Trump threatens war and punitive tariffs to recapture Iranian resources – just as in 1953, when the CIA overthrew Mossadegh and US corporations immediately seized 40% of the oil, says SEVIM DAGDELEN
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Celebrating Cosmonauts’ Day in troubled times
On April 12 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, followed in 1963 by Valentina Tereshkova, who became the first woman in space. COLIN TURBETT looks at this remarkable Soviet achievement and tells the story of the first intrepid cosmic explorers
A 1959 Soviet postcard linking space success with the October Revolution; and how this paper’s predecessor the Daily Worker covered Uri Gagarin’s space flight
Once derided by Farage as a ‘fraud,’ Jenrick has defected to Reform, bringing experience and political ruthlessness to the populist right — and raising the unsettling prospect of a Farage-led movement with a seasoned operative pulling the strings, says ANDREW MURRAY
Karl and Eleanor Marx – father and daughter – share the credit for a pamphlet which was widely read as an introduction or alternative to his longer Capital and is still relevant today, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
With US sanctions, military pressure and electoral interference looming, the struggle over Colombia’s sovereignty — and the fate of its fragile peace process — has reached a critical moment, says NICK MacWILLIAM
RAMZY BAROUD looks at how entire West Bank communities have been shattered, their social and physical fabric deliberately dismantled by Israel to enable its formal annexation
MOHAMMAD OMIDVAR, a senior figure in the Tudeh Party of Iran, tells the Morning Star that mass protests are rooted in poverty, corruption and neoliberal rule and warns against monarchist revival and US-engineered regime change
Out of the ashes of Gaza rises the world’s most remarkable graduating class, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
THE Soviet space programme of the 1950s and 1960s may have had some military association, but its chief designer, the brilliant Sergei Korolev, had no interest in weapons developments and devoted his life to the pursuit of space travel and exploration for the sake of peaceful human advancement and the prestige of the USSR.
It is worth reminding ourselves of that fact as we celebrate Cosmonaut’s Day — a day set aside to admire the remarkable achievements of the Soviet pioneers and their successes in the 1950s and early 1960s years of the space race with the US.
The date, April 12, is that of Yuri Gagarin’s first 108-minute human flight into space in 1961. Tonight, I will be presenting on this topic to a Society For Co-operation In Russian & Soviet Studies online gathering (details below) and for doing so have already been subject of a call to boycott my books due to a false assertion that I must by implication support the Russians in the war in Ukraine.
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