National News
More British arms for Kiev
by James Tweedie
Former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss are again urging PM Rishi Sunak to gift the UK's jet fighters to Ukraine. Although Sunak has pledged Challenger 2 tanks and AS90 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, he and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace have stressed that providing high-maintenance combat aircraft is unrealistic whilst the conflict continues.
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From Wards to Picket Lines
by New Worker correspondent
Although they do not need to worry about the National Living Wage, the 48,000 junior doctors of England belonging to the British Medical Association (BMA) have just voted by an overwhelming 98 per cent on a 77.49 per cent turnout in favour of a 72-hour strike in order to secure a pay rise to compensate them for a 256 per cent pay rise that they say is their due. The 26 per cent represents the real-terms pay cuts they have suffered since 2008, to say nothing of declining conditions. The strike will be the first by doctors since 2016 and is a firm rejection of the two per cent on offer.
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This sporting life
by New Worker correspondent
A rather unusual strike may soon take place in Wales. This time the principality’s rugby union players are threatening action.
The national team have threatened not to turn out at the Wales versus England match at Cardiff scheduled for this Saturday unless their demands are met. This would deprive the Welsh Rugby Union of £10 million if entrance money had to be refunded and fees from broadcasting rights were lost.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
Oh! What a Lovely Civil War
For the next few weeks we can join the assorted malcontents of the Scottish opposition and sit back to enjoy the spectacle of leading SNP politicians knocking bits out of each other and denouncing the very policies they were fervent supporters of just a few weeks ago.
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International News
How a Wandering Balloon Caused an Anxiety Attack
by Liang Xiao
American foreign minister Anthony Blinken was expected in China last month. His first trip to China as US secretary of state should have made headlines during the first weekend of February but a stray balloon made him reportedly postpone the high-stakes diplomatic trip, casting yet another dark shadow over the relationship between the world’s two largest economies.
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Warmonger Bolton hails plan to send troops to Taiwan
by Ilya Tsukanov
Iraq War architect and former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton has praised President Biden over the White House’s purported plans to send hundreds of troops to Taiwan, saying he was confident that “this is the right thing to do”.
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Resistance will end Zionist terror
by Ed Newman
The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has strongly condemned the deadly Israeli raid on the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank that claimed the lives of nearly a dozen Palestinians.
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The empowerment of women
By Maria Josefina Arce
Women from more than 100 countries have gathered in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, for an international summit on women’s rights. They share a common goal, to achieve the empowerment of women, which despite a long history of discrimination has made great contributions to the development of humanity.
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They don't care about Ukraine
by Yang Shilong and Zhang Mocheng
The US involvement in the conflict in Ukraine is "really an awful thing…they don't care about Ukraine. They care about world hegemony and defeating Russia," says a renowned American anti-war activist.
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French workers keep up fight on pensions
by G Dunkel
Opinion polls show a massive rejection of the government’s plan to ‘reform’ France’s pension system. President Emmanuel Macron means to increase the age workers may retire from 62 to 64 and to increase the qualification for a full pension from 42 years to 43 years worked. His plan would make it harder for workers who hold a harsh, difficult job to qualify for needed special treatment and make it much harder for women to qualify for a full pension.
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Features
Breaking down language barriers
by Seán Nolan
I often wonder how different life as an expat must have been before Google Trans-late, Apple Maps and instant messaging apps. In many ways, it's impossible to imag-ine living in Vietnam without these tools. In the words of former post-war UK premier Harold Macmillan, we've "never had it so good".
Now, a new technological milestone has emerged, one that, in 10 years' time, expats might also be saying: "How on earth did we live without that?
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Jazz and solidarity
Oni Acosta Llerena
Havana’s Jazz Plaza Festival brought Cuban artists and fellow musicians from all over the world together for over 100 concerts in Cuba in January.
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Allie Burns returns
Book review by Ben Soton
1989 by Val McDermid. Softback: Sphere 2023; 464pp, rrp £8.99. Hardback: Little, Brown 2022; 432 pp, rrp £20
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