Trump’s escalation against Venezuela is about more than oil, it is about regaining control over the ‘natural’ zone of influence of the United States at a moment where its hegemony is slipping, argues VIJAY PRASHAD
“THERE are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen,” wrote Lenin. Never has this been so true as this week in Labour’s pronouncements on education.
First, there was the announcement that the pledge of free school meals for all was going to be scrapped; next up was the story about how it would send in teams of “super-teachers” into deprived areas; and finally — in the most extreme case of not reading the room ever — the insistence that it would increase the number of Ofsted inspections to yearly.
At this point, I fear that Keir Starmer is reading this author’s Morning Star contributions and then doing the exact opposite of whatever I say.
After a ruinous run at Tolkien, the streaming platforms are moving on to Narnia — a naff mix of religious allegory, colonial attitudes, and thinly veiled prejudices that is beyond rescuing, writes STEPHEN ARNELL



