Never mind a visit from the US president: you know your country is making global waves when the Rolling Stones want to rock up and play a free stadium gig. Having been isolated for generations by a US embargo and fidelity to communism, Cuba now finds itself the bemused subject of the Obama and Jagger show.
For many Cubans, such A-list schmoozing (and the resulting economic uptick) should be no bad thing, but history tells us that the process of international re-engagement will also bring a range of less desirable social consequences. As rapacious narco-cartels and property developers lie in wait, the Guardian Weekly’s cover story this week sees the Observer’s Ed Vulliamy pose the question: who is really set to profit from Cuba’s opening up?
A short distance away across the Straits of Florida, the US was gearing up for another big Tuesday in the Republican and Democratic presidential nomination races. Voting came too late for our deadline this week, but you can catch up with all the latest results on the Guardian US website.
Vladimir Putin caught western diplomats cold once again after announcing the withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria, but is it an endgame or a lull? The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Shaun Walker delivers his verdict. In Europe, regional election gains for an anti-immigrant party were a rebuke to the policies of Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel. In Myanmar, NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi looks set to rule by proxy after the country’s newly minted democratic government elected her close aide Htin Kyaw as president.
In Brazil, more than a million people took to the streets to vent their anger over an ongoing corruption investigation entangling the government. Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau paid his first visit to Washington DC and, in the light of Barack Obama’s standing down from office later this year, looks set to assume the mantle of torch-bearer of the liberal-leaning world.
The Weekly Review delves into the unsettling world of internet hoaxers and the dedicated teams devoted to exposing them. We meet the former French biathlete now enjoying life out of the limelight in Norway, and find out whether Starbucks’ impending arrival in Italy is set to shake up the country’s famous whistle-stop cafe culture.
In the Discovery pages, a Washington Post article examines how terror in the animal world is a crucial aspect of the natural order. The Books section considers our relationship with light, while Culture introduces us (or me, at any rate) to the abstract world of the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint.
As Easter nears, you may be wondering why Judas had to do what he did. Notes & Queries does its level best to provide an answer. Good to meet you hears from an American reader with a strong attachment to Edinburgh (and the Guardian Weekly).
In London this week there was a welcome hint of freshness in the air at the end of another long winter. As the spring equinox nears, Nature watch’s Mark Cocker considers the unique smells of one season changing into another – a reminder of what a magical time of year this is, for those of us in the northern hemisphere at any rate!
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