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
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Rape, lies and videotape?
‘Tommy Robinson’s’ former PR guru Caolan Robertson claims to have had a change of heart and rejected the far right. But LOUISE RAW has a few questions about that
'Tommy Robinson' amid far-right crowds before his latest spell behind bars
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 festival marquee, Caolan Robertson’s smile is as white as his pristine sweatshirt.
He looks more like the member of a boy band that never quite made it than what he purports to be: the man who rebranded “Tommy Robinson” (Stephen Lennon), taking him from washed-up EDL founder to millionaire poster boy for the far right star: “I dressed him for two years — I made videos for him, with high production values, that I knew would appeal to a new audience.”
Robertson has supposedly had a major change of heart. Here on the Byline Festival stage, an event which took place at the end of last month, he says he plans to make up for his wrongdoing, and disappear from public life — but off stage later, he networks ruthlessly, posting selfies with assorted media folk and, as I will discover, planning his next career move.
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SYMON HILL looks at Tommy Robinson’s bid to use Christmas to spread division and hate — and reminds us that’s the opposite of Jesus’s message
LYNNE WALSH reports from the Morning Star’s Race, Sex and Class Liberation conference last weekend, which discussed the dangers of incipient fascism and the spiralling drive to war
LOUISE RAW reports back from the United States on the dystopian future its ruling tycoons have planned for us – and our need to take a stand against the far right in Britain now