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
Why is Peter Hearn allowed to buy influence in the Labour Party?
Right-wing Labour MPs have been enjoying big cash injections from a millionaire who makes his money through outsourcing and ‘executive’ recruitment work — both to the detriment of the NHS, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow health secretary Wes Streeting meeting with senior staff, nurses, doctors and patients, during a visit to the Emergency Assessment Unit at Colchester Hospital in Essex
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
SKY NEWS is investigating money that flows around MPs in donations, second jobs and funding for all-party parliamentary groups. It’s good to see journalists “follow the money” around politics — which is something we are supposed to do, but often don’t.
Sky’s investigation highlighted and raised questions about one of the biggest blocks of donations. A company called MPM Connect is the third-biggest donor to MPs since the last election, giving £340,000 to three Labour right figures — Wes Streeting, Dan Jarvis and Yvette Cooper. The donations help run these “moderate” MPs’ offices — the cash promotes their political careers, not their luxury.
Sky is right to raise these questions — but it only really “followed the money” part of the way. While MPM Connect’s role is shadowy, it is possible to pin them down a bit more.
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Martin Taylor, the hedge-fund multimillionaire who has poured millions into pushing Labour rightwards, helped finance Lucy Powell’s supposedly dissenting campaign — suggesting her victory was not the ‘soft-left’ rebellion some have claimed, says SOLOMON HUGHES
Health Secretary Wes Streeting taking £53k from Tory-linked recruiter and outsourcer Peter Hearn’s OPD Group is a great example of how Labour’s rich donors shape policies targeting the poor – not their wealth, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
They’re the problem it’s them: SOLOMON HUGHES on the freeloading flunkies of the Labour Party hoovering up VIP tickets to musical and sporting events
SOLOMON HUGHES reports on how a mega-wealthy hedge fund manager is dishing out cash to a ‘cringe’ Labour Party mediocrity with contempt for the voters