US President Donald Trump had declared at a rally in Miami, Florida on June 16, that he was cancelling Obama's “completely one-sided deal” with Cuba. Speaking before a highly partisan crowd, Trump ranted against Cuba and vowed to completely cut-off relations and strangulate the country into submission. Through the reintroduction of harsh measures, the US administration is reverting to its pre-2014 policies in order to subdue and subjugate Cuba. Cuban government and people immediately responded to this challenge and reiterated their commitment to socialism.

THE victory of Moon Jae-in, former trade unionist and human rights activist in South Korea's presidential polls with a large majority, is the first bit of refreshing news to come out of the Korean peninsula this year. The region has been witnessing political turmoil and military tensions since last year. The newly elected president had vowed on the campaign trail that his first priory would be to restore calm in the Korean peninsula.

THE African National Congress (ANC) is in a deep crisis and if the recent election results are any indicator, is in a real decline. This crisis naturally has a reflection on the South African governing tripartite alliance – ANC-SACP-COSATU. South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), recently, have been openly expressing their dissatisfaction on ANC led government and called the ANC leadership responsible for deviating from the path of National Democratic Revolution (NDR).

IT has been some time since visiting international heads of state offered to mediate on the Kashmir dispute while on official visits to India. The president of Turkey, no doubt took New Delhi by surprise when he politely suggested in an interview the need for India and Pakistan to calm down the volatile situation in Kashmir and offered his good offices to mediate between the two countries. Erdogan fancies himself as the pre eminent leader of the Muslim world. He has been outspoken about the treatment of Muslim minorities in other countries.

THE thorough-going economic and political crisis in which France is now enmeshed (outlined in part one of this article) has speeded up and intensified processes of change within the French Left. Older organisations, including those which once exercised hegemony on the Left, have seen their influence and membership curtailed and their strategies displaced. Their decline has been matched by the emergence of new forces with a diversity of structures, strategies and goals.