The US assault on Venezuela is brazen and unlawful – yet our PM claims uncertainty. By refusing to confront Trump’s naked imperialism, Starmer abandons international law, mortgages British policy to Washington, and clears the ground for war, argues ANDREW MURRAY
Latest editorial
Who left LA to burn?
California’s real-life water theft makes the classic Jack Nicholson film Chinatown look tame as a billionaire couple diverts resources and the climate crisis worsens the city’s peril, reports MARK GRUENBERG
LIVES RUINED BY CORPORATE GREED: Trees sway in high winds as the Eaton fire burns houses in the Altadena region of Los Angeles, California, January 8 2025
RAINER RUPP examines former CIA analyst Larry Johnson’s description of the US operation to kidnap Nicolas Maduro as a tactically successful but strategically disastrous move, with shades of Bush’s disastrous intervention in Iraq
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Western outrage was absolute. Yet today, the tone is markedly more subdued regarding US aggression against Venezuela. The manner in which the media and politicians frame this invasion exposes a profound ideological double standard, writes MARC VANDEPITTE
STEPHEN LOW looks at the SNP plans for public services
The Employment Rights Act 2025 marks the biggest expansion of workplace protections in a generation. But with key reforms delayed and crucial details still to be decided, unions must remain vigilant to ensure this landmark law fulfils its transformative promise, says ANDY McDONALD MP
After 15 years of spending cuts and regressive redistribution, the British economy is weaker, investment is still anaemic and living standards are stalled – yet all major parties remain committed to a policy that has repeatedly failed to deliver recovery, says MICHAEL BURKE
REMEMBER the movie Chinatown? That 1974 epic starring Jack Nicholson told how politics and greed, mixed with more than a little violence, led to a fortunate few early in the last century seizing control of the Los Angeles water supply at the time when the city was starting the sudden and phenomenal growth that has made it the nation’s second largest.
“People are gonna be mad when they find out they’re paying for water they’re not gonna get,” an undercover source tells the Nicholson character in one of the movie’s key scenes.
Which pretty much sums up the situation Angelenos — and, indirectly, the rest of us — now face: despite spending millions of taxpayer dollars over decades to construct one of the world’s most extensive infrastructure projects to transfer water from naturally rainy Northern California to naturally parched Southern California, there’s not enough available water to fight the monster fires ravaging Los Angeles.
Similar stories
