Labour prospects in May elections may be irrevocably damaged by Birmingham Council’s costly refusal to settle the year-long dispute, warns STEVE WRIGHT
Will the US and China go to war over Taiwan?
JENNY CLEGG explains the history of the island that has seen it separated from China, but drawing closer until the mid-90s – and which is now being used as a pawn in the US cold war. Before disaster, both sides must draw back
A photo released by US Navy shows US Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and other US and Allied vessels transit the Bay of Bengal
HENRY FOWLER and ROB POOLE explain the significance of today’s Megapicket
One hundred years after 1.7m workers shut the country down in defence of the miners, the struggles that sparked the 1926 General Strike are still with us – and will be honoured on London’s May Day march this year, writes MARY ADOSSIDES
The Labour Growth Group and its think tank partner, the Good Growth Foundation, have taken funding from major lobbying firms linked to housebuilders, banks and Heathrow – raising questions about corporate influence at the heart of Starmer’s pro-growth project. SOLOMON HUGHES reports
The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and union member, has sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls from National Nurses United to dismantle Ice and related agencies, says MARK GRUENBERG
A Vatican photo-op, a hard-right donor and a rhetoric of mass deportations reveal how appeals to ‘Christian values’ are being reshaped by Reform and Tory MPs, says SOLOMON HUGHES
SPECULATION about a full-scale US-China war over Taiwan reached new heights in early October. Western media headlines were full of the threat from China’s 150 fighter jets supposedly “invading” Taiwan’s airspace — but there was scarcely any mention of the 200 fighter jets mustered nearby on the decks of US aircraft carriers.
These were part of one of the largest naval exercises in the western Pacific in decades, with US forces joined by carrier strike groups from five other nations including Japan and Britain, with warships from the Netherlands, Canada and New Zealand.
China, we are constantly told, considers Taiwan a “renegade province” and is prepared to take it back by force. But history tells another story.
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