VIJAY PRASHAD looks at the web of militias and drug-trafficking gangs that emerged in the Sweida region through the Syrian civil war, and how they relate to recent clashes and Israel’s intervention

IN THIS country in the last seven days well over a quarter of a million new victims have contracted the virus and well over 7,000 people have died.
Yet this government has made all the wrong choices during the pandemic which has led to one of the worst public-health outcomes in the world, which has further terrible consequences for the economy and society.
This Sunday January 24 we are building the broadest possible coalition to fight for a better policy outcome; to put people’s lives first and to adopt a Zero-Covid policy.
At every stage, unlike this government, we have tried to learn from others and understand how different countries are successfully fighting the virus. These include densely populated countries with larger populations and less well-developed economies than our own who have not recorded these cumulative totals in the whole course of the pandemic.

Our Foreign Secretary now condemns Israel in the Commons, yet Britain still supplies weapons and intelligence for its bombing campaigns — as the horror reaches perhaps the final stage, action must finally replace words, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP

The BBC and OBR claim that failing to cut disability benefits could ‘destabilise the economy’ while ignoring the spendthrift approach to tens of billions on military spending that really spirals out of control, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP

Europe is acquiescing in Trump’s manoeuvrings — where Europe takes over the US forever war in Ukraine while Washington gets ready for a future fight with China. And it’s working people who will be left paying the price, says DIANE ABBOTT MP

DIANE ABBOTT MP argues that Labour’s proposals contained in the recent white paper won’t actually bring down immigration numbers or win support from Reform voters — but they will succeed in making politics more nasty and poisonous