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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A pond full of dragons
PETER FROST ponders on the newts inhabiting many of our countryside and garden ponds
The palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus)
[Gilles San Martin / Creative Commons]
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
LATE March or early April is the time to see newts. They will have spent the winter sleeping away hidden among tree roots, under rocks or in crevices.
Come the spring and newts can think of only one thing — procreation. They take to the water.
It’s now you see them swimming in ponds. The male newt takes on his breeding costume. Two species, smooth and great crested each have impressive crests. As well as growing the crest, newts’ colours brighten.
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