In search of political understanding, MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes a critique of anti-semitism as codified by the Israeli state

HENRY BELL is sceptical of the notion that ‘progress’ is an ideology that the ruling class uses exclusively to camouflage appropriation

GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a coherent and radical call to arms against the failed model of networked neoliberal capitalism 

BEN CHACKO welcomes a masterful analysis that puts class struggle back at the heart of our understanding of China’s revolution

JENNY MITCHELL, poetry co-editor for the Morning Star, introduces her priorities, and her first selection

by Imasha Costa

JOHN GREEN is intrigued by the ethereal, ghostly quality of images of a London unobscured by the bustle of humanity

WILL STONE witnesses an experimental piano concerto inspired by the work of a young Jewish victim of the Nazis

JENNY FARRELL relishes an outstanding Palestinian novel that immerses readers in the sensory reality of Gaza, then and now

AI-induced murder, last rites for the mob-dog, a gullible common herd, and an exemplary Christmas chiller

DAVID HORSLEY reflects on the impact of the great Jamaican singer songwriter and actor Jimmy Cliff

New releases from The Belair Lip Bombs, Lisa O’Neill, and Sessa

SUSAN DARLINGTON relishes an inclusive production of a Dickens classic that makes no bones about the lived reality of the Victorian working class

RICHARD MURGATROYD enjoys a readable account of the life and meditations of one of the few Roman emperors with a good reputation

ALEX HALL asks whether intelligence, and stupidity, are the outcomes of poverty and wealth, and cultural norms

BRENT CUTLER is persuaded by a new account of the rise of Christianity, and the fall of the Roman empire

If non-human nature is devoid of value under the capitalist mode of production, this book presents the case for its reintegration, suggests HENRY BELL

The Bard takes issue with a BBC portrait of The Balkans, and sets the record straight

Pantos have the power to confirm people’s prejudices or sub-consciously challenge homophobic and transphobic attitudes, suggests GEOFF BOTTOMS

ANGUS REID urges you to visit Britain’s most remarkable - and mind-blowing - festival of contemporary music

MARIA DUARTE reviews Desperate Journey, Blue Moon, Pillion, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

MARIA DUARTE recommends the remarkable and painful story of the lesbian who put women’s boxing on the map

WILL STONE enjoys a set by an artist too eclectic to be pigeonholed

RUTH AYLETT reviews two collections of outright political poetry

by Christopher Norris

The book feels like a writer working within his limits and not breaking any new ground, believes KEN COCKBURN

The portrait of Elisabeth Lederer carries a deep personal and political history. BENEDICT CARPENTER van BARTHOLD explains

As part of the 2025 London Jazz Festival Rich Mix offered intriguing sessions titled 'Persian Jazz,' CHRIS SEARLE was there

MARY CONWAY recommends the play for the truthfulness of the writing, the quality of the production and the vigorous characterisation

ANGUS REID feels the joy of being part of the anniversary of this delicious, provocative concept, and this community of singers

NEIL GARDNER listens to a refreshingly varied setlist that charts the band’s voyage from avant-garde experimentalists to techno pioneers

New releases from Kennedy Administration, Melanie Pain, and Afton Wolfe

PRAGYA AGARWAL recommends a collection of drawings that explore the relation of indigenous people to the land in south Asia, Africa and the Caribbean

CHRIS SEALE speaks to Palestinian sound artist BINT MBAREH

MARY CONWAY applauds a brave and timely two hander that explores the difference between intimacy and abuse

ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review The Thing with Feathers, Train Dreams, Sisu: Road to Revenge, and Wicked: For Good

FIONA O’CONNOR rejoices in the long-overdue exposure of the secretive, brutish hinterland of ultra-conservative Catholic Ireland

GUILLERMO THOMAS welcomes a biography of WA Domingo, a key figure in the anti-colonial struggle in the Caribbean

BRENT CUTLER is intrigued by the imperialist, supremacist and contradictory history of a word that is used all too easily

PETER MASON is beguiled by a fascinating account of the importance of cricket to immigrants from the Caribbean to the UK

GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes, and recommends a a candid, evidence-based record of Britain’s role in the slaughter visited by Israel upon the Palestinians

by Donna Irving

PETER MASON is gripped by a novel that confronts corporate callousness with those prepared to act to bring about change

KEN COCKBURN relishes the memoir of a translator, but wonders whether the autobiography underlying the impulse would make a better book

PAUL BUHLE an RAYMOND TYLER enjoy an issue of the radical comic WW3 that gives a platform to Palestinian artists, and uncensored commentary

JAMES WALSH wallows in the triumphant reappearance behind the mic of former Morning Star columnist Chris T-T

The new corporate version of Robin Hood is a betrayal of the anti-colonial hero of the people of yore, suggests DENNIS BROE

A mesmerising novel by Mexican Daniel Saldana Paris, and fierce poetry by Peruvian Dalmacia Ruiz-Rosas Samohod, and Jonathan Gonzalez

TONY BURKE recommends a new podcast about the legenary Nigerian musician and political activist FELA KUTI

GWYNETH PEATY and KATIE ELLIS draw attention to the long history of horror films that demonise disability

MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a timely and brilliantly performed antidote to racism in times of Jenrick-inflected jingoism

The bard weighs in to the BBC debate with the nine pints of Stella theory

PAUL DONOVAN feels that the historical record vindicates the role played by U-Thant’s leadership of the UN from 1961 to 1971

MARTIN HALL welcomes a study of Britain’s relationship with the EU that sheds light on the way euroscepticism moved from the margins to the centre

GAVIN O’TOOLE savours a veteran correspondent’s account of the monumental US failure in Afghanistan

ALEX HALL recommends a considered and clear approach to dismantling apartheid and occupation, were Israel to come to its senses

MICHAL BONCZA, ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review Alpha, Park Avenue, The Running Man, and Left Handed Girl

MARIA DUARTE ponders the defence this film makes, of charisma and ‘ordinariness,’ that Hollywood uses to dramatise Nazi war criminals

Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist and composer SOWETO KINCH

by  Martin Hayes

The Arctic in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein reveals more about imperialism than about monsters, suggests MONICA GERMANA

ANDY HEDGECOCK enjoys an unusual collection of stories that refract class consciousness through the flexible lens of folk horror

MARK JONES salutes the progeny of the Cocteau Twins for a new music built for today’s dreamers

AI shenanigans, tinnitus hallucinations, Jeckyll&Hyde in a locked room, and size doesn’t matter

New releases from the archives of The Original Blues Project, Guru Guru, and Faces

MARK JONES recommends a spellbinding set of swirling visuals and endless dub sorcery

New releases from Ninebarrow, Amit Dattani, and Lonan

by Charles Sorley

by Stuart A Paterson

JOHN FLINT explores the Appleby Blue development, winner of the Stirling prize 2025

JAMES WALSH applauds an outstanding community performance, with choirs, of the story of Jayaben Desai, leader of the Grunwick dispute

Jimmy watches Countdown and tries to ignore his bills, grief, COPD and frailty. Meanwhile, his carer walks a tightrope between kindness and reality

JOHN GREEN asks how can we take decisive action on population levels with a world leader who is a destructive ignoramus

HENRY BELL welcomes a fine demonstration of the need to love the words themselves in the communication of political messages

GUILLERMO THOMAS enjoys a survey of the current state of the CIA (aka Langley) from an expert and insider of sorts

GORDON PARSONS enjoys the wealth of wisdom and the clarity of expression from a dialogue between Chomsky and Mujica

MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O CONNOR and JOHN GREEN review The Choral, Belen, Dragonfly, and Colossal Wreck

MARIA DUARTE recommends a brutal drama with an unstable young mother at its heart

Chris Searle speaks to producer/film-maker RITA HARGRAVE about the new album Renegade Queens

by Claire Booker

WILL STONE is frustrated by a performance that chooses to garble the lyrics and drown the songs in reverb

STEVE JOHNSON salutes the mellifluous tones and clear-minded political message of a uniquely relevant Birmingham-born singer-songwriter

TOM KING casts a wary eye over this stage adaptation of Hollinghurst’s survey of metropolitan gay life in Thatcher’s Britain

RITA DI SANTO points out the social experience of exploitation and oppression that inform the popular winners at this year’s festival

PETER MASON is tickled by a new book and exhibition that mine the rotten anachronism of the monarchy for laughs

A Nazi zeppelin whodunnit, death amidst detoxification, a twistaholic’s delight, and noir fiction for criminals

DAVID MCKINSTRY appreciates the life and art of writer, songwriter, singer, socialist and Republican, Dominic Behan

New releases from The Dreaming Spires, Bruce Springsteen, and Chet Baker

TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically

WILL STONE in entertained, and some, by the Irishman Shobsy and the Dutch/Kiwi combo My Baby

JAN WOOLF examines work that aims to give viewers a material experience of the environments in the polar north and Britain equally affected by the climate crisis

The bard recalls advice received 50 years ago from his TRB muse, and sorts out appropriate legislation for football club ownership

STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old

KENNY MACASKILL recommends an informative and highly readable exposure of the asbestos industry

JOHN GREEN enjoys a highly informative stroll through the evolutionary history of trees and planetary life

MARTIN GRAHAM casts a critical eye over an informative study of the fact that solar power - universally available - is now cheaper than fossil fuels

MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay

ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends a cinematic glimpse of the role of the British in establishing the zionist state

MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations

PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son

by Fiko D

Evidence points to a Scottish provenance for the extraordinary Irish illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, suggests RACHEL MOSS

This stunning film about a Bulgarian textile worker highlights the exploitative nature of Euro-capitalism, says RITA DI SANTO

CHRIS SEARLE relishes an account of the years when a black American music carried a message of anti-racism and class struggle

GEORGE FOGARTY is captivated by a brilliant one-man show depicting life in HMP Strangeways

PETER MASON thrills to Irish folk band The Haar

Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones

SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US

RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a festival whose dedication to Palestinian cinema and experience is like no other

In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre

ALEX HALL is disappointed by a superficial investigation of how consumer choice can be influenced, that ignores the fact that most never have such a choice

PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK

MARJORIE MAYO recommends a compelling account of how women survived a Nazi concentration camp and lend their experience to today’s fight against the far right

TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice

MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You

JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict

When the spectacle of gangland violence overwhelms the text, you get the “Scottish play” far removed from RSC founding principles, muses Gordon Parsons

MIKE DUGGAN views the maps that renowned sci-fi writer Ursula K LeGuin used to make her fictions, and draws attention to the way such drawings circulate in society

by Andy Croft

by Andy Croft

MATTHEW HAWKINS relishes the valiant defiance of two gay Scottish painters whose example resists both collectors’ taste and historical fiction

KEVIN DONNELLY accepts the invitation to think speculatively in contemplation of representations of people of African descent in our cultural heritage

Essays on contemporary Latin American feminism, a poetry debut by a queer Texan of Mexican heritage, and a lush volume of tango and milonga drawings

PAUL DONOVAN relishes Michael Rosen’s ability to use poetry and humour to lighten the darkest of moments

RON JACOBS recommends an accessible graphic history of the Partisans and their many instances of heroic and successful resistance to fascism

The bard pays homage to his two muses: his wife and his football club

MARY CONWAY is disappointed by an incoherent show that fails to question stereotypical assumptions about the Soviet Union

SIMON PARSONS recommends a striking production that revisits recent history and offers a timely warning

PAUL FOLEY applauds a careful, intelligent and absorbing production of Brian Friel’s classic depiction of Irish west coast tragedy

RON JACOBS is enthralled by an account of the surveillance and political repression on the left in the US

JOHN McINALLY welcomes a rigorous class analysis of the history and exploitation of sectarianism by the Scottish ruling elite

WILL STONE, JAMES WALSH and MARIA DUARTE review Souleymane’s Story, Sunlight, Good Fortune, and After The Hunt

MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of an enterprising US convict whose campaign of theft involved military planning and exquisite manners

ALEX HALL recommends an exhaustive investigation of the means by which the Starmer faction assassinated the left

by Omar Sabbagh

by Omar Sabbagh

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer WILL GLASER

WILL STONE is impressed by a tour de force rendition of three decades’ worth of orchestral chamber pop

EWAN KOTZ holds on tight for a second helping of egg-punk from Snooper

DAVID MORGAN recommends a refreshingly inspiring novel that features encounters with some tremendous women

BOB NEWLAND recommends a political thriller from former anti-apartheid activist Peter Hain

JAMES WALSH speaks to Chris Thorpe-Tracey - among many things, a one-time Morning Star columnist — about songs, cities, politics and prophecy

by Sally Lewis

DENNIS BROE situates the new Netflix series House of Guinness within a genre that is dazzled by the perverse spectacle of capitalist domination

New releases from Max Richter, Julius Asal, and Jean-Michel Jarre  

New releases from Cuban pianist Aruan Ortiz, trumpeter Kenny Dorham, and London pianist Geoff Castle

RON JACOBS applauds a reading of black history in the US that plots the path from autonomy to self-governance and then liberation

ANDY HEDGECOCK is intrigued by a scholarly account of how systemic disinformation can exacerbate the perception of threat and foster hatred

TOM KING relishes an enlightening history of the checkered progress of the war that humanity has waged on bacteria

STEVE ANDREW enjoys a polemic against an unreformable and profoundly reactionary tradition

MARK JONES applauds a powerful production that is less quiet period piece than raucous rally

The hard sell of cosmetic surgery creates an authoritarian nightmare. Could resistance to the dream of physical perfection become an act of terrorism?

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review I Swear, The Woman In Cabin 10, Tron: Ares, and Plainclothes

MARJORIE MAYO suggests that this inspiring film, about the women toughened by the miners’ strike, be shown throughout the TUC and in community groups

GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship

JOHN NEWSHAM recommends rereading Tony Harrison’s poem V for its relevance to 2025

WILL STONE applauds a comprehensive survey of love in its many moods and musical forms

by Alan Price

SCOTT ALSWORTH celebrates that, for the first time, a British videogame workers’ union has received formal recognition from their employer

This thriller is a politically charged and morally complex dive into climate activism and police repression, judges JENNY FARRELL

Cat show killer, avenging the pawns, women hunt the Ripper, and running dry in the outback

STEVE JOHNSON relishes a celebration of the commonality of folk music and its links with the struggles of working people the world over

MAYER WAKEFIELD is gripped by a production dives rapidly from champagne-quaffing slick to fraying motormouth

New releases from Steady Habits, Jeff Tweedy, and Tom Skinner

KEVIN DONELLY considers the strategies by which a major black US artist asserts the place of African-Americans in visual culture

The Bard reflects on sharing a bed, and why he wont go to Chelsea

JAN WOOLF relishes a drama that depicts Lee Krasner, the widow of Jackson Pollock, in combat with a wannabe painter and a hasbeen ghost

MARY CONWAY applauds a new play that foresees the unscrupulous tactics of a future far-right minority government

JOHN GREEN is enchanted by the story of women’s farm work, both now and the the 1940s, that brims with political and social insight

RON JACOBS is moved to tears by an eloquent journal of heartfelt intensity and human portraiture

ROBERT OVETZ recommends a case study, from the University of Leicester, in their struggle against precarization, AI, privatisation, outsourcing, and work intensification in higher education

IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a lucid critique of a technology that reproduces and enables oppression, power, and environmental devastation

JOHN GREEN and MARIA DUARTE review Power Station, The Smashing Machine, Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, and The Shadow’s Edge

MARIA DUARTE recommends a tense reminder that nuclear war remains a frighteningly real possibility

EWAN CAMERON speaks to Josie Long about comedy, politics and Gramsci

by Vince Mills

by Merryn Williams

SIMON PARSONS applauds an impassioned demonstration of the fundamental role of women in the history and protection of the forest ecosystem

JOHN GREEN welcomes a remarkable study of Mozambique’s most renowned contemporary artist

PETER MONAGHAN highly recommends an exhibition of work that highlights the plight of female precarious workers.

EWAN KOTZ praises a lovingly produced, if bleak offering from the post-punk Brooklyn quartet

New releases from Alice Di Micele, Tim Grimm, and Tereza Catarov

ALAN MORRISON celebrates life and work of the late Tony Harrison, 1937-2025

MARY CONWAY is frustrated by the stylistic muddle that arises when you apply a pub theatre sensibility to a towering Greek tragedy

GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a contemporary update of a problem play that raises more questions than it answers

CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a new book that makes working class history come alive in a true story of human flesh and aspiration

ALAN McGUIRE welcomes a biography of the French semiologist and philosopher

ALEX HALL is frustrated by a book that ducks a clear definition of terrorism and fails to perceive the role of the state in sponsoring it

JOE GILL wholeheartedly recommends an eloquent manifesto: how to change the world one local project at a time

LINDA PENTZ GUNTER salutes an extraordinary portrait of contemporary protest in the UK: resolute determination wrapped in stillness

Inspired by a photograph, a unique memorial in Michigan immortalises US true labour heroes. MICHAL BONCZA recalls a great story rarely told

MARIA DUARTE, LEO BOIX and ANGUS REID review Brides, Dead of Winter, A Night Like This, and The Librarians

MARIA DUARTE is entertained by a wry portrait of befuddled resistance to US authoritarianism

by Andy Jackson

MARY CONWAY recommends an early Shakespearean tragedy that feels so contemporary that it mirrors our daily news

KAROLINA PAWLIK suggests that the art of Chinese calligraphy can bring creative freedom in the age of AI

DAVID NICHOLSON recommends a dazzling production of Bernstein’s opera set in a world where chaos and violence are greeted by equanimity

A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin

SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds a new version of the classic novel of racial injustice in the deep South

Acclaimed as a masterpiece when it premiered, this study of story-telling in an Irish pub more than lives up to expectations, says MARY CONWAY

MARY CONWAY is frustrated by a new play that loses its drama amid the moral dilemma of re-settling children in the aftermath of WWII

SYLVIA HIKINS relishes a comedy that dives deep into Liverpool’s divided loyalties

Reviews of new releases by Wednesday, Suede, and Nation of Language

by Stephen Ashman

An analysis of the choices facing the US left has to reach beyond the confines of the Democrat party, suggests RON JACOBS

AYOUSH LAZIKANI introduces her guide to the many ways in which the Moon was interpreted in medieval times

KENNY MACASKILL welcomes an outstanding biography that gives full context to the life of Scotland’s greatest early 20th century novelist

FRANCIS BECKETT introduces his new play that aims to give its audience a taste of what a far-right triumph would be

The bard recalls the Seething Wells, and how the old anti-fascist fight is back again

MARY CONWAY relishes the spectacle of a domestic implosion in a setting strangely divorced from any social, political or cultural context

ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism, The Lost Bus, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and Happyend

MARIA DUARTE recommends the powerful study of an underfunded reform school and the staff who struggle to do good

DAVID NICHOLSON is thrilled – and shocked – by an opera that seethes and sizzles with passion and the depraved use of power

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to US pianist Paul Cornish

SUSAN DARLINGTON appreciates a retelling of the Merlin myth that emphasises family and belonging

by Sue Norton

by Ambrose Musiyiwa

NAOMI BAKER introduces a remarkable and courageous account of surviving domestic abuse in the 17th century

JAN WOOLF is beguiled by the tempting notion that Freud psychoanalysed Hitler in a comedy that explores the vulnerability of a damaged individual

Memorable, deeply penetrating and exquisitely performed, writes MARY CONWAY

MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a musical ‘love letter’ to black power activists of the 1970s

An ambitious and enjoyable inquiry into what we mean by new is marred by a lack of materialist analysis and anti-communist bias, suggest MARTIN HALL

HEIDI NORMAN welcomes a new history of the Aboriginal resistance to white settlers in New South Wales

TONY BURKE reviews new releases from Cheikh Lo, Mishra & Deepa Shakthi, N’Faly Kouyate

by ALI ROWLAND

Gin Lane by William Hogarth is a critique of 18th-century London’s growing funeral trade, posits DAN O’BRIEN

MARJORIE MAYO and MARIA DUARTE review From Ground Zero, The Long Walk, Islands, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

ANDY HEDGECOCK sees his scepticism lessened by a story is more complex and far-reaching than is initially apparent

JOE GILL appreciates a lucid demonstration of how capital today is an outgrowth of the colonial economy

Reviews of re-releases from The Sex Pistols, A Certain Ratio, and The Fall

by Rose Lennard

ALAN MORRISON introduces a UK poet whose despised daytime occupation provides the subject for his writing

MARK TURNER holds on tight for a mesmerising display of Neath-born ragtime virtuosity

Featuring films with substantial political themes, this year’s festival has ignited a vibrant discussion, suggests RITA DI SANTO

MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long

PAUL DONOVAN recommends three new books that explore the human relationship with nature

Doomed adolescents, when the missing person is you, classic whodunnit, and an anti-capitalist eco-thriller

PAUL DONOVAN recommends an excellent stage adaptation of Stephen King’s classic portrayal of the the injustice of the US prison system

WILL STONE takes a ticket to indie disco heaven, but misses the rarely performed tunes

Reviews of new releases by Jens Lekman, Big Thief, and Christian McBride Big Band

TOM PIERSCIONEK recommends a remarkable series of interviews with those few and brave Israeli citizens who refuse to do military service

MARJORIE MAYO is moved by the clarity with which the FBU call out the true causes of this preventable tragedy

With a new TV film about the Piper Alpha disaster, ANGUS REID points out the enduring class bias of the official version of events

The bard rests on his laurels, and swipes left and right

ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review The Courageous, The Cut, Christy, and On Swift Horses

MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium

TOM STONE sings the praises of one of the oldest open-air festivals in Britain

Chris Searle speaks to accordionist KAREN STREET

DAVID HORSLEY recommends a season dedicated to groundbreaking Chinese-American actor and film maker Anna May Wong

Peace Sonnet Chain: no 2 by ANJA KONIG

MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to Urielle Klein-Mekongo about activism, musical inspiration and the black British experience

As African novels are being translated to English in a bold new trend, TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU puts into wider context the publication of Ignatius Mabasa’s The Mad (Mapenzi)

BOB NEWLAND reviews a book that will take many back to the final years of apartheid in South Africa

The replica ultimately reveals a tension between growing public demand for cultural Holocaust production and the difficulty in cultivating ethical representations of the event, writes EMILY-ROSE BAKER

KEVIN BRYAN reviews new releases by The Outlaws, Mark Radcliffe & David Boardman, Clarence White

While a war photograph cannot stop a missile or feed a child, it can challenge denial and define a war, suggest SARA OSCAR and CHERINE FAHD

KENNY MACASKILL delivers his assessment of Nicloa Sturgeon’s account of her political career

ANDREW MURRAY recommends a volume of essays that nail the visionless, racist and neoliberal character of policy under Starmer’s Labour Party

MIKE COWLEY welcomes half a century of remarkable work, that begins before the Greens and invites a connection to — and not a division from — nature

WILL PODMORE welcomes the case put by a feminist, disentangling the abusive rhetoric of the trans rights debate

JONATHAN TAYLOR appreciates how, for a black British musician, to walk onstage can be a rebellious act

GAVIN O’TOOLE examines the fatal relationship between environmental crimes and politics in Brazil and the inspiration provided by Indigenous people

MARY CONWAY admires a study of environmental idealism that aspires to Chekhov but is arrested in a deluge of middle-class opinion

MARIA DUARTE and LEO BOIX review Little Trouble Girls, Big Boys, The Roses, and Caught Stealing

Despite the primitive means the director was forced to use, this is an incredibly moving film from Gaza and you should see it, urges JOHN GREEN

By Nigel Davison

RAM PRASAD appreciates an earnest effort to show how the art of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism is sacred and personal

ANGUS REID questions whether a human scriptwriter is behind the multiple plagiarisms of Disney’s much-lauded and vacuous extension of the Alien franchise

CHRIS SEARLE encourages you to go hear a landmark performance, and introduces some of the musicians

ANDREW FILMER welcomes the reopening of Glasgow’s landmark theatre after a seven-year transformation

WILL PODMORE welcomes a timely and clear-eyed account of both Nato and Britain’s fatal role in the process that led to war in Ukraine

MATTHEW HAWKINS unpicks three new shows that deal with historical spectacle, feminism and fascism, and the extinction of species

IAN SINCLAIR reviews new releases from The Beaches, CMAT and Kathleen Edwards

RON JACOBS welcomes a first-hand account of the dangerous journey through central America faced by migrants

RICHARD MURGATROYD is intrigued by a study that asks why the ability to diagnose outstrips the ability to cure

SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a sweeping survey of the world's biggest desert and the people who live there

JONATHAN TAYLOR attempts to disentangle the mind, self and political opinions of a successful bourgeois novelist

EWAN CAMERON makes recommendations for the last weekend of the Edinburgh Fringe

MICHAL BONCZA highly recommends a revelatory exhibition of work by the doyen of indigenous Australians’ art, Emily Kam Kngwarray

The Bard commutes to work for the first time in 45 years

GORDON PARSONS is riveted by a translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy into joyous comedy set in a southern black homestead

ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review The Ceremony, Eddington, The Life of Chuck, and The Thursday Murder Club

Despite an over-sentimental narrative, MICHAL BONCZA applauds an ambitious drama about the Chinese rescue of British POWs in WWII

GEORGE FOGARTY relishes the music of black British artists that channels Carribbean, Latin and club sounds, along with contemporary west African radicalism

CHRIS SEARLE hears the ordeal of the Palestinian people in the improvised musicianship of a UK jazz trio

by Hilary Cave

CONRAD LANDIN offers a guide to the diverse shows at Edinburgh Art Festival

MICHAEL STEWART applauds a fun send-up of the substandard Agatha Christie whodunnit

BRENT CUTLER unpicks the cryptic clues of a book within a book within a murder mystery

DAVID RENTON is puzzled by an ambitious attempt to look back on world culture from the future without engaging with or understanding it

LEO BOIX reviews a novella by Brazilian Ana Paula Maia, and poetry by Peruvian Giancarlo Huapaya, and Chilean Elvira Hernandez

EWAN CAMERON continues to comb the Fringe

Reviews of the Neil Charles Quartet, the Freddie Hubbard Quintet, and the Olie Brice Quartet

GLENN BURGESS suggests that, despite his record in Spain, Orwell’s enduring commitment to socialist revolution underpins his late novels

EWAN CAMERON picks out some remarkable performances in which Palestinian artists speak of their own experience

CHRISTOPHER POLLARD explains how and why neoliberalism adopted the racist agenda common to the populist right of today

GUILLERMO THOMAS is persuaded by a scathing critique of the Church of England and its embeddedness in imperialism