The relentless campaign by the US and UK government to silence and torture Julian Assange for the so-called crime of exposing their murderous crimes in Iraq and elsewhere, continues with the first day of the extradition hearing where they plan to stitch him up and send him to the US where they will put him away for the rest of his life.

The farce is that he is being held in prison for breaking bail on another trumped up charge from almost a decade ago and which has long since been dismissed. This is purely a political show trial and a warning to real journalists to shut up and do not dare report on the crimes of the elite and powerful.

Review includes walking, cycling, public transport and land use.
A public consultation on a review of sustainable transport policy is set to this Friday 28th Feb at 5:30pm after the deadline was extended.

The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport said that the review was started after a commitment in the May 2016 Programme for a Partnership Government ?to ensure services are sustainable into the future and are meeting the needs of a modern economy?.

In the aftermath of the election that cemented their historically poor results of four years ago, Labour leader Brendan Howlin resigned, triggering a leadership race. The race will pit Alan Kelly, the most prominent figure remaining from the 2011-16 cabinet, against Aodhán Ó Ríordáin.

Visual Artists Ireland, welcome this firm show of support for individual artists, and recognise it as part of the on-going support that the Arts Council has given our work in this area
The Arts Council today launched their new policy Paying the Artist. This sets out a vision and plan to create change over the period 2020?2022. We, in Visual Artists Ireland, welcome this firm show of support for individual artists, and recognise it as part of the on-going support that the Arts Council has given our work in this area, particularly since our 2011 campaign Ask! Has the Artists Been Paid! which led to the concrete changes that have been building over the years, and impacting all art forms. We want to thank all of the supporters that we have had over the years on this campaign, especially those who worked with us on developing our approach that is aimed to benefit all artists. We are also very grateful to our sister representative organisations, all of whom bring the experiences and realities of their own artists and organisations. Listening to them and learning from them has been truly an amazing experience. We want to thank the Arts Council for their open ear, and thank them for the acknowledgement of our reports such as The Social, Economic & Fiscal Status of the Visual Artist in Ireland, which formed the basis for our campaign, and the role that we and other representative and resource organisations have played during the consultation process and will play into the future roll out and support of this policy area.

The leaders of the World Bank and IMF discussed concerns of global debt levels at an event held today at the World Bank Preston Auditorium.