The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Holy See hopes the rapprochement will soon be followed by the removal of the U.S. embargo, which the Vatican has long opposed. On Friday, the United States eased rules for U.S. citizens wishing to travel to Cuba and simplified procedures for telephone and Internet investments and money transfers to Cuba.

Cookstown firm CDE Global is strengthening its global links through an international exchange scheme in conjunction with the British Council. The manufacturing plant has recently taken on five international students through IAESTE, (the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience), a program that helps STEM students gain technical experience overseas.

The idea was emphasized during the China-Latin America and the Caribbean Forum "Sharing the Future," held for the first time in Shanghai, east of the country, and in the presence of about 300 businessmen and tourist agencies of the city, the most populated one of this nation.

June and July were important months in the fight for the rights of of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean women. July 25 was a particularly important date — the customary day of celebration for these women — highlighting the need to recognize the struggles they have faced throughout history. It was also an opportunity to bring to light the injustices unique to women of African descent as opposed to those of men. The combination of gender, race and ethnicity, along with social class has only served to aggravate the oppression they have faced.

Commentators have largely overlooked the important role Latin American diplomacy played in pushing Washington to change its fifty-six-year-old policy. This is a mistake, because Latin America’s role in influencing U.S.-Cuban relations holds larger implications for how the United States views diplomatic opposition from Latin America and elsewhere. 

But in recent months, Mr. Morales and other Latin American leaders with frosty ties to Washington have begun to recognize the benefit of engagement, much of it transactional. [...] This shift is the result of discreet and pragmatic American diplomacy that in recent years has begun to alter the image of the United States as an overbearing, entitled neighbor.

“China’s bilateral trade with Latin American will increase tremendously,” Zhang Shixue, a researcher on Latin America at the Chinese State Council–affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua. “This canal is very much in Latin America’s best interest and in China’s best interest. It’s a kind of win-win.”

Unspooling Aug. 6-10, and an initiative of the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE), a leading European training facility, the final leg of Puentes, a film development initiative, is also a showcase for fast emerging Latin American talent.