Cuba’s new president

Cuban officials on Wednesday selected First Vice President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez as the sole candidate to succeed Raúl Castro as president of Cuba. The 57-year-old engineer will be the island’s first non-Castro leader since the 1959 revolution. Castro, 86, who has been in office for 10 years, will remain head of the Communist Party, likely until a party congress set for 2021. Unanimous approval of Díaz-Canel by Cuba’s 605-member National Assembly is expected. The one-party government’s official Candidacy Commission selects candidates for a vote by the National Assembly. Ballots offer only the option of approving or disapproving the official candidate. Díaz-Canel and 30 other state council members are due to be sworn in on Thursday.