Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
Cop29: When world leaders failed the planet
Undaunted by Big Oil success, ALAN SIMPSON looks at alternatives to lack of courage and imagination stifling the Labour government and it policies
STANDS TO REASON: Climate change protest in Whitehall, central London in October 2022
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
THEY did their best — the climate activists, NGOs, environmental scientists, most of the delegates and civil servants — but it wasn’t enough. Big Oil won the day.
From the Azerbaijani hosts to the flock of corporate lobbyists, the determination to live in denial of today’s climate roller coaster again swept aside all objections from the world outside.
The need for trillions of dollars going into a “repair and damage” fund was replaced by the promise of millions. And even then, the track record of delivering climate finance has always fallen well short of the promises.
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The collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation poses an existential threat — but do today’s politicians have the capacity to deliver the more resilient and sustainable economics of tomorrow, wonders ALAN SIMPSON
BERNIE EVANS despairs of a government that is asking the crooks sucking Britain dry how to get the economy back on track
Centrist governments around the world face rejection by their electorates as neoliberalism fails to deliver the public prosperity it never promised – and the same fate awaits Labour unless it starts to deliver for those struggling to survive, says ALAN SIMPSON
The cynical lack of clarity over Cop29’s financial arrangements suggests that the bill will be footed by poor countries, writes TOM HARDY