Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

For months, North Korea's leadership insisted the country didn't have a single case of COVID-19.

At last, Kim Jong-un has come out with a shocking admission that things aren't going well with the pandemic or the economy.

That is a huge understatement.

And, last year, Sierra Leone put out 1,56 different sets of stamps,

mostly featuring dead white guys.

For African countries, it's a tidy way to raise a bit of money from online buyers,

but it's irking serious collectors.

First up, though.

Today, voters head to the polls for a general election in Jamaica.

Last weekend, the two candidates appeared in a television debate to put their cases to the nation.

Andrew Holness, the incumbent Prime Minister, accused his opponent of working to knock down progress.

How could you come here now and put forward a manifesto in 2020 that would destroy what we have

worked for for the last decade.

But the opposition candidate Peter Phillips pushed back.

58 years after independence, Jamaica can do better.

It's been a tough time for the region. In general, island nations have fared well during the pandemic,

so the Caribbean has been spared the worst. But there have been recent infection spikes,

including in Jamaica. Since the beginning of the week, Jamaica has recorded a huge spike

in COVID-19 cases. Add to that the looming peak of the hurricane season.

Whoever takes the rains in Jamaica, as elsewhere in the region, will be navigating extremely

choppy waters.

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