Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
We must resist a ‘permanent austerity’ consensus
We need to urgently put forward – and mobilise now for – policies that can actually address the depth of the crises we face, writes MATT WILLGRESS, of Labour Assembly Against Austerity
NON-OFFER: Rachel Reeves
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
THE upcoming general election takes place in the middle of the deepest cost-of-living crisis in generations, which has become a permanent cost-of-living emergency for millions.
Councils are going bust. Poverty and inequality are spiralling. Homelessness is out of control. There are regular warnings that unemployment could be set to jump dramatically. And people’s living costs just keep going up and up while wages and benefits fail to follow.
Yet there seems to be a collective denial of the depth of this social and humanitarian crisis across the front benches in Westminster.
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Public and Commercial Services union leader FRAN HEATHCOTE warns the Chancellor not to take an axe to the Civil Service – and points to measures that would genuinely improve the public sector
