The crew of the Freedom Flotilla boat, Handala, warned Israel to obey international law but are now in captivity, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

A RECENT comment by Vladimir Putin that he was being cancelled in the same way that JK Rowling claims to be caused much social media comment. Of course neither individual is short of media outlets to carry their often controversial thoughts.
Putin’s main audience for the comment however was not Twitter users in Britain, but a domestic one. Russia under his leadership is hostile to any display of sexuality that is not heterosexual. It is unfortunately very far from the only country to take this approach but Putin was making a comparison with what he sees as a more tolerant Western Europe.
However, the reference to JK Rowling was interesting because it underlined the hypocrisy of Putin’s perspective. He contrasted Russia with a “decadent” West but he and the very wealthy men and women who support him are often to be found as significant players in property, business and Tory politics in London. The current focus on Russian “oligarchs” in Britain, which sometimes verges on Russophobia, reflects the point.

KEITH FLETT looks at the long history of coercion in British employment laws

The government cracking down on something it can’t comprehend and doesn’t want to engage with is a repeating pattern of history, says KEITH FLETT

While Hardie, MacDonald and Wilson faced down war pressure from their own Establishment, today’s leadership appears to have forgotten that opposing imperial adventures has historically defined Labour’s moral authority, writes KEITH FLETT

10 years ago this month, Corbyn saved Labour from its right-wing problem, and then the party machine turned on him. But all is not lost yet for the left, says KEITH FLETT