From London’s holly-sellers to Engels’s flaming Christmas centrepiece, the plum pudding was more than festive fare in Victorian Britain, says KEITH FLETT
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Over a barrel in the US, Macron spearheads Europe's ‘lose-lose’ era
The US is now energy-rich and looking to export, while Europe is quietly keen to avoid the new cold war interfering in its trade with China: these are just some of the issues that are coming to a head between the two power blocs, writes NICK WRIGHT
The EU is suffering a double whammy. Already in a recession, its exports to the US, hobbled by higher domestic energy prices as a result of the US-Nato sanctions policy against Russia, face a US market made more hostile by US protectionist measures and local energy costs way below Europe’s.
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
From a lockdown digital project to a vital tool for class solidarity, ROBERT POOLE and HENRY FOWLER reflect on half-a-decade of struggle
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
LIKE Nato nuts in Britain who imbue our “special relationship” with the US with an exaggerated significance, something of the same sentiment drives the French political elite to make more of the revolutionary origins of their two states than the facts support.
Hence the hullaballoo around Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the US.
Where British imperial interests have been subordinated to the US hegemon — in post-war Latin America, pre-shah Iran, and end of the Suez adventure — the British Establishment, courageous only when outgunning colonial subjects, has prostrated itself before successive US presidents — even Trump.
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US tariffs have had Von der Leyen bowing in submission, while comments from the former European Central Bank leader call for more European political integration and less individual state sovereignty. All this adds up to more pain and austerity ahead, argues NICK WRIGHT
CARLOS MARTINEZ condemns Europe’s failure to develop genuine autonomy from US hegemony, as leaders like Starmer and Macron cling to a declining imperial order rather than building good relations with the emerging powers
As a partial successor to the post-war Marshall Plan, USAid is not simply a humanitarian aid programme, but is involved in projecting US power as an instrument of foreign policy, argues NICK WRIGHT