Since Ahmad al-Sharaa came to power in Syria, the Damascus government has been given carte blanche to use maximum force against any threat to its continued rule, writes VIJAY PRASHAD

“WE are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster.” This is the terrifying opening sentence of the 2024 State Of The Climate report, co-written by a team of leading climate experts and published in the Oxford University Press academic journal BioScience.
The highly respected authors — including Prof William J Ripple, Prof Johan Rockstrom, Prof Michael E Mann and Prof Naomi Oreskes — note current policies mean humanity is on track for 2.7°C of warming by 2100. It is “a dire situation never before encountered in the annals of human existence.”
Out of 35 planetary vital signs, the report warns that 25 “are at record levels,” with the warming climate potentially causing “many millions of additional deaths by 2050” and displacing hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions, of people. According to the authors, “more and more scientists have begun to research the possibility of societal collapse.”

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

From training Israeli colonels during the slaughter to protecting Israel at the UN, senior British figures should fear Article 3 of the Genocide Convention that criminalises complicity in mass killing, writes IAN SINCLAIR

New releases from Cassandra Jenkins, Ryan Davis & the Roundhouse Band, and Case Oats

New releases from Paul Weller, Wet Leg, and Dino Saluzzi