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 news that Donald Trump had been arrested and indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records by a court in New York over an alleged hush-money payment of $130,000 to former porn performer Stormy Daniels, with whom he is alleged to have had sexual relations in 2006, will have come as manna from heaven for his Democrat opponents in Washington and millions across the US.
It will also, however, stir up a Republican Party which he rules like a king rules his kingdom, along with a Make America Great Again (Maga) base across the country in equal measure, to thus confirm that the land of the free has never been more polarised with no sign, none whatsoever, of the mutual animus dissipating anytime soon.
With Trump having also been subpoenaed to appear in front of the congressional committee hearing into the Capitol riot of January 6 2021 — and with the former president also currently facing multiple lawsuits and other legal probes into his real estate and business dealings in New York — and also the retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago beachside mansion in Florida — many are predicting that his demise is finally at hand.
ANDREW MURRAY looks back on the ignominious career of the former US vice-president, who died earlier this week



