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
Historical memory matters – 80 years on from Operation Barbarossa
A growing revisionism that equates Nazism and communism is a genuine danger that must be countered, says JONATHAN WHITE
Soviet soldiers advance through the snow
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
ON THIS day 80 years ago, over three-and-a-half million German and other Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union along a 1,800-mile front.
Some 148 divisions, representing 80 per cent of the German army, were supported by Romanian, Italian, Hungarian, Slovak and Finnish forces.
For the Nazis, in particular, this was the highest point yet of their project for fascist expansion and it was underpinned by a racist ideology toward the Jews, but also toward the Slavs living in the Soviet territories.
Similar stories
The obfuscation of Nazism’s capitalist roots has seen imperialism redeploy fascism again and again — from the killing fields of Guatemala to the war in Ukraine, writes PAWEL WARGAN
The pivotal role of the Red Army and sacrifices of the Russian people in the defeat of Nazi Germany must never be forgotten, writes DR DYLAN MURPHY
NICK WRIGHT examines the British ruling class's complex relationship with fascism before, during and after the second world war
The proponents and enablers of Holocaust distortion and anti-communism now have increasing political power and influence in a number of European countries, obstructing an understanding of the reality of fascism’s crimes, warns MARY DAVIS