National News
USDAW in Conference
by New Worker correspondent
The annual conference of the shop-workers’ union USDAW kicked off in the Winter Gardens in Blackpool this week. USDAW is the third largest union in Britain behind Unite and Unison, with over 350,000 members. That sounds impressive until one remembers that it organises in a sector with some three million workers in over 300,000 businesses. A third of its members work for Tesco, where they secured an exclusive recognition agreement in 2016. But even there it has a density of about half the workforce and there are grumbles that it has become something of a yellow company union.
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XR’s “Big One” rocks London
by New Worker correspondent
Tens of thousands of protesters descended on Parliament on Saturday as part of a four-day action, billed “The Big One”, designed to “highlight the environmental failures” of government.
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Stop the War in Ukraine!
by New Worker correspondent
Comrades joined other campaigners in London for a Stop the War rally at Hamilton House last weekend that brought together a number of British and international speakers under the banner of ‘Stop The War In Ukraine’.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
“A daily horror story” was how former SNP Deputy Leader Jim Sillars described the state of his former party, but one could just as easily say that about Scottish politics as a whole in recent weeks. And it is telling although somewhat predictable that Alex Bell, one of Alex Salmond’s former speech-writers, says that Humza Yousaf, the new First Minister, needs to go “for the good of the nation”.
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International News
Macron’s push for peace
by Ilya Tsukanov, Sputnik
The French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing to ease tension over Taiwan and peace in. But is this a genuine attempt to escape US vassalage or just a PR stunt?
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Harry Belafonte dies
by Radio Havana Cuba
Harry Belafonte, the singer, songwriter and ground-breaking actor who started his entertainment career belting out “Day-O” in his 1950s calypso hit The Banana Boat Song before turning to political activism, has died at the age of 96. The cause of Belafonte’s death was congestive heart failure, his long-time spokesperson Ken Sunshine told the New York Times on Tuesday.
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Seeking habitable planets
by Global Times
People’s China is planning on a quest beyond the solar system to find habitable planets, and the first search will be carried out in 2030 upon the completion of a basic type of telescope array, Chinese researchers revealed at this year’s China Space Day event.
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America’s toxic relations
by Xinhua
A decade after former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on US spying on the email and mobile phone communications of as many as 35 world leaders, newly leaked Pentagon documents have once again reminded the world that Washington’s surveillance network targets not only foes but also friendly nations, including Ukraine, south Korea and Israel.
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Features
Saving Lives: A Doctor in the Donbas
by Ekaterina Blinova, Sputnik
Russian trauma surgeon Boris Gurkin took a two-week break from work to save lives in the Donbas conflict zone in early August 2022. In March 2023, he returned to the embattled region.
“I have combat experience and I work in an emergency hospital and I know what problems arise with a large number of wounded people,” says Gurkin.
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The Dalai Lama: More than just a tongue-sucking scandal
Global Times
The Dalai Lama has found himself involved in yet another scandal. A widely circulated video on the internet shows the Dalai Lama asking a young boy to suck his tongue in a disgusting manner during an event. The young boy requested a hug, and after hugging and touching foreheads, the Dalai Lama did not let go of the boy but continued to hold him, clearly saying to the boy: “Suck my tongue.” He then extended his tongue and moved his head forward. The boy initially seemed hesitant but did it anyway.
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Socialism and patriarchy, women’s liberation and LGBT liberation
by J Sykes, Fight Back! News (USA)
The historic task of the working class in the socialist revolution is to eliminate all oppression. This includes the liberation of women and LGBT people from the shackles of patriarchy.
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