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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On Latin America, every US accusation is an admission
The US projects its nation’s own sins, from funding narco crime to authoritarian rule, onto its ‘back yard’ — lashing out as Latin America drifts further into the multipolar future, write FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ and ROGER D HARRIS
US President Donald Trump walks up the stairs to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, February 28, 2025
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
ADMIRAL Alvin Holsey demonstrated selective outrage over the fear of multipolarity in the Western hemisphere. The Southcom commander confirmed the official US military doctrine for the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region on February 13, before the Senate armed services committee.
In a poorly disguised assertion of US hegemony, Holsey envisioned “an enduring commitment to democratic principles … to engender security, capability, democratic norms, and resilience that fuel regional peace, prosperity, and sovereignty.”
Threats to the vision of a Pax Americana
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FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ says the US’s bullying conduct in what it considers its backyard is a bid to reassert imperial primacy over a rising China — but it faces huge resistance
Cuba Solidarity Campaign secretary BERNARD REGAN says the inhuman blockade of Cuba not only continues, but the Donald Trump administration is ratcheting up aggression against both Havana and Latin America more widely
Long having been considered the ‘US’s backyard,’ Latin America is the crucible of anti-imperialist struggle – yet with the rise of China as an economic and ideological counterweight to Washington, we see a new phase of that struggle emerge, writes BEN CHACKO