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
Militarism should not be glamorised in our schools
SYMON HILL, of the Peace Pledge Union, warns of growing alarm over military visits to schools, which encourage and normalise war and support for it among young people
A child plays with a gun at an Armed Forces Day event
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
IN 2019, the Facebook page of a children’s nursery in Lincolnshire featured photos of small children wearing real military body armour.
The nursery had been visited by a soldier who had talked to the children and invited them to try on his helmet and parts of his uniform.
These children, barely older than toddlers, had not been given any sense of what happens to human bodies and minds in war. They had been taught to associate uniforms and military equipment with fun and excitement.
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While working people face austerity, arms companies enjoy massive government contracts, writes ARTHUR WEST, exposing how politicians exaggerate the Russian threat to justify spending on a sector that has the lowest employment multiplier
We must take a stand against the government’s spending on war
Behind headlines of bishops’ resignations and brutal abuse lies the deeper story of class privilege and power, as religious institutions face a stark choice between serving the elite or standing with the oppressed, writes SYMON HILL