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
What caused the ecological disaster in Ohio?
A week after the derailment of a train carrying toxic materials, locals still complain of nausea, headaches and a strong chemical odour in the air — cost-cutting corporate greed is to blame for the catastrophe, writes MARK GRUENBERG
APOCALYPTIC: A toxic black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, Monday February 6
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
A FIERY freight train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, involving hazardous materials in tank cars, was a direct result of Norfolk Southern Railway’s cost-cutting which led to little maintenance and an undiscovered safety problem, the top organisation for rank-and-file railroaders says. And corporate greed to satisfy Wall Street led to the cuts, it adds.
The wreck could have been worse, Railroad Workers United (RWU) added, had the 9,300-foot-long train not had a three-worker crew, rather than the single worker — the engineer — the nation’s big Class One freight railroads, including Norfolk Southern, have advocated for years.
The three crew members decoupled the locomotives and moved them to safety, preventing an even bigger disaster if the fire reached them. One crew member could not have done so.
More from this author
The US president has cancelled all federal union contracts as ‘un-American,’ saying ‘It’s our dream to have everyone work in the private sector,’ writes MARK GRUENBERG
California’s real-life water theft makes the classic Jack Nicholson film Chinatown look tame as a billionaire couple diverts resources and the climate crisis worsens the city’s peril, reports MARK GRUENBERG
The ILA’s fight against wage stagnation and job-killing automation is gaining momentum and union solidarity as the Biden administration wisely resists pressure from the bosses to force strikers back to work, writes MARK GRUENBERG
Employees at Texas shelter Pets Alive joined forces with the Machinists union, seeking better conditions for both themselves and the animals they passionately care for, reports MARK GRUENBERG
