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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More than meets the eye in US actions in the Middle East
STEVE SWEENEY puts the killing by the US of Isis leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi into the wider political context of imperial designs for this part of the world
LIQUIDATED: Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al Quraishi and the compound where he was killed before the hit
[US State department and Wikipedia]
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
IT IS unclear how Isis leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi died last week, but we do know that it has led to a renewed sense of US triumphalism and calls for its continued presence in Syria.
The official narrative as told by Washington is that he detonated a suicide vest that killed himself, his wife and his children.
Other sources put the death toll higher. The West’s favoured pseudo-humanitarian organisation the White Helmets, which is consistently linked to jihadist groups, said that 13 were killed, including six children and four women.
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