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NEW YORK: President Donald Trump on May 1 issued an executive order imposing yet another round of new sanctions again Cuba. This latest set of restrictions apply to foreign persons and entities, including financial institutions, not only to Cuba or its government officials. The introduction to Trump’s order states that Cuba constitutes “an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States.”

LONDON: Reports of an imminent leadership challenge within the ruling Labour Party from British health minister Wes Streeting overshadowed the King’s speech. All now accept Keir Starmer has to go. How to turn that into the “fundamental change of direction” affiliated unions demand is the key question. If Streeting does trigger a contest ahead of the Labour left’s preferred candidate Andy Burnham becoming available, the left needs a plan.

The U.S. President Donald Trump begins his three-day visit to China on May 13 for his summit with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, the outcome of which has special significance for Trump in shaping his political future in the context of the midterm elections in November this year. Among both leaders, the U.S. President has more immediate compulsions in concluding a composite deal with the Chinese supremo, especially the trade deal.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has sharpened Tehran’s diplomatic messaging amid escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and mounting pressure from the United States. Rejecting what he describes as “colonialism and exploitation”. Pezeshkian has simultaneously projected defiance toward Washington and expanded outreach to regional neighbours, especially Iraq, signalling Iran’s attempt to combine resistance with strategic diplomacy.

LONDON: Labour’s left warns against any bid by Keir Starmer or the wider Cabinet to stitch up a transfer of power without a proper contest. MPs with any sense should recognise the folly of any such move. Forget the received wisdom at Westminster about leadership contests being navel-gazing exercises.

LONDON: The threat of the far right looms over British politics. That is the most serious takeaway from the 2026 elections. It is not that Reform are winning everywhere. The Scottish National Party look secure in power at Holyrood, despite their vote share falling. Labour’s historic defeat in Wales is down to the advance of Plaid Cymru, which topped the polls, as well as Reform.

While debates rage in Britain’s left circles over the rights and wrongs of dual membership of political parties, a long standing arrangement of this kind has been placed under severe threat.

Food security for countries across the globe at all times will largely depend on how well the farm sector of the world’s two most populous countries, namely, India and China are doing. Of the world population of 8.3bn, India is home to 1.48bn followed by China with 1.41bn. The past bears testimony to the fact whenever crop production would suffer a major setback because of monsoon failure or a natural disaster in either of the two Asian giants, the victim country would enter the world market in a big way to procure farm products and in the process, prices would shoot up to the disadvantage of other importing countries also.

NEW YORK: A leak of supposedly private audio recordings from Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram—speculated to come from a source close to former Honduran president and convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández—has unmasked an alleged plot to force regime change in Honduras and other Latin American countries.

LONDON: Last summer, Giorgia Meloni’s Italian government approved a so-called “anti-Gandhi law,” which criminalizes even nonviolent protests and passive resistance. The highly controversial “Security Decree” was recently followed by a further one, introducing measures such as preventive detention during public gatherings and signalling a shift toward police-state measures. Civil society organizations warn that these “security packages” constitute “one of the most serious attacks on the right to protest in recent republican history.”