The crew of the Freedom Flotilla boat, Handala, warned Israel to obey international law but are now in captivity, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
IN the heart of Faversham is a rusting swing bridge that carries traffic across Faversham creek but prevents water-borne access to a muddy tidal basin. Set between the Shepherd Neame brewery and an engineering works and bordered by trees it has lain empty and unused for decades.
This could change if an insurgent campaign, sparked off by retired social worker Marion Barton and former trade union leader Rosie Eagleson, is able to win its demands.
Four years ago the town was galvanised by a fundraising campaign following a pledge from council leaders that if the town’s citizens could raise £125,000 match funding and more would be available to replace the bridge.

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