As the United States moves to dismantle the International Criminal Court through sanctions on its judges and prosecutors, one of the last institutions capable of holding political leaders accountable for genocide and war crimes faces an existential threat. This article follows the long history of US hostility toward the court, from the so-called Hague invasion act to the recent arrest warrants issued for Netanyahu and Gallant over Gaza.

Bonfires topped with mosques, placards blaming Muslim immigrants for crime, and politicians warning of “alien cultures” all point to a hardening anti-Muslim narrative taking root across Northern Ireland. Mike Morrissey traces these slogans from the streets of Newtownabbey to the Great Replacement theory and the X posts of the world’s richest man, asking what history this story conveniently forgets.

Across four extraordinary paintings, from the triumphant Assumption of the Virgin to the harrowing Flaying of Marsyas, Titian charted the slow collapse of Renaissance humanism as religious reaction and early capitalism reshaped his world. Jenny Farrell traces how the artist’s brushstrokes registered the shift from republican confidence to alienation and catastrophe.

Iceland has rejected its government’s proposal to open EU accession talks by a 52.5% to 47.5% margin, a result driven overwhelmingly by fishermen wary of surrendering their waters to the Common Fishing Policy. This piece by Eoin Ó Murchú examines why Icelanders saw through the referendum “ploy,” what it means for a recession bound EU already reeling from Brexit, and the uncomfortable questions it raises about how Ireland gave away its own fisheries for nothing.

At Drumcree church the same dreary steeple looms into view once more, and John Molloy argues that its persistent power reveals how political unionism has chosen nihilist loyalism as its guiding star while successive British governments respond with patronising indifference. From Churchill’s “white man’s burden” to Andy Burnham declaring a border poll “off the table,” this piece traces how the British state and its local proxies emerged as the true beneficiaries of 1998, and asks what progressive alternative could finally break the deadlock.

Israel’s Chief Rabbi denies Palestinians even exist while a government minister demands 30 to 40 nightly killings and builds execution facilities modeled on American death chambers. As international scrutiny mounts and diplomats warn that “Palestine is being erased before our eyes,” Dianne Kirby examines why Israel’s sudden pledge to investigate the murders of Hind Rajab and 15 paramedics is less about justice than about managing its image.

When two of Belfast’s biggest cultural festivals landed in the same week, the result was a city overflowing with music, dancing and impromptu performances on streets, in pubs and across parks. Read on for a firsthand account of the Feile an Phobail and the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2026, their roots in Belfast’s political history, and news of the celebration returning next year.

Mainstream western churches remain reluctant to name the genocide in Gaza while Israel triples its budget for influence campaigns aimed squarely at Christian congregations. Dianne Kirby looks at how the Church of England Synod’s fraught vote on Kairos II collides with a Pentagon funded alliance and a documented plan to recruit American pastors and social media influencers.

From the McPeake Family and the Dubliners at a Belfast youth centre now paved over as a car park to Pecker Dunne playing a guitar seemingly built from orange boxes, this is a personal tour through the folk music revival that shaped a generation in the 1960s. Alongside the memories of Ewan McColl, the Corries, and O’Casey plays staged in a Derryvolgie Avenue back room lies one quiet absence that only becomes clear looking back.

When John Pilger asked a Chinese man whether capitalists ran his country, the answer exposed a truth about the United States that has held since 1776: the rich have always governed the rich. This piece follows the line from the Civil War to Silicon Valley billionaires now pouring millions into blocking a California wealth tax, and asks whether America might be more honestly named the United Plutocratic States.