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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Pay workers, not privateers
HELEN O’CONNOR looks at how private firms supplying drugs
to the NHS have their hands up to the elbows in NHS tills
JUST DEMANDS: NHS workers in St James’s Park, London, observe a two minutes’ silence for colleagues who died from Covid-19 as part of a national protest over pay
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
IT IS easy to understand that the promise of a vaccine for the deadly virus that has rapidly changed the entire way we are living in 2020 offers so much hope for so many.
There is a widespread and genuine desire to end the growing nightmare of an ever-increasing death toll and put the shame of the fact that we have the highest death toll in Europe behind the country for good.
The job losses which have left thousands of families up and down the country struggling for the most basic necessities of living must be ended as a matter of urgency. The pain and isolation of lockdown, where people cannot see friends and family face to face, is leaving emotional scars on the mental health and wellbeing of so many people. The most isolated and vulnerable people are the ones suffering the worst impact of this.
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Our Foreign Secretary now condemns Israel in the Commons, yet Britain still supplies weapons and intelligence for its bombing campaigns — as the horror reaches perhaps the final stage, action must finally replace words, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
Unions and campaigners warn Chancellor not to betray public sector
The NHS continues to say Covid spreads primarily through ‘droplet and touch’ while the WHO emphasises airborne transmission, meaning vulnerable patients and healthcare workers face unnecessary risks, reports RUTH HUNT
As we face savage cuts to our pay and conditions while the executive gravy train chugs on, Unite is putting the Scottish government on notice as workers prepare for a massive wave of resistance, writes DEREK THOMSON