MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Housing in crisis: delaying meaningful change to a broken private rental system
The Welsh government is shying away from the obvious answer to a spiralling rental market and increased housing precarity – well-designed and implemented rent controls, writes LUKE FLETCHER
STED SYSTEM: Housing in Grangetown, Cardiff
[Jaggery/Creative Commons] 
President Maduro mobilises the 4.5 million-strong Bolivarian National Militia in response to US ‘threats’, vowing to defend the country’s sovereignty and independence, DEVIN B MARTINEZ reports
Washington plays innocent bystander while pouring weapons and intelligence into Ukraine, just as it enables the Gaza genocide — but every US escalation leaves Ukraine weaker than the neutrality deal rejected in 2022, argue MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICOLAS JS DAVIES
For those in the West, hunger is often just the familiar feeling of a growling stomach between meals — in Gaza, it has become a strategic weapon of slow, systematic and deadly destruction, writes MARC VANDEPITTE
After almost two decades of rule by the Movement Toward Socialism, once led by Evo Morales, right-wing parties have emerged in the lead after the first round of elections on August 17 and are now in control of the legislature, reports PABLO MERIGUET
DAVID MATTHEWS looks at what a collective future for welfare might have in store for us
THE cost of renting in Wales has only gone one way — and that’s up. Soaring rents, widespread housing precarity, and an imbalance of power between tenants and landlords have pushed many to the edge. Yet, despite the urgent need for change, the Welsh government’s action on housing has failed to seriously consider one of the most obvious solutions: rent controls.
Instead of acknowledging rent controls as a viable way of easing the burden on renters, the Welsh government’s white paper “on securing a path towards Adequate Housing, including Fair Rents and Affordability,” launched in October 2024, dismisses them based on a lack of evidence.
But here’s the truth: renters are struggling and the private rental sector is broken. We don’t need more data to know that private rents have skyrocketed and that people are being priced out of their own communities. The Welsh government’s refusal to act is a glaring failure to address the core issue.
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