Thanks for your patience, this question has not been answered anywhere on the internet and I am unable to find any clues on how to fix it. The problem is:
[jv@xp ~]$ /usr/bin/python3
/usr/bin/python3: symbol lookup error: /usr/bin/python3: undefined symbol: _Py_CoerceLegacyLocale
Before this happened I was fixing problems with anaconda3 python environments so there may be a connection there.
It is the new Fedora 27 system python3 that all the packaging systems(yum, dnf) depends on, so if I am unable to fix it, it is probably better to re-install the whole system.(Which will probably mean that with a face of defeat, looking down I ll go back to mint :-/ )
Here this gentleman is battling the same problem:
Thanks for your help. Any clues and advice will be greatly appreciated.