As Colombia approaches presidential elections next year, the US decision to decertify the country in the war on drugs plays into the hands of its allies on the political right, writes NICK MacWILLIAM

THIS year has been exceptionally difficult for us all. My city of Leicester has had it particularly tough for two key reasons.
We have faced coronavirus restrictions for longer than any other area, which includes not been able to visit each other’s home indoors since the start of the first national lockdown in March 2020 and we have also faced an overdue yet painful resurgence of attention on the scandal in our garment industry.
Exploitation in Leicester’s garment industry has been an “open secret” and widely reported and studied for at least a decade, yet successive conservative governments have failed to act.

CLAUDIA WEBBE argues that Labour gains nothing from its adoption of right-wing stances on immigration, and seems instead to be deliberately paving the way for the far right to become an established force in British politics, as it has already in Europe

The Met Police arrested a staggering 890 people, many elderly, disabled, and even blind in a single demonstration — all to back up the government’s unhinged campaign against non-violent civil disobedience at the behest of Israel, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

CLAUDIA WEBBE says a UN agency’s finding that Gaza’s famine, killing up to 400 people a day, is entirely man-made must prompt a renewed revolt against our government’s complicity in this horror

Starmer’s decision to suspend Diane Abbott yet again demonstrates a determination to maintain and propagate a hierarchy of racism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE