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
DURING his March 7 State of the Union Address, President Joe Biden proudly told listeners that the United States would “establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters.”
The project, said the Pentagon, which plans to deploy 1,000 troops to construct the dock, would take at least two months. It was met with scepticism, viewed as a slow, inadequate and expensive response, far removed from what is really needed — the opening up of routes to aid trucks.
A week later, a ship carrying 200 tons of supplies for starving Palestinians docked on Gaza’s northern shore.
As food and fuel run out, Gaza’s doctors appeal to the world to end the ‘genocide of children,’ reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER



