In nearly any other place in the world, a user of his application would have recognized him, but in Cuba Joel Simkhai, founder and CEO of Grindr, the "world's largest gay social network app," passed as any other tourist taking selfies and pictures of Old Havana. In Cuba, very few know of the existence of this app which through location services connects millions of members of the LGBTI community. In Cuba its use is still not possible and it is not very well known, but Simkhai’s visit last week demonstrates that whenever the opportunity arises he won’t hesitate to take advantage of it. This young entrepreneur had already been in Cuba, and wanted to return to see the changes that are occurring before larger ones take place, like lifting the economic embargo, something which he thinks should not take long. “Of course I am also interested in finding out about gay life here, because when I came here 15 years ago I didn’t perceive any atmosphere. Moreover, it was an opportunity to find out how the area of human rights for homosexual individuals is coming along, it’s an area where I’ve heard that they are quite advanced, although like everywhere,...

Cartoonist Arístides "Ares" Hernandez won the Ranan Lurie Political Cartoon Competition, an annual competition held by the United Nations since 2005. The award is conferred in recognition of the artistic quality of the pieces, the political analysis of events, the capacity to predict the consequences of the events, and the sense of humour, as much as the piece’s ability to reflect the spirit and the principles of the UN. “I drew this piece when a friend told me about the attack against Charlie Hebdo, in which various cartoonist friends died, like Charb and Wolinski," said the artist in reference to the piece that won him the prize in an interview with OnCuba. “In that moment the piece was born out of a need to talk about what was happening, although I believe that it is not solely down to this event, rather it can have many different interpretations”. Regarding the international competition, the cartoonist acknowledged that the Ranan Lurie is one of the two most important events of its kind in the world – along with the World Press Cartoon – because the jury for the UN’s competition is made up of several Nobel laureates, journalists, and ambassadors from numerous...