Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
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Focus on the material impact of Johnson’s prejudice
Boris Johnson
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 June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
SKY NEWS correspondent Beth Rigby skewered Boris Johnson at his campaign launch this week, telling him: “You brandish your Brexit credentials, but many of your colleagues worry about your character.” Johnson hammed up his buffoon act, asking why he was being questioned about his “parrot.” Rigby continued: “You brought shame on your party when you described veiled Muslim women as letterboxes and bank robbers.” Unsurprisingly, the audience of the Tory Party faithful booed.
But Johnson skilfully turned it round to a defence of politicians not “muffling and veiling our language, not speaking as we find – covering everything up in bureaucratic platitudes, when what they want to hear is what we genuinely think.”
The trouble is, he’s right. His own modus operandi is that of a total fake — but like Donald Trump, he’ll be let off thanks to the failures of the wider political class.
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