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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The NHS is now the front line in May's war to make Britain a hostile place for migrants
But managers are beginning to point out the health service is breaking down, says JOHN LISTER
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
AS THE financial stranglehold on the NHS is tightened, there are signs that senior NHS managers are beginning to speak out about the damage done by seven years of frozen budgets alongside increasing cost pressures.
The pace has been set by NHS England’s chief executive Simon Stevens. He told the management union Managers in Partnership (MiP) that Jeremy Hunt’s insistence on staff pay rises being dependent upon improved productivity was “an own goal of the first magnitude.”
Stevens argued for an end to the pay cap and for the government to give the health service the extra money needed to cover the cost of whatever award is finally made — or admit that any pay increase would necessarily result in cutting staff numbers.
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Born from my communist social worker mother’s efforts to bridge healthcare gaps, Labour’s push for home-based care now risks becoming another avenue for the US corporate takeover of the NHS, writes RICHARD CLARKE
Behind Starmer’s headline-grabbing abolition of NHS England lies a ruthless drive to centralise control so that cuts of £6.6 billion can be made — even if it means reducing cancer services and clinical staff, writes JOHN LISTER
