’s communist government, including through a fuel blockade that has strained the country’s economy, while also laying the groundwork for potential US action to remove 94-year-old Raúl Castro from Cuba, similar to the January operation targeting former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

We’re tracking this issue live on NextGen+. Click the button below to see its status, momentum, and other key developments.

As investors start to fear that inflation is staying for the long haul, government bond prices fell this week, pushing US Treasury yields to their highest point since the Great Financial Crisis.

Treasury yields directly influence borrowing costs across the economy, but despite what many may think, they affect more than just Wall Street (see 101). While many products are more tied to 10-year rates than 30-year, rising Treasury yields typically result in:

How did we get here? Mainly due to worries over persistent inflation. While the ongoing Strait of Hormuz shutdown sends global energy prices higher seemingly every day, investors are betting more and more that the Fed won’t cut rates this year. Plus, increased government debt has raised worries that investors won’t be able (or willing) to continually buy more bonds. Read more on how inflation, interest rates, and Treasury yields are intertwined.

SpaceX disclosed its filing for an initial public offering on Wednesday, giving investors a look under the hood of the business as it prepares to list on the Nasdaq exchange.

The stock market debut is expected to be the largest in history, and it could potentially make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

The company is reportedly looking to raise around $80 billion at a valuation that could climb as high as $2 trillion, which would far surpass the current record for the largest IPO ever, held by Saudi Aramco.

There were also some other secrets made public:

Perhaps the most interesting of all: To cash in on the billion restricted shares he received in January, Musk’s company has to successfully build a permanent Mars colony with at least 1 million inhabitants (and Musk has to stay employed until the board signs off on it).

Well, they looked a bit complicated. That’s mainly due to its recent merger with Musk’s AI company, xAI, which itself merged with X, formerly known as Twitter (which Musk also owns).

As for the financials:

To clear up the confusion: The company now splits itself into three main businesses, which are space (SpaceX), connectivity (Starlink internet), and AI (xAI, Grok chatbot, datacenters). Starlink was the clear winner last quarter, bringing in $1.19 billion, while the Space and AI divisions lost hundreds of millions and billions, respectively.

It’s a big time for IPO’s: The AI race is essentially evolving into a competition to go public, as AI giants are clamoring to scoop up investors’ money before their rivals. A Wall Street Journal exclusive report found OpenAI was working with bankers to go public as soon as today, while AI powerhouse Anthropic is targeting a stock market debut in the fall.

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Energy giant NextEra Energy is seeking to acquire Dominion Energy in a nearly $67 billion all-stock deal, creating what would become the world’s largest electric utility company by market value.

If the deal is approved, the merged company would operate under the NextEra name, with dual headquarters across the United States. It would dish out a lot of output, to put it mildly:

As tech companies increasingly spend record amounts to power their data centers, which require enormous amounts of power to train and operate AI systems, electricity demand is only expected to grow. Notably, Dominion already operates much of “Data Center Alley,” the world’s largest hub of data centers.

The grid is already strained: Utilities across the US are struggling to keep up with demand from companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta, whose AI operations increasingly consume electricity on the scale of small cities.

It’s having a direct impact on Americans: The hidden costs of the facilities, including massive water consumption, stress on local power grids, and environmental concerns, have led some consumers to push back as data center construction continues to grow in scale and number (see data).

Want to learn more? Watch a 30-minute documentary on data centers here.

Starting next month, the TSA will begin experimenting with a new pilot program that allows some travelers to go through airport security screening before arriving at the airport itself.

Beginning June 1, the “straight to gate” program will only include eight airports. Currently, it’s only being tested with certain Delta and JetBlue passengers flying out of Boston Logan International Airport between 5:30 am and 4 pm.

Eligible passengers will be able to check in, drop off their bags, and pass through TSA screening at an off-site facility that’s about 25 miles away from the airport. It will work like this:

It could be the future: As passenger volumes continue rising and staffing pressures strain traditional checkpoints, off-site screening is becoming more of a necessity than a convenience. If the Boston pilot succeeds, officials say the program could expand similar screening centers to other locations like cruise terminals, convention centers, or other metro areas.

> An Argentine volunteer network is giving a second chance at life to discarded laboratory rodents by rescuing them and matching them with loving adoptive homes in an event called Ratapalooza.

> A blue whale-sized asteroid found last week passed within roughly 57,000 miles of Earth, about one-quarter of the distance between Earth and the moon. Watch its flyby here.

> De-extinction company Colossal Biosciences developed its own 3D-printed artificial eggshells that successfully hatched 26 live chicks, marking a step toward the company’s mission to revive extinct species.

> Scientists studying rove beetles discovered 61 entirely new species in China, highlighting how little we know about the small insects.

> According to newly released data, beer consumption has officially surpassed wine consumption for the first time in France's recorded history