There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

BREDENE is a beach resort a short tram ride along the dunes from Ostend where the annual Manifiesta fete of the Belgian Workers Party — the PTB/PvdA — is sited. The fete attracts large crowds from across the country’s two linguistic communities.
The fete grounds are built around the marquees of the various French- and Dutch-speaking provinces where local food, excellent Belgian beer, entertainment and argument maintains a party atmosphere shot through with serious debates, comedy and music.
Last Saturday the Morning Star’s cycling equipe Pedal4Progress arrived at the Manifiesta after a solidarity ride that went from Maastricht, the site of the eponymous treaty that ushered in EU austerity, spending limits and private finance initiatives to the Brussels headquarters of the Nato war alliance.

Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT

There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde sees Trump’s many disruptions as an opportunity to challenge the dollar’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ — but greater Euro assertiveness will also mean greater warmongering and militarism, warns NICK WRIGHT