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
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Where is the US economy headed?
Trump's populist promises for national economic recovery ‘by us, for us’ is about to crash onto the rocks of reality, writes ZOLTAN ZIGGEDY
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
Alba party leader KENNY MacASKILL makes some suggestions on how to save our pubs and reduce irresponsible drinking
The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – where Palestinians are freezing to death in tents – is not a natural disaster but a calculated outcome of Israel’s ongoing blockade, aid restrictions and continued violence, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Opinion polls point to electoral collapse, parliamentary rebellion and a looming leadership challenge as Starmer’s Labour haemorrhages working-class support and the far right exploits the vacuum left by a hollowed-out party, says NICK WRIGHT
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
HEADLINES such as “World stocks fall to two-year low” that appeared in the Wall Street Journal recently have many wondering if the tepid recovery from the 2007-8 crash is finished.
Since midsummer, the Shenzhen Composite, FTSE 100, Stoxx Europe 600 and other benchmark exchanges have steadily declined, with the US Standard and Poor’s joining them over the last few weeks.
As author Akane Otani notes, “After a punishing October, major indices in Europe, Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Argentina and Canada are languishing in correction territory — a drop of at least 10 per cent from a recent high. The US is teetering on the edge of joining its peers …”
Like gross domestic product (GDP) and the unemployment rate, composite equity performance is a limited measuring stick of the economy’s health, though it is favoured by popular mainstream pundits and celebrity economists. As such, all three become the grist for the bourgeois political mill. Invariably, they soon obscure more than they enlighten.
So what do the markets tell us?
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Washington’s tariff policies become explicable in light of the US economy’s relative decline and the astonishing rise of China, argues MICHAEL BURKE
The US president’s universal tariffs mirror the disastrous Smoot-Hawley Act that triggered retaliatory measures, collapsed international trade, fuelled political extremism — and led to world war, warns Dr DYLAN MURPHY