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
The hidden costs of our support for Azerbaijan
BEN COWLES says EU interest in a polluting pipeline is not only bad news for the environment but also for international human rights
Bayram Mammadov is escorted away by the police
[Mehman Huseynov]
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
WHILE representatives from the European Union and Azerbaijan were busy hashing out a new trade agreement at the 16th EU-Azerbaijan Co-operation Council last Thursday, the latter’s government spent the week jailing activists, journalists and minorities.
The EU’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini told reporters at a press conference after the meeting that “inshallah” the EU and Azerbaijan will soon finalise the agreement.
“Azerbaijan is a very important partner for the European Union, whose independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity the EU fully supports,” Mogherini said, referencing the country’s ongoing and under-reported conflict with Armenia.
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