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
Is a new left-wing party feasible or desirable?
As more and more voices on the left contemplate the necessity and viability of a new vehicle for elections to fill the void left by Labour’s violent lurch to the right, JOHN GREEN assesses the terrain — and what not to do
Jeremy Corbyn addresses supporters at a rally in Willen Lakeside Park, Milton Keynes
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
IN recent British history we have never experienced, as we do today, such a clone-like consensus around right-wing orthodoxies between our two main political parties.
This has given rise to a political vacuum on the left, a vacuum that calls out to be filled — and there is no shortage of candidates with ideas about how to do just that.
One of the recurring suggestions is the need to form a new political party of the broad left as Labour appears to have abandoned all those traditions and principles on which the party was founded.
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Now at 115,000 members and in some polls level with Labour in terms of public support, CHRIS JARVIS looks at the factors behind the rapid rise of the Greens, internal and external
Deep disillusionment with the Westminster cross-party consensus means rupture with the status quo is on the cards – bringing not only opportunities but also dangers, says NICK WRIGHT
VINCE MILLS gathers some sobering facts that would inevitably be major obstacles to any such initiative
With Labour abandoning its base through welfare cuts and warmongering, a genuine progressive alternative is urgently needed but must avoid any whiff of Trump infatuation syndrome and national populism, argues ANDREW MURRAY