Inside the Americas

This week saw Nicolas Maduro re-elected as Venezuela's president. Maduro won a second term in spite of the economic crisis crippling the country. It's left Venezuela with the world's highest inflation rates, and plunged 87% of the country's households into poverty. This despite Venezuela holding large reserves one of the world’s most coveted resources: oil. Also this week, prize-winning US novelist Philip Roth died aged 85. The iconic writer had won virtually every literary honour, including the Pulitzer Prize for his novel "American Pastoral". But Roth was famous for his many other works, including Portnoy's Complaint," and ''The Human Stain".

And we end in Brazil, where football legend Neymar was back in training this week after being sidelined by a foot injury. He spent an hour on the field outside Rio de Janeiro. The Paris Saint-German striker is hoping to give his home country a big boost ahead of next month's World Cup.

Iran is scrambling to lock in guarantees from the EU after the US pulled out of the nuclear deal. People around the world have criticized the move - including a former hostage in Iran, John Limbert. He tells us why he believes Trump's move was the wrong one. Also, Argentina needs $30 billion to avoid a full-blown economic crisis. The country was once called the comeback kid of the global economy. And its business-friendly president was once praised as the man to put the country on the track to a brighter financial future. But last week, Argentina found its currency at an all-time low, pushing the treasury minister to try to strike a deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Meanwhile, the latest craze in the food industry is so-called clean meat. It's real, biological meat. But rather than being harvested from the bodies of living animals, it's grown from cultured cells inside a lab. And in Silicon Valley, several start-ups are looking into all kinds of alternatives to traditional meat that are both more ethical and better for the environment.

Finally, with preparations in full swing for the wedding of US actress Meghan Markle and Britain's Prince Harry on Saturday, we take a closer look at the bride-to-be.

On Hawaii's Big Island, further evacuations have been ordered as two more deadly cracks emerge around the Kilauea volcano, releasing toxic gasses. Kilauea started spewing fountains of lava as high as 90 metres into the air on May 3. Since then, more than two dozen homes have been destroyed and walls of molten rock threaten to swallow up more communities. Yuka Royer explains. Meanwhile, New York state's top law enforcement official has resigned in the wake of an abuse scandal. Four women accused Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of physical assault in an article published by The New Yorker. The news has come as a shock, since Schneiderman was an outspoken champion for women’s rights. Catherine Viette has more.

And Nicaraguan rights groups say at least 47 people have been killed in three weeks of violent protests against President Daniel Ortega. Dozens are still missing following a government clampdown on the clashes. The unrest was sparked by Ortega's pension reforms, but despite his U-turn on the issue, demonstrators have turned their anger on his government.

This week, focus in the US was on a caravan of Central American migrants stuck on the Mexican border. After three nights sleeping outside, close to 30 of them were allowed to request asylum in the United States. But 100 more are still waiting in a makeshift camp in Tijuana. We take a closer look. Also, this week saw another bombshell in the Russia investigation with reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller raised the prospect of subpoenaing US President Donald Trump.

Finally, the white sand and turquoise waters of Tulum in Mexico are right out of a vacation brochure. While tourism has helped the town's economy, it's also come at a price. Concrete construction projects are cropping up every month, and Tulum is now faced with big problems of deforestation and pollution.

This week, French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington for a state visit. It is the first such visit to be hosted by the US president, with Donald Trump also hosting his first official state dinner. We take a closer look at how real the two leaders’ frequent public displays of affection – including hand-holding and kissing – might be in what has been labelled as a budding Franco-American “bromance”. In other news, Canada was rocked this week by a rare rampage that left 10 people dead and more than a dozen injured. A 25-year-old suspect has been charged with murder after he drove a rental van into pedestrians on a sidewalk in Toronto. The victims were mostly female, and a chilling Facebook message - posted on the social network prior to the attack - has raised suspicion that the driver was acting out his anger against women.

