Gloucestershire’s phlebotomists have brought their historic strike to a close after almost a year of action, leaving a legacy of determination – and a clear lesson about the power of solidarity in the face of anti-union laws and austerity, says FBU general secretary STEVE WRIGHT
“MUMMY, it smells of apples,” five-year-old Dayki said as she ran excitedly outside.
Just seconds later her tiny body lay crumpled on the ground, dead. She was one of the 5,000 Kurds gassed in the town of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan on March 16 1988.
Ali, who is the sole survivor, losing seven members of his family in the attack, described the horrors he witnessed as a 12-year-old boy.
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
History shows from Iraq to Libya, and now Iran, that regime-change fantasies rarely deliver stability — but they always deliver human and economic cost, says MARYAM ESLAMDOUST
VIJAY PRASHAD details how US support for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa allowed him to break the resistance of the autonomous Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
SOLOMON HUGHES highlights a 1995 Sunday Times story about the disappearance of ‘defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist.’ Even though the story was debunked, it was widely repeated across the mainstream press, creating the false – and deadly – narrative of Iraqi WMD that eventually led to war



