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

THE report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities released earlier this week represents a conscious attempt to roll back or even abolish the concept of institutional racism altogether.
If the government is successful in this it would turn back the clock on all efforts to make public bodies in some way accountable for racist practices. It would have negative consequences for every worker facing discrimination at work, or in housing, schools and in every aspect of life.
All types of funding, investigation and action would end, as the government would have abolished all discussion of this issue, and decreed that it was a non-existent problem.

Our Foreign Secretary now condemns Israel in the Commons, yet Britain still supplies weapons and intelligence for its bombing campaigns — as the horror reaches perhaps the final stage, action must finally replace words, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP

The BBC and OBR claim that failing to cut disability benefits could ‘destabilise the economy’ while ignoring the spendthrift approach to tens of billions on military spending that really spirals out of control, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP

Europe is acquiescing in Trump’s manoeuvrings — where Europe takes over the US forever war in Ukraine while Washington gets ready for a future fight with China. And it’s working people who will be left paying the price, says DIANE ABBOTT MP

DIANE ABBOTT MP argues that Labour’s proposals contained in the recent white paper won’t actually bring down immigration numbers or win support from Reform voters — but they will succeed in making politics more nasty and poisonous