The National Education Union general secretary speaks to Ben Chacko on growing calls to protect children from a toxic online culture
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The language of flowers
PETER FROST takes a sideways look at what flowers mean, and not just on Valentine’s Day
While Iranians take to the streets en masse to protest sky-high inflation, Trump and Netanyahu are threatening military intervention. The Iranian population is trapped between a repressive regime, a suffocating economic war from the outside, and a history of dark alliances, argues MARC VANDEPITTE
Unison Scotland’s BRENDA AITCHISON says her union won’t tolerate further cuts to public services
The Danish Communist Party’s Lotte Rortoft-Madsen assesses the fallout from US threats to annex the huge Arctic island
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
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
THESE days, Valentine’s Day is a huge boost to the floristry, greetings card and chocolate industries.
Most of it is a rip-off but it did get me thinking — perhaps it was all the cards, bouquets and boxes of chocolates that have arrived at home recently. Thanks, readers.
The Victorians sent gifts of blooms, plants and specific floral arrangements that were used to send a coded message to the recipient, allowing the sender to express feelings which could not be spoken aloud in prim Victorian society.
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