The campaign against the Bank of England’s ongoing theft of Venezuelan gold is gaining support across the labour movement and beyond, writes MATT WILLGRESS
Fake news from Israel
In times of war, the press should consider whether the most sensational stories are true before publishing. Of course, it doesn’t — and there’s no penalty when they turn out to be nonsense, laments SOLOMON HUGHES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
The new Prime Minister must abandon decades of automatic support for US foreign policy, which makes us all less safe, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP
Claims that Nicaragua has abolished elections followed a headline that stripped Daniel Ortega’s remarks of their historical and political context. The full speech tells a different story, says BECCA RENK FOSTER
Media Lens at 25: David Cromwell and David Edwards reflect on a quarter-century of media criticism, explaining why independent journalism is more important than ever
MAT COWARD introduces some of the electoral oddballs of the political fringe who remain one of the liveliest features of British democracy, despite efforts to abolish them
by Weyman Bennett and Maz’s family
IN 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded its neighbour Kuwait. The war was a quick victory, with fatalities on both sides in the hundreds. However, Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait was grim: resisting Kuwaitis were imprisoned and tortured. Up to 600 Kuwaiti prisoners were killed by the Iraqi occupiers.
But the news was dominated by one story that turned out to be untrue. From 1990 on, many newspapers reported invading Iraqi troops had looted Kuwait’s hospitals; the invaders supposedly took away incubators, leaving between 90 and 300 premature babies to die on the floor.
This terrible crime was reported in every top newspaper, was the subject of hearings in US congress and was referred to by many politicians. Those who raised doubts about the story were attacked by newspapers like the Telegraph.
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A new generation of right-wing politicians have shifted from promoting deregulation to championing anti-migrant politics warns SOLOMON HUGHES
GAVIN O’TOOLE recommends a methodical unmasking of the US media’s complicity in the Israeli genocide, that should be a template for what’s needed to bring Britain’s corporate media to book
DIANE ABBOTT exposes Keir Starmer's doublespeak on Britain’s involvement in the Iran war but takes heart from the growing organisation of the opposition to it
For those in the West, hunger is often just the familiar feeling of a growling stomach between meals — in Gaza, it has become a strategic weapon of slow, systematic and deadly destruction, writes MARC VANDEPITTE