Favela ballet: A chance to dance in Alemão
THE GUARDIAN: In Rio de Janeiro's notorious Morro do Adeus, a young dancer is helping girls transcend their harsh reality through ballet.
Uruguay cannabis market struggles for legitimacy
THE GUARDIAN: The cultivation and sale of marijuana have been legal since May 2014 but regulatory bodies, police and pharmacies are struggling to catch up with home growers, cannabis clubs and their steady clientele.
São Paulo water crisis generates wave of Brazilian art activism
THE GUARDIAN: A growing movement of artists, activists and independent journalists is challenging dominant media narratives about the drastic water shortage in south Brazil.
Olympic challenge for Sochi games
Officially the Winter Olympics are non-politicised – but the reality is that wherever Russia goes, politics will follow. Russia will be holding a national referendum to select its mascot for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Contenders include a dolphin on skis, a potential revival of the 1980 games’ popular beaming bear, and a giant-eared...
Moscow: the new home of jazz
From hard bop to the new school, jazz has found a haven in post-communist Russia. Moscow’s jazz scene is a creature of many faces. Take the comical shenanigans of one big band in a dive of an expat bar, with all members clad in matching mustard-yellow tassled jackets and an old hippy guitarist who looks...
Kirill’s balancing act
The new Russian patriarch will need all his diplomatic skills to manage what has become a fractious church. The Russian Orthodox church’s new Patriarch faces several challenges as he comes to power; not least, a fresh wave of questions over the institution’s role in everyday life. A recent poll conducted by the Russian public survey...
The Kremlin’s hot and cold war
They are Russia’s two most powerful men: but while Putin negotiated gas supplies, his boss gave virtual skiing advice. If today’s “outline” gas agreement between Ukraine and Russia holds, there will be no doubt who brokered it: Vladimir Putin, Russia’s busy ex-president. A week ago, as the crisis peaked, Russia’s constitutional head of state, President...
