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U.S. President Joe Biden's underwhelming performance in the 2024 presidential debate last week raised concerns due to his apparent fatigue, forgetfulness, and confusion. This has caused uncertainty among supporters despite Biden's attempts to reassure them in the post-debate period. Even last week, during a speech in Madison, Wisconsin, he initially said he would "beat Donald Trump again in 2020" before correcting himself to "2024," which added to the uncertainty.

Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist candidate, won Iran's presidential election on Saturday, July 5. He defeated the hard-line candidate Saeed Jalili, securing over 53.3% of the votes from more than 30 million ballots. This snap election was held after the previous president, Ebrahim Raisi, tragically died in a helicopter crash in May.

Recently, cryptocurrency entrepreneur and investor Balaji S Srinivasan posted a small cryptic message about the US presidential election on X (formerly Twitter). He wrote “Polymarket is the news,” and shared a screenshot of the prediction betting website, where the chances of Joe Biden winning the election was shown to be 25% while his chances of losing was 70%.

The progress towards achieving SDG 8 targets aiming at full and productive employment and decent work for all by 2030 is threatened by numerous roadblocks. Though global unemployment hit a historic low of 5 per cent, women and youth face higher unemployment rates. Informal employment poses significant global challenge with over 2 billion workers in informal jobs lacking social protection in 2023. In the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia, nearly 9 in 10 workers are informally employed. Alarmingly, over one in five young people are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). Compliance with fundamental labour rights has deteriorated.

It is a tale of two cities: London and Washington. It is the tale of two politicians who have been thrown up from amongst the crowd of claimants and confusion. It is a tale of the current contrast.

LONDON: Pressure is already being piled on new premier Sir Keir Starmer to adopt more radical policies after Labour’s general election victory today. In the most grudging landslide in parliamentary history, Labour assembled a huge Commons majority with half a million fewer votes than Labour secured in the heavy defeat of 2019.

As expected, the Labour Party won a resounding victory in the general elections in Britain held on July 4 by capturing more than 410 seats out of the total of 650 seats, thereby ousting the Conservative Party from power after its fourteen years rule. The Tories got only 119 seats. Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party is taking over as the new Prime Minister replacing Rishi Sunak who has already resigned.

Nepal's tumultuous politics is once again at it, threatening to replace the current government with a new one. The one-and-a-half-year-old government headed by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal' Prachanda' has been pushed to minority after the former Prime Minister KP Sharma's CPN-UML with 78 members in the 275-member House of Representatives withdrew from the government on July 2. Prachanda, famously known in the Himalayan nation, has said he would not resign but face a no-confidence vote in the next 30 days. Prachanda's Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) has 30 members in the House of Representatives.

"Joe and Jill went up the hill...
For Joe to get a second term...
Joe fell down and broke his crown...
And Jill came tumbling after…"

Cautious optimism fraught with challenges has been ushered in South Africa post President Cyril Ramaphosa forming a coalition government. The new government has economic and social rejuvenation high on its agenda with the inclusion of Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen and other Opposition parties.