The Isle of Wight’s Victorian holiday boom drew visitors from across Europe, including the founders of scientific socialism, writes KEITH FLETT

Burnham urged to create publicly-provided national care service before the end of the parliament, and to keep his promise to ditch neoliberalism

US-based labour and social movements authors and organisers Robert Ovetz and James Tracy interview DANIEL GROSS about his new book, Unions of Our Own: Eight Building Blocks to Change Work and the World

Unless ministers match reform with investment, the profession and the people it serves will continue to bear the cost, says KATE RAMSDEN

JOHN CALLOW introduces the work of Geoffrey Trease, who placed ordinary people at the centre of his historical fiction for children, creating adventurous stories to inspire the possibilities of social change

SIMON PARSONS applauds the timely revival of a play about solidarity and betrayal within Britain’s Pakistani community

New releases from The Mountains Goats, Ed O’Brien, and YHWH Nailgun

The campaign against the Bank of England’s ongoing theft of Venezuelan gold is gaining support across the labour movement and beyond, writes MATT WILLGRESS

Claims that Nicaragua has abolished elections followed a headline that stripped Daniel Ortega’s remarks of their historical and political context. The full speech tells a different story, says BECCA RENK FOSTER

MAT COWARD introduces some of the electoral oddballs of the political fringe who remain one of the liveliest features of British democracy, despite efforts to abolish them

Emergency phone alerts could help Britain respond to rising wildfire risk, but Australia’s experience suggests they work best as part of a broader strategy, write ELLIOT CONVERY-FISHER and KATE PARKINS

The IOC said it had no jurisdiction to examine FairSquare’s allegations against Infantino

‘Rent freezes are not a way forward at the moment,’ Housing Secretary Angela Rayner says

A World Cup full of memorable moments was also marked by exclusion, exploitation and unprecedented political meddling, writes JAMES NALTON

The International Court of Justice has delivered its clearest ruling yet that the right to strike is protected under international law, write Professor TONIA NOVITZ, Professor KEITH EWING and Lord JOHN HENDY KC

From Barry McGuigan and Carl Frampton to Tyrone McKenna and Lewis Crocker, the city’s fighters carry a complex history into the ring, writes JOHN WIGHT

RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers

by Weyman Bennett and Maz’s family

The Odyssey is a tale of evasions and half-truths; this reflects the effects of traumatic ‘moral injury’ common to war veterans, suggests STEPHAN BLUM

Media Lens at 25: David Cromwell and David Edwards reflect on a quarter-century of media criticism, explaining why independent journalism is more important than ever

by Alistair Findlay

BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions

The new Prime Minister must abandon decades of automatic support for US foreign policy, which makes us all less safe, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP

Including races at Ascot and York 

A champion motorcyclist, trade union organiser and communist, Clem Beckett went from Britain’s speedway tracks to the battlefields of Spain, where he gave his life resisting Franco’s forces at Jarama. GEOFF BOTTOMS pays tribute to this remarkable anti-fascist

A new generation of right-wing politicians have shifted from promoting deregulation to championing anti-migrant politics warns SOLOMON HUGHES

Claiming to ease a fertiliser shortage, the Trump administration has suspended tariffs on Moroccan phosphate imports – deepening US support for the Morocco’s control over Sahrawi territory, writes LUKE ROTELLO

The World Cup, Olympics and rise of sports betting reveal how the playing field is increasingly shaped by power and inequality, writes DENNIS BROE

The US relationship with Israel has evolved into a strategic liability, argues RAMZY BAROUD

PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society

KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war

SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a an in-depth study of environmental activism that shows how governments work against citizens who put community before profit

ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung

MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice

Latin America is being swept by a series of right-wing electoral victories. But behind that shift to the right lies less of an ideological conversion than anger, fear, insecurity, and a deep crisis of democracy, asserts MARC VANDEPITTE

Snippets of news from the sporting world with JAMIE J

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

Mr Burnham's £2 cap on bus fares welcomed by trade unions

by the Greater Manchester Workers’ and Tenants’ Association

The government’s Pip review looks like a carefully managed exercise in legitimising future cuts to disability support, argues Dr DYLAN MURPHY

Waiting for the grander vision to emerge

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

Can entrenched institutional power be overcome?

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

United Nations experts slam Britain for ‘perpetuating serious human rights violations’

KEITH FLETT looks at geographical roots of working-class activism in Britain

While millions face poverty and public services are squeezed, France is committing billions to defence spending and weapons production, in a dangerous shift towards permanent preparation for war, says CONOR BOLLINS

Against the backdrop of the Durham Miners’ Gala, Matt Kerr talks to ANDY McDONALD MP about Labour’s mistakes, Burnham’s leadership and why raising living standards must come first

Labour may owe more to Methodism than Marxism, but the wider non-conformist tradition that shaped British democracy is under pressure as protest rights come under increasing attack, warns MARK SEDDON

Snippets of news from the sporting world with Jamie J

ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity,  Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London

 MARIA DUARTE admires the scale of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer