Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
BIRDS of a feather flock together. There’s no other way to describe the thriving friendship between Narendra Modi and some of the biggest warmongers walking this planet.
Last year, Modi welcomed Israel’s racist, warmongering Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is responsible for dispossession and deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians. Earlier this year, he welcomed Saudi Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, the man behind the disastrous war in Yemen that has created the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history. Then came Mike Pompeo, Trump’s head warmonger and the man cheerleading a war in Iran.
Then last month, Modi once again unapologetically laid the red carpet for former British prime minister Tony Blair, the chief architect of the catastrophic Iraq war, alongside other war and money-loving politicians in India as part of the meeting of JP Morgan International Council.
JENNY CLEGG reports from a Chinese peace conference bringing together defence ministers, US think tanks and global South leaders, where speakers warned that the erosion of multilateralism risks regional hotspots exploding into wider war


