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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Remembering Halabja – scene of a massacre
34 years ago Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds as part of his blood-soaked Anfal campaign. Today STEVE SWEENEY sees parallels with the alleged use of chemical weapons by Turkish despot Recep Tayyip Erdogan
BRUTAL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left), the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and (foreground) a memorial to the 5,000 Kurdish people who were killed in the Halabja massacre in 1988
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
“MUMMY, it smells of apples,” five-year-old Dayki said as she ran excitedly outside.
Just seconds later her tiny body lay crumpled on the ground, dead. She was one of the 5,000 Kurds gassed in the town of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan on March 16 1988.
Ali, who is the sole survivor, losing seven members of his family in the attack, described the horrors he witnessed as a 12-year-old boy.
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SOLOMON HUGHES highlights a 1995 Sunday Times story about the disappearance of ‘defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist.’ Even though the story was debunked, it was widely repeated across the mainstream press, creating the false – and deadly – narrative of Iraqi WMD that eventually led to war
