There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Meeting the current generation of revolutionary Cubans
ROBERT GRIFFITHS recently visited Cuba as a guest of the country’s ruling Communist Party. In the first of two reports, he looks at the country's Covid successes, economic challenges and impressive education system
Primary school children, seen here wearing Jose Marti Pioneer white shirts and red neckerchiefs, enjoying a teacher-to-pupil ratio of just one to 15 in Cuba.
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
JOEL QUEIPO RUIZ doesn’t beat around the bush and identifies Cuba’s economic shortcomings without equivocation. He’s the head of the Cuban Communist Party’s economic department and a member of its central committee and secretariat.
Sharp but relaxed, he tells me that his country must update and expand its electricity generating plant, reduce its dependence on food imports, find new overseas sources of raw materials, develop a stronger and more advanced manufacturing base, revive and enhance its tourist industry and — tied in with several of these objectives — secure greater access to international finance and foreign currency.
To the annoyance of working people, householders and shoppers alike, oil shortages make sporadic and localised power cuts unavoidable. Half of the island’s current needs are met by imports on generous terms from Venezuela, in defiance of the illegal US embargo against trade with Cuba; one-third comes from Cuba’s own oilfield off its north-western coast, while Russia supplies some of the remainder.
More from this author
In the run-up to the Communist Party congress in November ROB GRIFFITHS outlines a few ideas regarding its participation in the elections of May 2026
From McCarthy’s prison cells to London’s carnival, Jones fought for peace and unity while exposing the lies of US imperialism, says ROBERT GRIFFITHS, in a graveside oration at Highgate Cemetery given last Sunday
In the second of two articles on Labour’s weak Budget, ROBERT GRIFFITHS argues that Britain’s massive private wealth and offshore tax havens show clear potential for radical redistribution through progressive taxation
In the first of two articles, ROBERT GRIFFITHS argues that despite a parliamentary majority, Labour’s timid Budget fails to seize a historic opportunity and lacks the ambition needed to address Britain’s deep social and economic crises
