Washington and its Western allies decry human rights abuses while arming and shielding Israel, turning contradiction into policy, argues RAMZY BAROUD
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Leonardo and the dialectics of nature
On the 570th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s birth, JENNY FARRELL takes a look at the techniques that made the great Renaissance painter and scientist’s work so significant
Leonardo’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa (c1503–1506)
Looking back to Engels’s reflections on the ILP’s emergence in the 1890s offers a revealing lens on the forces shaping a new working-class politics in 2025, says KEITH FLETT
Your Party can become an antidote to Reform UK – but only by rooting itself in communities up and down the country, says CLAUDIA WEBBE
Claiming to be under arrest, president Embalo has left the country while his opponents remain in custody after a military coup a day ahead of the announcement of the final results, argues PAVAN KULKARNI
A teaching delegation to Cuba offered IAN DUCKETT a powerful glimpse into a schooling system defined by care, creativity and the legacy of the island’s remarkable 1961 literacy campaign
The daughter of a legendary blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter has spoken out against the reactionary move, says MIKE SCHNEIDER
LEONARDO DA VINCI was born 570 years ago, on April 15 1452 near the village of Vinci, from which he takes his name.
His mother Caterina was a servant, his father, a professional notary, with whom he was living by 1457 and later with his paternal grandfather. It was during the seven years with his grandfather that Leonardo learned to read, write and calculate.
He never learned Latin, Greek or higher mathematics. Instead, he took up an apprenticeship and ended up in the workshop of a master painter in Florence, which in the 15th century, like much of Italy, was a violent place, where rival merchant dynasties fought each other for power.
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