International Viewpoint

The recent signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States is a complex and multidimensional event. A careful examination of the text reveals the extent of the internal crises that both sides are experiencing.

The convention will also make nominations for the International Executive Board (IEB) elections that will take place in the fall. A slate, headed by current president Shawn Fain, has just been announced. It includes longtime members of the Administration Caucus (AC) and three regional directors from Fain’s former slate.

(This translation is of “Lénine ou la politique du temps brisé,” first published in Critique communiste no. 150, autumn 1997, and collected in the posthumous volume Octobre 17 (Éditions Lignes, 2017). It is not the same text as "’Leaps! Leaps! Leaps!’: Lenin and Politics," which was first published in English in International Socialism 95 in July 2002 and will already be familiar to readers.

It’s hot. For some, it’s just a matter of temperature. For the working class, however, it’s already a matter of health and finances: less income, higher prices, greater vulnerability. “The severe heat wave sweeping across Europe threatens people’s health, their livelihoods, and their ability to work,” Jessie Ruth Schleypen, a climate economist at Climate Analytics, told Bloomberg. What appears to be a current emergency is actually a trend that has been underway for years now.

So progressive Democratic Party operatives decided they needed to find candidates with a populist message speaking to voters concerns about the cost of living who also resembled the working-class voters to whom they wished to appeal. A couple of young political scouts went to Maine where the Democrats would challenge Republican senator Susan Collins who has served five terms in a Democratic majority state.

After his statement was criticised, Merz clarified that he was not expressing a refugee policy but merely repeating the opinion of interim President al-Sharaa and those, "who wish to remain in Germany and are well integrated will be able to remain in Germany." Al-Sharaa rejected Merz’ claim, characterizing it as “somewhat exaggerated”.He insisted that returns would depend on economic reconstruction and improved living conditions.

At the end of June, the UN Human Rights Council’s office [2] and B’Tselem [3], an Israeli NGO, each published a report: one on children killed in Gaza, the other on children killed in the West Bank. These two reports – lengthy and detailed, yet difficult to read due to the violence they describe – document Israel’s deliberate intent to target and kill Palestinian children. Are children a protected group?

Hundreds of aftershocks have continued to occur in recent days, and the survivors find themselves in an extremely precarious situation: sleeping in tents rather than returning to cracked buildings, whilst basic services in the affected regions (water, electricity, transport, telephone connections, etc.) have ground to a halt and hospitals are overwhelmed. In the face of this terrible situation, the Fourth International expresses its internationalist solidarity with the Venezuelan people.

‘I am the boss,’ declared Donald Trump at the opening of the G7. He might well have repeated it at the closing session, such was the extent to which this summit was aligned with US strategic and energy interests.

Carbon credits enable multinationals to offset their carbon dioxide emissions by funding environmental projects. In Kenya, the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) specialises in this type of activity. It manages ‘conservancies’, i.e. areas set aside for this purpose. A dubious project, but... The NRT has launched the Northern Kenya Grassland Carbon Project (NKCP).