There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
The invasion of Ukraine: and still the stances emerge
NICK WRIGHT reviews the political arithmetic behind the positions taken by Europe's leading powers, along with some of its communist parties — including Russia's
Demonstrators demanding an embargo on Russian oil during a protest in front of the Europa building in Brussels on May 30th
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
THE European Council met this week to consider sanctions against Russia. Germany, France and Italy, for the second time, anticipated the event with a private conclave to see how their common interests can be asserted against the Anglo-American alliance and its followers in eastern Europe.
Italian premier Mario Draghi, just returned from a transatlantic trip, and Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz from pow-wows with Vladimir Putin are determined, it seems, to find a workaround.
Italy is dependent on Russian energy and Draghi is dragged in two directions. He argues on one hand that it is essential Putin does not win this war, entreating: “We must maintain unity on sanctions. Italy agrees with the package, as long as there are no imbalances between member states.”
More from this author
Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT
From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT
There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT
European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde sees Trump’s many disruptions as an opportunity to challenge the dollar’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ — but greater Euro assertiveness will also mean greater warmongering and militarism, warns NICK WRIGHT
