VIJAY PRASHAD looks at the web of militias and drug-trafficking gangs that emerged in the Sweida region through the Syrian civil war, and how they relate to recent clashes and Israel’s intervention

COMMUNITIES Minister Robert Jenrick announced in the Sunday Telegraph in mid-January and subsequently in the House of Commons that he plans to make any changes to historic statues and monuments subject to planning laws.
The considerable number of statues and monuments that are already protected (mainly against property developers) are already subject to law.
The historian Dan Hicks tweeted that he doubted that statues which are not already covered would be found to be worthy of being so.

KEITH FLETT looks at the long history of coercion in British employment laws

The government cracking down on something it can’t comprehend and doesn’t want to engage with is a repeating pattern of history, says KEITH FLETT

While Hardie, MacDonald and Wilson faced down war pressure from their own Establishment, today’s leadership appears to have forgotten that opposing imperial adventures has historically defined Labour’s moral authority, writes KEITH FLETT

10 years ago this month, Corbyn saved Labour from its right-wing problem, and then the party machine turned on him. But all is not lost yet for the left, says KEITH FLETT