Britain has officially passed the figure of 100,000 COVID deaths. Despite claims of inevitability and attempts to shift the blame onto ordinary people, this was never inevitable and it is the Tories – and the system they defend – that are to blame. This article was originally published 27 Jan at socialist.net. At the current time, the death toll is closer to 110,000.

Big protests broke out in Russia on 23 January in response to the arrest of oppositionist Alexei Navalny by Putin’s regime. While we have no illusions in liberals like Navalny, our Russian comrades intervened in these protests against political repression by Putin’s gangsters (which will hit working-class and socialist movements hardest), and raised a revolutionary Marxist banner.