Cuba is undergoing its biggest economic transformation in decades: private firms are back and small businesses employ a quarter of the workforce. But market reform has brought no political opening.

The US once supported military coups to keep Latin America under its control. Now, a weaker left and the rise of organised crime are helping the far right assert itself. This suits the White House just fine.

Mussolini's attack on Ethiopia in 1935 caused more than half a million deaths by the end of the Italian occupation in 1941. Why were the sanctions imposed on Italy only half-heartedly enforced?

Australians rejected the idea of creating the Indigenous Voice to Parliament advisory body in October 2023. Two years after this stinging defeat, the state of Victoria signed a treaty with its First Peoples.

While Saudi Arabia is banking on industrial investment and the UAE on logistics infrastructure, Qatar has gone for luxury tourism to consolidate its international position and diversify its economy.

South Korea's rapid modernisation has brought a need for reassurance often found through shamans and their connection with the spirit world. The practitioners are reaping its economic rewards.

Before the Nazis came to power, Berlin was the centre of bold campaigns against state control over the body, championing abortion rights, homosexual equality and new understandings of sex and gender.

Europe's crystal meth trade is changing. In the Czech Republic a long-established cottage industry has given way to industrial-scale ‘kombilabs', as international organised crime groups push into a growing market.

There used to be no alternative to long queues for the most popular attractions at theme parks. Now, almost anywhere people have to wait, it's possible to skip to the front – for a price.