Skip to content

Politics & Current Affairs — April 2, 2015

Airbnb Expands to Cuba

The news is the latest in a series of escalating business deals in the wake of the Obama administration’s announcement in December that the U.S. and Cuba would pursue full relations for the first time in 54 years.

Robert Montenegro

Americans eager to take advantage of their government’s warming relations with Cuba now have the option of booking lodging via Airbnb, reports Michael Weissenstein in an exclusive for The Associated Press:

“The popular online home-rental service Airbnb is allowing American travelers to book lodging in Cuba starting Thursday in the most significant U.S. business expansion on the island since the declaration of detente between the two countries late last year…

Airbnb searches for “Cuba” now turn up more than 1,000 properties across the island, with 40 percent in Havana and the rest in tourist destinations such as Cienfuegos a few hours away on the southern coast. The company has been sending teams of representatives to Cuba for three months to sign up home owners, and plans to expand steadily in coming months.”

Weissenstein interviews Kay Kuehne, regional director for Airbnb, who explains that the island nation is already home to a thriving culture of DIY lodging rentals: “casas particulares,” or private homes.

The news is the latest in a series of escalating business deals in the wake of the Obama administration’s announcement in December that the U.S. and Cuba would pursue full relations for the first time in 54 years.

Read more at The Associated Press.

Below, tech researcher Vivek Wadhwa discusses the future of disrupting companies like Uber and Airbnb.

Photo credit: Anna Jedynak / Shutterstock

Related

a computer generated image of a human brain.

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

jwst Abell 2744 450 million

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Surprising Science

Is The ‘Tragedy of The Commons’ a Myth?

Some supposed rationalists would have us believe we are ill-fated idiots. An ancient Greek myth of Prometheus can help us see how to avert this modern tragedy of reason (whereby a sub-natural view of rationality risks making ancient idiots of us).