How Ecuador went from tourist haven to a nation in the grip of gangs bbc.in/3vD3j9r

Read more here about Argentina's repellent shortage amid soaring dengue cases in the country 👇

bbc.com/news/world-lat…

Tonight on BBC World Service I'll be discussing how Argentina has a mass shortage of repellents, at a time when the country is preparing for its worst ever dengue outbreak. Tune in 📻

And if you've got an experience trying to get hold of it in the country - get in touch #dengue

Do get a copy! I find that sometimes history books can be written quite inaccessibly, with the authors trying to cram in all the facts and figures they know.

This does the opposite - and tells the story just through source material, in the voices of the real characters.

Student loans rarely get a look-in when it comes to discussions of rising interest rates.

Current interest on them is 7.7%. Since graduating I've paid £2k-£3k+ per year in interest alone - sometimes more than the repayments. So after ~8yrs of paying it off, still £41k+ to go!

Happy Easter, Feliz Páscoa, from Brazil 🇧🇷

To close this week’s edition of From Our Own Correspondent, a little musing I wrote last weekend In Defence of São Paulo, Rio’s less good-looking sibling.

It’s the 4th most populated city in the world - and one that’s influence is only going to grow:

bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…

How did the Catholic Church’s role in Argentina’s right-wing military dictatorship shake the nation’s faith?

On our last trip there we made a documentary to find out.

Listen now on @bbcsounds and ⁦BBC World Service⁩👇 bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0…

EXCLUSIVE 🚨 Boris Johnson brought the founder of a Mayfair hedge fund to his secret meeting with Nicolás Maduro

Ex-PM is paid consultant to Merlyn Advisors, which covered cost of the trip

It stands to gain from improved relations bw West and Venezuela thetimes.co.uk/article/oris-j…

Our filming location this week, ft. some furry helpers 🕷️

A lot of green tech & energy needs natural resources, which S. America is rich in, to work. It’s why some of these commodities are a hot investment💰

But what happens to the environment where it comes from? More soon 🕵️‍♀️

Our filming location this week, ft. some furry helpers 🕷️

A lot of green tech & energy needs natural resources, which S. America is rich in, to work. It’s why some of these commodities are a hot investment💰

But what happens to the environment where it comes from? More soon 🕵️‍♀️

The Foreign Office insist this was a visit in a personal capacity and he wasn’t acting on behalf of the UK govt (though he paid a “courtesy call” to the British residence in Caracas.)

The UK govt has not accepted the legitimacy of Nicolas Maduro’s administration since 2019.

In 2017, when Boris Johnson was Foreign Secretary, he accused Nicolas Maduro of behaving like the “dictator of an evil regime” after his crackdown on anti-government protests and called the 2018 Venezuelan election “deeply flawed.”

Not clear who paid for or initiated this visit.

BBC correspondents from the Middle East, Africa, US, Europe and South America have teamed up today to explain how the Israel-Gaza conflict is touching their region.

I join from Buenos Aires — on South America.

Listen to two special OS epsiodes here👇

bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p…