As tens of thousands return to the streets for the first national Palestine march of 2026, this movement refuses to be sidelined or silenced, says PETER LEARY
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Bananas, as we know them, are doomed
Because all the bananas we eat are clones of each other, they are susceptible to being wiped out by a single disease - putting crops and jobs at risk, explain ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
Bananas are propagated by making clones with close to zero genetic diversity. This makes every banana plantation highly susceptible to the same fungal and viral diseases.
If the government really wanted to address public finances, improve living standards and begin economic recovery, it would increase its borrowing for investment, argues MICHAEL BURKE
MATT KERR takes a winter journey through poetry, labour and memory, from Glasgow to Newcastle, arguing that our radical past isn’t something to revere from a distance, but a tool still meant to be used
One of Canada’s most revered politicians is a native of Falkirk but is relatively unknown in his original homeland. KENNY MacASKILL tells his story
Labour prospects in May elections may be irrevocably damaged by Birmingham Council’s costly refusal to settle the year-long dispute, warns STEVE WRIGHT
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EVERY year we in Britain are eating more bananas, and paying less for them. Despite the huge distance and technical expertise required to bring bananas halfway across the globe from plantation to palate in perfect freshness, they are cheaper than apples.
And yet, their cultivation and distribution has always been threatened by a fear of mass failure.
Although hundreds of varieties of bananas and plantains exist across the world, exported bananas are dominated by just one cultivar: the Cavendish.
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