Making good on the promise Cuba made in its landmark deal with longtime enemy the United States, the agreed upon 53 prisoners held in Havana on political charges have been released, American officials confirmed to Reuters.

I met Liván, Takeshi and the rest of their band of frikis—rock and metal fans of the punk-and-anarchist subcategory—around nine one Thursday night on the median of Havana's G Street. I'd come to Havana to write a book about what it was like to be a young adult in the post-Fidel city and, since G Street was the biggest party in town, it was where I began.

Cuba will begin performing sexual reassignment surgeries it was announced today, a year after a nationwide ban on the operation was lifted. To cover the story, AFP photographer Adalbert Roque took shots of some transsexual women in Havana, which are intriguing and lovely in an odd, quiet way. A gallery: