Apart from a bright spark of hope in the victory of the Gaza motion, this year’s conference lacked vision and purpose — we need to urgently reconnect Labour with its roots rather than weakly aping the flag-waving right, argues KIM JOHNSON MP

2025 may be the 200th anniversary of the railway, but train drivers’ union leader Mick Whelan isn’t celebrating.
“We’re not part of the Railway 200 celebrations,” he observes. The reason? A rail sector degraded by 30 years of privatisation, chronic underinvestment and a lack of long-term planning, meaning Britain’s network lags most European countries’ in speed and reliability, while costing passengers more.
“We go from parliament to parliament. In any other reality, having spent as much as we did on HS2, you wouldn’t stop, especially when it costs half what it would to finish just to put it into mothballs.

Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO reports from the start of Kunming’s Belt and Road media forum, where 200 journalists from 71 countries celebrated a new openness and optimism, forged by China’s enormous contribution to global development

Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO reports on TUC Congress discussions on how to confront the far right and rebuild the left’s appeal to workers