ANDREW MURRAY wonders what the great communist foe of Oswald Mosley would make of today’s far-right surge, warning that while the triumph of Farage and ‘Robinson’ is far from inevitable, placing any faith in Starmer in an anti-fascist front is a fool’s errand

A FLOTILLA of four ships including one carrying 5,500 tons of what organisers describe as “desperately needed life-saving aid” is about to set sail for the shores of Gaza. Also on board will be hundreds of civilian observers from 30 countries as well as dozens of reporters.
The Freedom Flotilla, established in 2008, has sent ships to Gaza before, most notoriously in 2010 when one of the boats, the Turkish vessel, Mavi Marmara, was raided by Israeli commandos resulting in the deaths of 10 civilian crew members.
But, says Palestinian-US human rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf, one of the founders of the International Solidarity Movement that established the Freedom Flotilla, today the situation is even more dangerous — and more urgent.

But the beneath the racism and misogyny of the far right lies a shared grievance with the left — Starmer’s complete betrayal of working people, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

Still the only black man to win the US Open tennis title, a statue of the legendary champion, Arthur Ashe, is now the only one remaining on Monument Avenue in his Richmond, Virginia hometown, where confederate leaders of the Civil War were also once displayed, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

Danni Perry’s flag display at the Royal Opera House sparked 182 performers to sign a solidarity letter that cancelled the Tel Aviv Tosca production, while Leonardo DiCaprio invests in Tel Aviv hotels, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

For 80 years, survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings have pleaded “never again,” for anyone. But are we listening, asks Linda Pentz Gunter