National News
Johnson ponders snap election ploy
by Oleg Burunov
TORY REBELS believe Boris Johnson could trigger an early general election in a bid to save his job amidst the Partygate scandal. An opinion poll in April found more than 50 per cent of Britons thought Boris Johnson should step down, in a poll that came after the Prime Minister was fined by the Metropolitan Police over a surprise birthday bash thrown by his wife at Downing Street during the first COVID-19 lockdown.
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Consumer confidence plunges to record low
by Huaxia
MARKET research company GfK said on Friday that its Consumer Confidence Index for Britain in May dropped to its lowest level since records began in 1974 amidst the country’s raging cost-of-living crisis.
May’s result, down two points from April to minus 40, is one point below the previous record set in July 2008 when the headline score plunged to minus 39, said Joe Staton, client strategy director at the GfK.
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Bread shortage sparks crime wave fears
by Oleg Burunov
THE POLICE warn of a surge in crime amidst the cost-of-living crisis. In late February, the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss admitted that the sanctions the UK had slapped on Russia in retaliation for its special military operation in Ukraine would worsen the cost-of-living crisis, warning that Britain must be prepared to take an “economic hit”.
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International News
Eyewitness Donbas: A Texan volunteer
by Ekaterina Blinova
The Azovstal operation sent a powerful message to Kiev and its US backers, presenting a glaring contrast between Ukrainian nationalists’ mistreatment of Russia and Donbas POWs and Moscow’s humane approach to those who laid down arms, according to Russell ‘Texas’ Bentley, a US-born Donbas volunteer and war correspondent.
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Vietnam’s voice at Education Forum
Voice of Vietnam
DELEGATES from more than 100 countries, including Vietnam, along with representatives of international and non-governmental organisations, gathered in London this week for the world’s largest annual gathering of education and skills ministers.
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Russian push on in the Donbas
by our European Affairs correspondent
THE BATTLE for Azovstal is over but the battle to liberate the rest of the Donbas continues as the Donbas militias and their Russian allies push on to drive the fascists out of the Don basin. The Russians and the Donbas militias are urging Ukrainian troops to lay down their arms whilst calling on civilians not to allow the deployment of the Ukrainian military in residential areas.
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US returns to Somalia
by Ed Newman
THE US government has announced the permanent return of a group of military personnel to Somalia, under the pretext of helping the authorities of that African country to fight extremist groups, as well as guaranteeing stability in an area plunged into chaos and plagued by hunger.
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Protests on
the rise
by Guillermo Alvarado
PROTESTS and social discontent are spreading rapidly around the world, including some developed countries, due to severe global economic turbulence, inflation and the consequent generalised increase in the cost of living.
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Features
This is America: guns and
mass shootings
Global Times
The mass shooting in Buffalo in New York State on Saturday 14th May that killed 10 people has triggered discussion of white supremacy prevailing in US society. Why are some young, white men addicted to the ‘great replacement’ theory? Is gun violence becoming more and more serious in the USA given the current political and social atmosphere? In her I-Talk show, Global Times reporter Wang Wenwen talked to Ryan Deitsch, a survivor of the Parkland shooting massacre in 2018, about his experience, his understanding of white supremacy and gun control in the USA.
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The ignored dilemmas
of humanity
by Vijay Prashad
A NEW REPORT comes out with a troubling headline: that annual global expenditure on weapons has gone over $2 trillion. The USA leads the pack, with its spending greater than that of the next 10 countries combined. If you add in the US intelligence budget and the money that the USA spends on its nuclear arsenal, then US annual military spending by itself is above $1 trillion.
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Northern Rocks
Review by Ben Soton
Northerners: A History, from the Ice Age to the Present Day by Brian Groom. HarperCollins 2022. Hardback: 432pp; rrp: £20; ISBN: 008471207.
NORTHERN England – the area between the Scottish border and the English Midlands – has been the subject of numerous books, sociological surveys and Government task forces.
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Creating a perfect storm
by John Maryon
CAPITALISM faces an increasing number of economic crises that are becoming more regular and more acute. Its irreconcilable contradictions that arise from the conflict between productive forces and production relations, coupled with the chaos of a market-driven economy, are contributing to a collapse.
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