SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
VENEZUELA’S economy is likely to grow faster than most this year and next, according to Credit Suisse. GDP is forecast to have grown by as much as 20 per cent this year (the IMF reckons 6 per cent), up from around 4 per cent in 2021 (the IMF claims 0.5), before easing down to 7 or 8 per cent in 2023.
But there is still a long way to go before the average output and income per head trebles to reach its level before world oil prices began falling a decade ago.
A severe devaluation of what is now the bolivar fuerte has reduced the scourge of hyperinflation to the lesser problem of inflation, although the revamped currency still struggles to maintain its value in the foreign exchange markets. Many shops remain happier to receive US dollars from foreign tourists.
International solidarity can ensure that Trump and his machine cannot prevail without a level of political and economic cost that he will not want to pay, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
US baseless accusations of drug trafficking and the outrageous putting of a bounty on a president of a sovereign country do not bode well, reports PABLO MERIGUET



