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
This land is your land: who should own our communities?
Despite common conceptions of Wales as a nation founded on communitarian values, it has the fewest statutory community rights in Britain, writes LUKE FLETCHER MS
The Crown Estate owns land in the sea off the coast of Wales that Plaid Cymru has called to be devolved
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 THE middle of the nauseating platitudes, bunting, and military costumes of last weekend’s royal pantomime, a spate of reports came out about the landlord King and the crown as being one of the largest rentiers in Britain.
These revealed that the king himself directly rents out hundreds of homes on top of farmland and commercial properties. While institutionally the monarchy is a total anachronism, the aristocratic class are at the forefront of the rentier’s delight that is present-day Britain.
This prompted many questions around ownership. Who owns land and assets gets to choose how they’re used, and the ramifications of that ownership are far-reaching. Where homes are built, how green spaces are managed, how food is grown, what spaces are set aside and for what purposes, are all massively affected by who owns what.
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CAROL WILCOX argues for the proper implementation of the land value tax, which could see unused plots sold off and landlords priced out of landlordism, potentially resolving the housing and planning crises
LUKE FLETCHER fleshes out Plaid Cymru's plan for the revitalisation of Wales's economy