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
The housing crisis that threatens to finally destroy the Irish language
A government disinterested in making serious economic and social interventions for native speakers of the Irish language, coupled with a neoliberal housing policy, is killing off Ireland’s last Gaelic strongholds, writes MORGAN DE MOINBHIOL
Activists with the Banu campaign protest the lack of action for housing in the Gaeltacht, a major factor in erasing the heartlands of native Gaelic-speaking communities. Holiday homes, short-term rentals and Airbnb are now a major threat to the 2,500-year-old language
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
WITH the release of the Irish-language biopic Kneecap, the nomination of Irish-language films at recent Oscars and more and more Irish celebrities using Irish, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Irish language was in an assured and popular place.
However, the material conditions of Ireland’s 20,000 daily speakers inside its designated language districts, the Gaeltacht, starkly contrast with a language in vogue. These sharply defined conditions felt by its native speakers (especially the youth) reaffirm the urgent point laid out in the Kneecap film’s final message: a minority language dies every 40 days on this planet.
After centuries of colonial subjection and 100 years of independence in 26 of its counties, Ireland’s once nationwide majority language is now reduced to scattered regions along its most westerly coasts.
Similar stories
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
JAN WOOLF wallows in the historical mulch of post WW2 West Germany, and the resistant, challenging sense made of it by Anselm Kiefer
CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year