Issue 1587 - 28 May 2026
People want to believe
Though it is quite obviously a distraction tactic, the release of Nasa and war department files on UFOs has been a big hit with the public. Paul Demarty looks at the modern obsession with ‘alien visitors’
Letters
Spart change; YP and AI; Christian lens; Spanish left; Soviet pop; Beautiful game; Stupid and crass
Brazen cruelty and shared principles
Global protests over the treatment of Gaza aid flotilla activists will bring some comfort to the Palestinian masses, but the stench of hypocrisy from the bourgeois establishment is hard to stomach, says Carla Roberts
Notes on the war
All of a sudden, it is Russia which is said to be on the back foot militarily, its economy facing ruin and its supply of manpower reaching exhaustion point. In reality, argues Jack Conrad, the stalemate continues
Art of not doing the deal
Talks about talks, draft memorandums, shuttle diplomacy, strange rumours and threats of escalating military strikes. Yassamine Mather explains what is going on
Applying the law
Using tear gas and rubber bullets, the police stormed the HQ of the main opposition party in Ankara. Esen Uslu reports on the latest step towards one-man rule
T-traps and Punic wars
Michael Roberts delves into the history of the ancient world to find a suitable analogy for the rivalry between the US and China. It is not, he says, Athens and Sparta, but Rome and Carthage
The universal elixir
Supposedly the left does not lack fighting spirit. No, what it lacks is a shared understanding of what it is fighting for. But don’t worry, Nicholas Keats has discovered the solution that will serve social democrats and revolutionary communists alike: decommodification
Under siege and still resisting
Attempting to replicate its success in Venezuela, the White House seems intent on leaving the existing regime intact, but transforming the country into a pliant neo-colony, writes Eddie Ford