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
What monsters lies beneath
The SNP's political monstrosities should provide openings for Scottish Labour, writes VINCE MILLS
The Loch Ness Monster
[Immanuel Giel/Creative Commons]
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
SCOTTISH First Minister Nicola Sturgeon professed her faith in the existence of the Loch Ness monster last week, no doubt earning her much gratitude from the Scottish tourist board and the hotels, eateries and pubs around Loch Ness.
There are, however, more immediate political monstrosities that the First Minister has to deal with — and I am not only referring to reports that Alex Salmond fancies another shot at the Banff & Buchan seat he held from 1987 until 2010, when he switched to the Gordon constituency he lost in 2017, to return to Westminster.
The SNP’s Growth Commission report, which the Morning Star has commented on in some detail, was supposed to rekindle faith in a financially sound independent Scotland. But it has bombed, especially, but not exclusively, among the those who believed that independence might open the door to a radical Scotland where inequality could be eradicated.
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On the release of her memoir that reveals everything except politics, Sturgeon’s endless media coverage has focused on her panic attacks, sexuality and personal tragedies while ignoring her government’s many failures, writes PAULINE BRYAN
VINCE MILLS cautions over the perils and pitfalls of ‘a new left party’
As polls show Scottish Labour’s support crumbling and Reform rising even among independence supporters, an urgent need emerges for an alternative based on public investment paid for by radical progressive taxation, argues VINCE MILLS