The proxy war in Ukraine is heading to a denouement with the US and Russia dividing the spoils while the European powers stand bewildered by events they have been wilfully blind to, says KEVIN OVENDEN
Cuba’s triple troubles: pandemic, blockade and economic crisis
Buffeted for six decades by the US economic blockade and recently having had to cope with restrictions due to Covid- 19, the economy is deteriorating. Government leaders recently outlined remedial steps for the 'new normal' in Cuban socialism, reports W T WHITNEY JNR
One can only imagine what would happen if 2.2 million Palestinian refugees were pushed into Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries, per Trump’s proposal, writes RAMZY BAROUD
This is the most anti-migrant government in decades, argues RAVISHAAN RAHEL MUTHIAH
VICTOR GROSSMAN reports, with a little chuckle, on how US readiness to work with Russia, not just on peace for Ukraine, has thrown a spanner into the German electoral machine
SOLOMON HUGHES probes the finances of a phoney ‘charity’ pushing the free schools and academies agenda
Freedom now for former PM Mir-Hossein Mousavi and other political prisoners
VIJAY PRASHAD examines why in 2018 Washington started to take an increasingly belligerent stance towards ‘near peer rivals’ – Russa and China – with far-reaching geopolitical effects
THE UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) reported in October that the region “is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a century” and that Cuba’s GDP this year will be down at least 8 per cent.
Tourist income, remittances, foreign trade and tax collections have fallen. Oil and gasoline shortages, the result of US sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela, have stressed the economy.
Public spending on health care, unemployment compensation and pensions are up; 150,000 state workers and 250,000 private-sector workers have been idled. Effects of the US economic blockade compound matters, with restrictions affecting the tourist industry, foreign imports and access to foreign currency and loans.
More from this author
WT WHITNEY JR connects the dots between the 1804 revolution and modern anti-immigrant, pet-eating hysteria, looking at the deep-seated fears of black self-determination that still haunt the modern US psyche
The views of Cuban leaders on problems now enveloping the country shed light on the realities of a nation under siege and a revolution in trouble from poor food production, emigration and black-market scalping, writes WT WHITNEY JR
The progressive government’s national drug policy aims to end the US-led ‘war on drugs’ by targeting major traffickers, not small farmers or users, writes WT WHITNEY JR
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