Finally we go to Colombia, where one of the most famous restaurants in Cartagena is actually located inside a prison. It's a detention center for women, where the inmates prepare and serve food for their customers. This novel approach to rehabilitation seems to be showing very positive results.

For 59 years, someone with the last name of Castro ruled Cuba. But all that changed this week as President Raul Castro stepped down, decades after the 1959 revolution that brought his brother Fidel to power. In the meantime, many young people in Cuba are both worried and hopeful about what the future may bring. We take a closer look. Plus, the fallout from the arrest of two black men in a Starbucks cafe in Philadelphia continues. The coffee giant says it will close 8,000 of its US shops for one half-day next month to give its staff bias training.

And we see how fans of the former Brazilian president Lula are continuing to back their idol's presidential campaign - despite the fact that he's still in jail.

In the US, Oklahoma's two largest school districts continue their strike for a second week, demanding more funding for public education. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has already signed legislation granting teachers pay hikes of about $6,100 and providing tens of millions in new money for public schools. But for many teachers, it's still not enough. Also this week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress over the privacy scandal that saw 87 million Facebook users' personal information misused by the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica. Zuckerberg apologised for the lapses but refused to resign.

Finally, Little LA is an area in Mexico City for migrants who have been deported from the US. Many of them end up there alone, with their friends and relatives still living north of the border. Others are more at ease in English than in Spanish. But for all of them, Little LA has become a home away from home.

Fifty years ago, the black civil rights activist Martin Luther King was fatally shot on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. As news of his assassination spread, African Americans poured onto the streets in rage. Our correspondents Philip Crowther and Sonia Dridi have been speaking to some of those who remember the nights of unrest, clashes and looting that took place in Washington, DC. Also, it's often referred to as the "beautiful game". But the sport of football has turned ugly in Argentina. The club River Plate says it will now cooperate with any probe into allegations that its junior players were sexually abused. A lawyer for the charity Help for Rape Victims says a former doctor had informed them that some boys had been abused between 2004 and 2011.

Finally, scientists from Chile have been busy looking at climate change in Antarctica. They've been studying how rising temperatures and sea levels have impacted glaciers, while putting forward solutions to help future generations who look set to be affected by the melting ice.

This week, thousands of students and activists marched across the United States, calling for tighter gun control and the repeal of the second amendment, which protects the right for people to bear arms. But it was a call that President Donald Trump quickly rejected. At the heart of the pro-gun lobby is the infamous National Rifle Association (NRA). We have taken a closer look at the links between the NRA and many of America's top politicians. And as the Facebook data sharing scandal snowballs, we also meet the whistleblower who leaked the story. Christopher Wylie says data from some 50 million users was improperly harvested via an app.

Finally, we head to Chile, where avocados are considered "green gold". We take a look at the devastating effects the thriving business has had on the country's water supply.

In the United States, students themselves are now advocating for gun control. One of the most compelling young activists is Emma Gonzales, a senior at the Florida school where 17 students and staff were killed on Valentine's Day. She's become the voice of what's been dubbed the Mass Shooting Generation, taking on both President Donald Trump and the powerful NRA. Nick Rushworth takes a closer look. Meanwhile, it's been less than a week since Brazilian activist and councilwoman Marielle Franco was murdered. Protesters have been gathering nationwide to show their anger over her assassination.

Also this week in Brazil, the World Water Forum is taking place in the capital Brasilia. Brazil is a country that seems rich when it comes to water, but in fact, those resources are unevenly distributed. Over one in four Brazilians have no access to purified drinking water and dirty water from sanitation regularly pours into nature. Our correspondents Fanny Lothaire and Catherine Osborn have more.

And Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, is fighting to solve a 139-year-old dispute with Bolivia's neighbour Chile. At stake is the possibility of changing the country’s borders to give land-locked Bolivia access to the Pacific Ocean. This week, he's been in front of the UN's highest judicial body, the World Court.