GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue

by the Greater Manchester Workers’ and Tenants’ Association

Chris Searle speaks to British pianist ZOE RAHMAN

by Mike Jenkins

Today’s interconnected conflicts are enriching the arms industry while pushing the entire world towards permanent militarisation, argues ROGER McKENZIE

Statement from the executive committee of the Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights

New PM slashes fuel bills and culls Starmer deadwood, but peace activists warn that placing John Healey as new Chancellor shows ‘beyond doubt that the military industrial complex is in charge of Burnham’s economic policy’

The greatest threat to democracy may no longer come from political parties but from unelected tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel and his powerful Silicon Valley network, argues JOHN GREEN

by Nana Backland, Merseyside Morning Star Readers & Supporters Group

DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy

GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a pessimistic novel in which Hitler is removed from history, to little effect

A Cabinet clear-out and an apparent rejection of neoliberal orthodoxy have created fresh political momentum, but can entrenched institutional power be overcome by the new PM, wonders ANDREW MURRAY

The war crimes of US imperialism in its third military aggression against Iran and the necessity of confronting the devastating policy of ‘War, war until victory’!

NATHAN CRITCH hails a new law, which will go some way to prevent state cover-ups, as it passes through the Commons

With Jamie J

The new PM’s opening addresses offered hope, council homes and reform — but little detail on how any of it will be delivered, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE

Scotland's Labour leader cannot continue to evade responsibility for the party's decline, argues LAUREN HARPER

New releases from Old Spot, Chris Marksberry, and Clementine Lovell

STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error

The Tories introduced the 50% strike ballot threshold to make industrial action harder. MATT WRACK argues that a Labour government has no justification for leaving it on the statute book

Russell ‘numb to disappointment’ after early exit at Spa-Francorchamps

News from around the globe

by David Nicholson, Wales reporter

In the wake of Ann Widdecombe’s murder, JOHN GREEN wonders whether the government will really get to grips with the root cause of these attacks on our MPs

Council of Europe says Fifa must help to protect 2030 tournament

Snippets of news from the sporting world

Despite the screeching from the right-wing media, Burnham’s speech chimed with the public mood - and socialists should take advantage, says Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO 

Unison national officer CLARE WILLIAMS spoke to the Morning Star about the union’s priority campaigns and why they will not let up just because the Prime Minister has changed

Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School

Rising temperatures and human activity are making life far harder for these vital pollinators. ALEX DITTRICH explains

DIANE WATT argues that while evidence of sex is not there, a 16th‑century lesbian poet could be Scotland’s answer to Gentleman Jack

JAN WOOLF relishes an extensive history of our long relationship to trees in Britain that underlines the current emergency

Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners co-founder MIKE JACKSON talks to Matt Kerr about the enduring power of Pride, protest and trade unionism

RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself

Behind the language of military strategy is a confrontation that risks drawing the wider Middle East into war, says STEVE BISHOP

Two teams from different sides of the world will face off this weekend in a landmark football occasion. One team from the Americas, another from Europe, will meet in an exhibition of the world’s game that is being broadcast across the globe, writes JAMES NALTON

Amid rising hostility and division, the answer to fear and frustration is not isolation but the organised solidarity that built working-class communities, says MATT KERR

Snippets of news from around the world

Snippets of news from the sporting world

Burnham must finish what Starmer promised to start when it comes to employment rights, write TONY BURKE, co-chair of the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom; Professor KEITH EWING, president of the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom; and Lord JOHN HENDY KC, vice-president of Campaign for Trade Union Freedom 

TUC general secretary PAUL NOWAK tells Ben Chacko that Labour can win back disillusioned voters by delivering workplace reforms, rebuilding trust and challenging the far right’s growing influence

Wales reporter DAVID NICHOLSON looks at the political scene as budget rows take centre-stage and Welsh Labour gains a new leader

MAT COWARD writes on Ghost Runner John Tarrant

MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock

by David Nicholson, Wales reporter

by David Nicholson, Wales reporter

by Andrew Murray, Political reporter 

The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum

On the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, ALAN MORRISON selects some poems from a new anthology

SOPHIE BOLT argues that spending more on military will harm rather than benefit Britain by diverting vital resources away from essential public services

JENN FORBES of Your Party says many will welcome the end of Keir Starmer’s leadership, but it’s time we stopped leaving politics to the politicians

TIM ROBERTS says unions have always led on the fight for equality as well as for justice at work

MATT ALLEN salutes the workers and reps who push back against bosses, win for members and make the Unite union what it is

In the FBU we are showing that when we’re prepared to fight, we can win — let’s deliver for future generations and defeat the far right, argues STEVE WRIGHT

STEVE GILLAN says working-class communities know that solidarity is not a slogan — it is a necessity