National News
New bid for Scottish independence
by Ekaterina Blinova
SCOTTISH First Minister Nicola Sturgeon plans to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence around October 2023, possibly without the consent of the UK government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has denounced the initiative, urging Sturgeon to “focus on the things that people really want us to deal with”.
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Labour call to fill ‘ethics vacuum’
by Svetlana Ekimenko
BORIS Johnson’s ethics adviser Lord Geidt quit last week, saying he “could not be party to advising on potential law breaking”, with Downing Street saying he will not be replaced immediately. Furthermore, it was indicated that the position of the No 10 ethics adviser could be scrapped altogether.
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Toddlers
at risk
by New Worker correspondent
THE TUC has issued a report showing that since 2010 childcare fees have increased by 44 per cent. This, the TUC says, results in a “Catch-22” situation as childcare costs rise at the same time as statutory maternity pay declines in real terms. To deal with this situation the TUC demands an urgent funding boost to the sector.
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Geriatrics as well
THE WAGES situation is just as bad in the care homes for those at the other end of the life-cycle, which mean it is hardly surprising that strikes will be taking place at the St Monica Trust where 100 staff are opposing threats to sack them unless they take a pay cut and a watering down of sick pay.
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Downing wigs
by New Worker correspondent
RAIL AND CARE workers are obviously not the only workers taking strike action. Even Criminal barristers are voting for industrial action. The QCs are not actually criminals but work in the field of criminal law.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
AN ASTONISHING thing happened at Holyrood last week. It actually passed a useful piece of legislation, albeit on a comparatively small and historic matter. This was the Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill, which provides a pardon for miners who were convicted of certain offences relating to the 1984–85 miners’ strike where the conditions of the pardon are met.
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International News
America: luring youth to guns
by Betsey Piette
ACROSS THE USA, capitalist politicians, including President Joe Biden, spew endless verbiage about the need to control assault weapons, yet do little to make this happen.
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Amazing revelations
by Guillermo Alvarado
DURING THE first hearings held by the Committee to Investigate the Assault on the US Capitol in Washington on 6th January 2021, important revelations came to light about one of the most shameful events in the recent history of the USA.
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Swedes uncertain about joining NATO
by Mike Powers
Mike Powers is an American war resister from the Vietnam era who emigrated to Sweden, where he has been active in the anti-imperialist movement for over 50 years.
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Russian missiles pound Ukraine
in
by our European Affairs correspondent
RUSSIAN and Donbas troops are continuing the drive to sweep the Ukrainian fascists out of the Don basin, liberating many towns and villages along the eastern front. But the Zelensky regime’s forces are still targeting Donetsk and other Donbas cities with their artillery, carrying out intense attacks and causing civilian casualties.
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A new dawn in Colombia
by Guillermo Alvarado
COLOMBIA, the country which the writer Gabriel García Márquez said had one foot in the Caribbean and the other in the Andes, crossed the threshold of a new world on Sunday when it elected the first progressive government in its history, headed by Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez.
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Wind of change in France
Xinhua
THE 2022 French legislative elections are redefining France’s political class. Held on 12 and 19 June, voters elected, out of 6,293 candidates, the National Assembly’s 577 members representing the constituencies of the country.
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Features
Review: How the East wasn’t won
by Ben Soton
Russia: A 1,000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East by Martin Sixsmith. Hardback: Harry N Abrams (reissue edition 2012); 611pp; Softback: BBC Books (reprint edition 2012); 624pp; RRP £12.99.
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Julian Assange: a warning to all journalists
by Ekaterina Blinova
HOME SECRETARY Priti Patel signed the extradition order for Julian Assange on 17th June, after Washington’s victory in the UK court reversing a ruling by a British magistrate in 2021 that the WikiLeaks founder faced a high risk of suicide in the USA.
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