Monthly Archives: April 2019
PEOPLE have once again taken to the streets across Syria to protest against US President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of Israeli ‘sovereignty’ over the occupied Golan Heights. Demonstrations were held in the different neighbourhoods of Damascus and its countryside. A rally was also held at a cultural centre in the...
FAMILIES are being ‘warehoused’ inside an office block in Harlow, Essex after being decanted from their local boroughs, with tenants forced to eat, drink and sleep in their beds because of the box room size of the flats. Terminus House, a former office block, Essex town’s tallest building, is one...
IT EMERGED this week that NHS England in August last year took the unprecedented step of threatening legal action against a hospital in order to force it to accept privatisation of one of its services. Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS trust, along with doctors and cancer patients, had opposed the...
An Impeccable Spy
Richard Sorge
Stalin’s Master Agent
By: Owen Matthews
Published by: Bloomsbury; £25 (hbk) THE SUBJECT of this book, Richard Sorge, is the daring, unequalled spy whose intelligence turned the tide of the Second World War and alerted Stalin to the imminent invasion of the Soviet Union by the Nazis. Author Owen Matthews...
SEVEN UNIONS have warned about their dispute with the UK’s largest academy trust over staff cuts, low pay and outsourcing. The unions have now registered a failure to agree with London-based Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) which means the trust now has to halt all cuts and outsourcing to allow for...
BAHAMAS Nurses Union President (BNU) Amancha Williams said on Monday that the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) and the government have pushed frustrated nurses to the brink of industrial action. In a letter addressed to staff, dated March 27, the PHA advised that due to ‘extenuating circumstances, overtime payments due for...
IRAN’S foreign minister says the US is waging ‘economic terrorism’ against the Islamic Republic by employing restrictive measures that are troubling the relief efforts targeting flood-stricken people across the country. Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that the sanctions are ‘impeding aid efforts by the Iranian Red Crescent to all...
TORY Prime Minister May emerged from her meeting with her cabinet on Tuesday and immediately issued a letter to every Tory MP calculated to ignite a civil war in the party and split it irrevocably. May placed the blame for her failure to get her rotten deal through Parliament squarely...
THE NEW financial year has kicked in, and with every council budget being cut to the bone the future of leisure centres, council run bus services, youth centres, libraries and bin collections are all under threat. The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils, warned yesterday: ‘The money local government...
Spain’s Socialists increased their lead in a poll published recently in newspaper ABC with 30.9 per cent of votes, equivalent to between 131 and 134 seats in the 350-seat parliament, but fell short of a majority ahead of the general election on April 28. A coalition of three right-wing parties – People’s...
FIVE thousand deaths every year in Britain are linked to past asbestos exposure, but people are still being exposed to it today, warns the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). In Global Asbestos Awareness Week (1-7 April), IOSH is calling on organisations to manage risks more responsibly and stop...
THE PLAN for a parliamentary coup against the 2016 Referendum result, that instructed the government to leave the EU, by forcing through the House of Commons four Brexit-busting resolutions – supporting a Customs Union and a second referendum, and the revocation of Article 50 – collapsed on Monday night....
‘THE APPROACH to today’s business sets an extremely concerning precedent for our democracy,’ Tory leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom said yesterday, as Parliament attempted to wrestle control of the order paper, and in doing so render the government powerless. ‘We will therefore be opposing today’s Business of...
NEARLY 10,000 workers employed by the South African Revenue Services (SARS) began indefinite strike action last Thursday to fight for an 11.4% salary increase. Members of the Public Servants Association (PSA) and National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) are taking the joint action, and the two unions represent...
ISRAEL has reopened two vital border crossings between the occupied territories and the blockaded Gaza Strip, about a week after it closed them amid escalating tensions with Palestinians in the enclave. A spokeswoman for the Israeli ministry of military affairs unit that oversees the crossings said that the Erez crossing...
TORY Home Secretary Sajid Javid has this week launched a national consultation to assess whether there is a ‘public health duty’ for teachers and NHS staff to report ‘concerns’ over young people thought to be at risk of committing violent crimes. In fact, Javid made it clear from the start...
TORY Justice Secretary David Gauke indicated yesterday that besieged PM May will seek to put her Withdrawal Agreement with a permanent Customs Union tagged onto it to the House of Commons for a fourth ‘meaningful vote’ later this week or early next. Labour Party Deputy Leader Tom Watson said that...
THE FIFTY-strong mass picket of Ealing Hospital in west London last Friday shouted: ‘Victory for the A&E! We saved the A&E now re-open maternity!’ The plans to close Ealing and Charing Cross A&Es have been scrapped as a mass campaign by the West London Council of Action has secured a...
IRAN has censured Israel’s ‘criminal’ actions and the illogical and unlawful US support for the regime, saying the continuation of resistance until full liberation of Palestine would play a leading role in the establishment of ‘lasting’ peace in the Middle East. Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday on...
PM MAY, having suffered her third defeat in the House of Commons over her Brexit deal with the EU is now completely disorientated, while the Tory Party is wallowing in its death agony. Despite her support for ‘Remain’, May was appointed Tory leader after the 2016 Referendum ‘Leave’ vote, with...