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

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

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

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

NICK WRIGHT continues his series analysing the trends in European politics

Meanwhile, incoming PM Andy Burnham dithers over who should be his Chancellor

By Clive Branson

General Federation of Trade Unions assistant general secretary HENRY FOWLER reports on the final day from the GFTU’s residential Summer School at the Workers’ Retreat, Quorn Grange Hotel

KEITH RICHMOND relishes a superbly conceived modern version of Aeschylus’ drama of murderous family succession

CHRIS SEARLE urges you to listen to two new albums by the US Indian pianist VIJAY IYER

While international actors discuss governance and reconstruction, Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel has no intention of ending its military occupation, says RAMZY BAROUD

Treating the Clacton by-election as a joke risks reinforcing the Reform leader’s claim to be the victim of an out-of-touch Establishment, argues JOHN McINALLY

HENRY FOWLER, assistant general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), reports on Day 2 from the GFTU’s residential Summer School at the Workers’ Retreat, Quorn Grange Hotel

82 MPs and peers test incoming premier Andy Burnham’s intentions to reset government policy towards Israel

DENNIS BROE recommends two new series on Apple TV for their examination of inequality and skewed morals

MICHAL BONCZA recommends a minimalist installation that prompts intriguing connotations

FIONA O’CONNOR questions the achievement of this year’s Orwell prize winner for political fiction

LEO BOIX reviews two powerful Latin American novels in which myth and crime fiction expose the deadly consequences of patriarchy, clandestine abortion and state violence

ASIF BURHAN explores why England v Argentina remains football’s most politically and culturally charged fixture in his new book

Capitalism has exploited — and polluted — our natural resources for too long, it’s time we treated our rivers as living beings, writes MIRIUM GAUNTLETT, LIAM SHAW and ROX MIDDLETON

MPs and others called for the urgent release of tortured Palestinian doctor, Hussam Abu Safiya, held hostage by Israel and reportedly near death, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

Assistant general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions HENRY FOWLER reports on day 1 from the GFTU’s residential Summer School at Quorn Grange Hotel

Trade unions call for windfall tax hike to fund social energy tariff to public’s energy bills

CHRISTIAN KNOBLAUCH is thrilled by the response of children to the presence of artefacts from the British Museum in their classrooms

Strike Map co-founder HENRY FOWLER discusses the significance of today’s joint union letter to video game giant Rockstar, demanding trade union recognition for its workers. Their conversation highlights how our movement can harness its collective power to rebuild union power across the private sector

Governing body investigates how to reduce waste and carbon emissions from Olympic equipment as the sport confronts its environmental impact, writes JENNIFER McDERMOTT

The PM leaves office having squandered Labour’s electoral mandate and alienated its grassroots. He will not be missed, writes BRIAN LEISHMAN MP

Poland’s anger over Ukraine’s celebration of the Nazi collaborationist UPA reflects more than historical grievance, says KENNY COYLE

New releases from Laura Veirs, The Waterboys, and Yard Act

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers kill at least five Palestinians, including a nine-year-old girl, in Gaza

Can Andy Burnham’s programme deliver a productive economy – or merely a softer version of capitalism, asks VINCE MILLS

US Justice Department says the ‘reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are’. But media freedom advocates warn that Trump's ‘war on the press is looking for another victim’

Durham Miners’ Association chair STEPHEN GUY speaks to Ben Chacko about the Reform threat, what’s needed from Labour and why the Big Meeting will never lose its politics

General Federation of Trade Unions president and bakers’ union general secretary, SARAH WOOLLEY, guides us through the GFTU’s Summer School happening this week at Quorn Grange Hotel

GLENN FOSBRAEY recommends a biography worth reading for both existing George Michael fans and those yet to be converted

MPs back measure for 66-year-olds but it won't end suffering, groups say