The Starmer project is going up in smoke – but if the left cannot swiftly build a viable alternative, the country faces the grim reality of a hard-right takeover, says ANDREW MURRAY
“I CAN’T even begin to describe how overwhelming the situation in Libya and the Mediterranean is,” says Hannah Wallace Bowman, communications manager on board the Ocean Viking, a migrant rescue ship operated by French charities Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS Mediterranee.
“I don't think I will really be coming to terms with it anytime soon,” she says after having spent close to two months at sea and saving the lives of over 650 people.
The Ocean Viking, which launched in August, is MSF and SOS Mediterranee’s return to sea-based migrant rescues. The charities had been operating the Aquarius for several years before, but were forced to stop in December 2018 after what MSF Sea described as “sustained attacks on [its] search and rescue [operations] by European states.”
As Scotland heads to the polls, the main parties offer variations on the same script, says MATT KERR
This time it is joined by famed Amazon union organiser Chris Smalls and the new vessel, the Handala, will carry baby formula for Gaza’s starving children just weeks after Israeli forces abducted the Madleen’s crew in international waters, reports ANA VRACAR



