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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We cannot go back to the way things were when the lockdown ends
Let’s use our trade union structures to support communities as we come together around clear demands for the future, says CWU leader DAVE WARD
CWU leader Dave Ward
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
THERE’S a new mood in this country as a consequence of the terrible pandemic that has killed so many and sent our whole society into lockdown.
We see it every Thursday night as people come to their doors and windows to clap and bang pots in support of the heroic NHS workers risking their lives to save ours.
There’s a new respect too for front-line workers of other kinds keeping the country going: for shopworkers, transport workers, refuse workers who have to keep coming into work and of course for the postal workers who for many vulnerable people form their only regular link to the outside world.
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Persistent inequality for women shows we still have a long way to go, but Wales TUC leader SHAVANAH TAJ is confident we can build a fairer country when we work together