Without energy and without a strategic partner, Cuba is currently fighting for its survival. While the population is literally sitting in the dark, the Trump administration is trying to definitively break the socialist project through economic blackmail. What lies ahead for the island, asks MARC VANDEPITTE
Covid-19 and the socialist states
China, Vietnam, Cuba and Kerala, with a combined population of 1.5 billion, have lost 7,000 to Covid-19, but Britain, population 68 million, has over 62,000 deaths. STEWART McGILL explains why
A young supporter of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) joins a procession to celebrate their success in the December 2020 elections, in Kochi, Kerala, which has dealt with Covid-19 far more effectively than the rest of India
A setback for IG Metall at Tesla’s Berlin plant has ignited claims of intimidation and raised fears for the future of collective bargaining and workplace democracy, says TONY BURKE
The question for the media, in the US and across the globe, says ROGER McKENZIE, is will they do their job fearlessly and call Donald Trump out?
A recent Financial Times column on the Iran war exemplifies how the Western elite worldview is more concerned with strategy and power than legality or human life, writes ANDREW MURRAY
STEVE BISHOP considers the prospects for a settlement of the conflict and how the demands of both sides are being viewed
The PM is drawing cautious distance from Donald Trump over Iran – but history suggests Britain’s support may run deeper than it appears, just as it did during the Vietnam war, says KEITH FLETT
China
Britain has a population 21 times smaller than China, yet it has seen 20 times as many cases of Covid-19 and almost 13 times as many deaths.
The World Health Organisation called China’s efforts “perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history.” Strict lockdowns and social media apps restricted people’s movements, thousands of military doctors and nurses were sent to the Wuhan epicentre, medical supplies, food and fuel were delivered on a massive scale.
Similar stories
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
This is poetry in paint, spectacular but never spectacle for its own sake, writes JAN WOOLF
In an act of desperation, Trump is trying to stop the clock to revive the ‘golden age’ of imperialism, writes ATILIO A BORON