Fortnightly links: Cuban inequality, malaria, drought, Donald Trump, and more

How do you talk about inequality in a country that has (in theory) eliminated it? In The Globe and Mail, Stephanie Nolen reports on the social changes emerging in Cuba as a result of economic reforms and normalisation of relations with the US.

Although there has been great news for malaria funding this week, ultimately in order to tackle a disease like malaria you have to be prepared to acknowledge the scale of the problem. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be happening in India, where the gap between official government statistics and independent estimates of malaria deaths numbers in the tens of thousands.

We’ve published several analyses of the effects of El Niño in Papua New Guinea on the Devpolicy Blog in recent weeks, but it’s important to remember that PNG is far from the only country affected by drought and famine. With some 400,000 children suffering from malnutrition, the UN and NGOs are warning that Ethiopia’s worst drought in 30 years represents as big a threat to children’s lives as the war in Syria. And in The New Yorker, Amy Davidson provides a thought-provoking historical account of ‘the next great famine’.

In a recent op-ed, George Monbiot highlights an interesting-looking Lancet study that shows that abortion rates are lower in countries with more liberal abortion laws.

And finally, as the US presidential primaries (finally!) get underway, it’s time to ask: could it be that Donald Trump is nothing but the American equivalent of a Melanesian Big Man?