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
How Mandelson played both sides of Brexit
Despite being a key architect of the Remainiac ‘people’s vote’ disaster, the Blairite was also ‘advising’ private equity firms on how to make bank on Brexit — with help from Tory minister Gove, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Mandelson was publicly claiming he wanted to stop Brexit, in a campaign that caused a great deal of difficulty to Labour’s left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn, while he or his representatives were privately hosting discussions between Tory Minister Gove and many investment firms treating Brexit as a done deal and a business opportunity
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
PETER MANDELSON, a key Labour figure and pro-EU campaigner, was in 2019 organising a caviar-and-oysters dinner for Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove to meet “investors” and “corporates” to discuss “to what extent is Brexit an opportunity.”
Mandelson is currently a semi-official adviser to Keir Starmer’s team. Morgan McSweeney, who was Starmer’s chief of staff and is now Labour’s “elections director,” is particularly close to Mandelson.
Mandelson was one of the leaders of the “people’s vote” campaign, which persuaded Labour to run on a second referendum on Brexit policy in the December 2019 election.
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