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
Soul and socialism
The left has had a shifting attitude towards religion, where identity, activism and alienation play their roles – but the atheist left might look to allies among the faithful for solidarity, writes MIKE COWLEY

THE Marxist left’s relationship to religious belief is a complicated one. Our materialism precludes the superstitions of faith while a militant anti-clericalism informs our politics.
The active role of the church in some of history’s worst atrocities is well documented. In May, the Free Church of Scotland refused to apologise for receiving millions of pounds from slavery.
Social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass demanded it “send back the money” when he toured Scotland in 1846.
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