Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Latest editorial
Fake news from Israel
In times of war, the press should consider whether the most sensational stories are true before publishing. Of course, it doesn’t — and there’s no penalty when they turn out to be nonsense, laments SOLOMON HUGHES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
BEN CHACKO speaks with Knesset member OFER CASSIF about rising political violence, the prospects for peace and his continuous ‘silencing by suspension’
The City is leaning on Rachel Reeves to cut welfare spending — when what’s needed is cuts to all the benefits given to the mega rich, corporations and banks to help them not pay or blatantly dodge their fair share of tax, explains BERNIE EVANS
The choice between two Blairites to revamp the tepid centrism of our ruling party doesn’t even come as cold comfort as we wander the city streets suffering from their third decade of austerity and the fifth of wage stagnation, writes MATT KERR
ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns
HENRY FOWLER puts the strike of public-sector workers in New Zealand in the wider context of deteriorating employment conditions throughout the world’s major economies
MAT COWARD looks back at a protest 105 years ago this month, whose reporting by the media bears uncomfortable similarities with demos today
IN 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded its neighbour Kuwait. The war was a quick victory, with fatalities on both sides in the hundreds. However, Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait was grim: resisting Kuwaitis were imprisoned and tortured. Up to 600 Kuwaiti prisoners were killed by the Iraqi occupiers.
But the news was dominated by one story that turned out to be untrue. From 1990 on, many newspapers reported invading Iraqi troops had looted Kuwait’s hospitals; the invaders supposedly took away incubators, leaving between 90 and 300 premature babies to die on the floor.
This terrible crime was reported in every top newspaper, was the subject of hearings in US congress and was referred to by many politicians. Those who raised doubts about the story were attacked by newspapers like the Telegraph.
Similar stories
SOLOMON HUGHES highlights a 1995 Sunday Times story about the disappearance of ‘defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist.’ Even though the story was debunked, it was widely repeated across the mainstream press, creating the false – and deadly – narrative of Iraqi WMD that eventually led to war
Britain’s state broadcaster is facing major internal discontent about its reporting on the Israel-Gaza conflict. Journalists are claiming it is systematically biased and frames events in a misleading way, writes MARC VANDEPITTE
The British press has welcomed Keir Starmer’s new National Security Adviser without any mention of his deep, central involvement in the criminal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — but history remembers, writes IAN SINCLAIR