In Cuba, unlike in many Latin American countries, when you see children on the street, they’re not begging; they’re playing. And therein lies Castro’s dilemma: how to reform Cuba’s stagnant economy without losing what’s working?
Dan Lundberg/flickr
Cuba won’t tolerate the high social costs paid by China and Vietnam in their shift to market capitalism, but its economy desperately needs a reboot.
Private medical schools in the Caribbean promise low fees and tropical beach locations, amongst other benefits.
(Valorie Crooks)
Competition for spaces is driving Canadian undergraduates to medical school in the tropics. And there are risks - for student career prospects and Caribbean health systems.
From thaw to chill?
EPA/Rolando Pujol
By rolling back chunks of the Obama deal with Cuba, Donald Trump is giving up just the sort of opportunities he promised to seek out.
Surinamese’s President Desi Bouterse in 1996, speaking in front of a portrait of himself from back in his military strongman days.
Reuters
Oil-dependent and led by a charismatic dictator with a chaotic economic policy, is Suriname the next Venezuela?
Hamidah Samutharangkoon/Shutterstock
Bought from Denmark for their strategic value, a group of Caribbean islands has lived under the US flag for a century.
Are you feelin’ it?
Andrea De Silva/Reuters
Some deride a Carnival trend in which women revel in the streets wearing swimsuits and feather boas. But to feminists, ‘bikini mas’ is a highly political act.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May can’t rely on her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and others in the Commonwealth for unfettered trade support.
Reuters/Adnan Abidi
The UK political elite is overestimating the power of the Commonwealth’s brand in Africa as it seeks new partners in the wake of Brexit.
EPA/Bahare Khodabande
Six years after a catastrophic earthquake, Haiti has to recover from yet another disaster. Getting it right will be a herculean task.
Mike Hudson
A nasty fungus killed 85% of Dominica’s mountain chicken frogs in just 18 months – but the species lives on.
The Haiti cholera outbreak has killed 10,000 people.
EPA/Orlando Barria
It has long been known that UN forces brought disease to the country in the aftermath of an earthquake, but how can amends be made?
Juanjo Tugores / shutterstock
These countries are well-positioned to lead the way from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy.
Trinidad and Tobago is no longer the liquid petroleum gas export powerhouse it once was.
Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
Ghana could learn a great deal from Trinidad and Tobago about how to manage its energy sector – and about what pitfalls to avoid.
EPA/Shawn Thew
How did Washington get its hands on Guantánamo Bay – and why does its presence there still cause so much trouble?
Kenya’s Supreme Court judges file into the chamber during the opening of parliament.
Reuters/Noor Khamis
The electorate and those involved in public governance should focus more on how judges are appointed. This is because they need to make sure that individuals of the highest quality get the job.
Researchers compared the shipwreck history to tree ring data from slash pines to piece together the hurricane history over past centuries.
Grant Harley
In an attempt to better understand hurricanes, researchers recreate hundreds of years of hurricane records with Spanish shipwreck logs and tree ring data.
Hopes dashed again.
Reuters/Andres Martinez Casares
The people of Haiti are furious at their leaders and want to have their say – but the outside world has other priorities.
Soon the oceans will be too warm to support thriving coral reefs.
USFWS - Pacific Region/Flickr
Corals are experiencing only the third global bleaching event in recorded history, caused by warming seas. But worse is yet to come.
David Cameron was met by calls for slavery reparations during his visit to Jamaica in September.
Gilbert Bellamy/Reuters
David Cameron has rejected calls for Britain to pay reparations for the slave trade but there might be other ways of paying back.
Applicants queue up for foreign residency permits in Dominican Republic.
EPA
International reporting of the Caribbean country’s migrant crisis is in danger of missing the point of what the authorities have actually done.
Stage-managed diplomacy in Haiti.
EPA/Alain Jocard
François Hollande can’t avoid the issue of reparations for slavery, but nor can he take control of it.