The International Monetary Fund (IMF) releases its biannual report on global economic stability and presents new indicators it says can help predict financial crisis. read full story / add a comment

Friends of the Irish Environment is celebrating our 20th anniversary in the High Court which is currently hearing two of our Judicial Reviews as we launch our 20th anniversary €20 fund raiser.

We’re inviting the public to join us and see our challenges unfold. read full story / add a comment

This week in the Oireachtas workers on insecure hour contracts became collateral damage in a cynical game of power play politics by the government. A disgraceful ploy to block the David Cullinane TD sponsored Banded Hours Contract Bill was concocted by raising a spurious money message mechanism which government conveniently uses to halt the progress of opposition bills that have a genuine chance of succeeding in the Dail. read full story / add a comment

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, President Trump called for Puerto Rico's debt to be wiped out. read full story / add a comment

As President Trump visits Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, island religious leaders are calling for aid, debt relief and measures to end child poverty. The statement is issued by San Juan's Catholic Archbishop, Roberto González Nieves, St. Thomas' Catholic Bishop Herbert A. Bevard and Evangelical Bible Society Head Reverend Heriberto Martínez. read full story / add a comment

A little over a week ago the Spanish state attempted to take control of the Mossos d'Esquadra the Catalan national police force whose men and women have sworn an oath of fealty to Catalonia and answer to the Catalan government "la Generalitat". The Mossos sidestepped all such attempts.
The Spanish ministry of the Interior ordered the Mossos to cordon off with "do not cross police" tape and guards all potential 6000+ electoral centres. A civil rights movement emerged intent on protecting those centres. Friday afternoon parents and teachers as well as children stayed on.at
At 06h23 this morning I went to the school in my area, known to some as the "Forat". A neighbourhood which has a long and sometimes difficult history of confrontation policing (lives lost or ruined), and is considered by some the anarchist heart of the city. I joined the civil rights movement there. read full story / add a comment

October 1st, tomorrow at time of writing shall see the "illegal referendum on Catalan independence and conversion to a republic". On September 20th the central Spanish state launched an extraordinary campaign of intimidation and criminalisation. Ministers of the regional government were arrested. Printers were searched and ballot papers confiscated. Websites were closed down. 3 cruise liners hired by the Spanish state provide accommodation to police and paramilitary police drafted in to prevent voting, counting and disemination of information related to the referendum.
I shall later provide more information drawing on the wealth of archived articles on this node of indymedia which I hope and always hoped would explain the route from the fringe to centre of the process of Catalan self-determination. For the moment, the final opinion poll published today shows the intent of 63% of the enfranchised wish to vote & of those 83% will vote yes. read full story / add a comment

Between Monday 23rd and Saturday 28th October 2017 the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is honoured to host Irish journalist David Cronin as he tours Ireland to launch his new book, ‘Balfour’s Shadow: A Century of British Support for Zionism and Israel’ (Pluto, 2017). Come along to one of the talks to hear from David – copies of the book will be available to buy at the event and the author will be happy to sign them after his talk. read full story / add a comment

ONLY THE NAMES of individuals convicted of fraud in excess of €5,000 will be published under the new Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017.
The names will be published on a quarterly basis on the Department of Social Protection’s website. The list of names will be removed after three months.
The actions of current government are contrary to European law. read full story / add a comment

This is a repost from Thierry Meyssan site and it discusses how the US military-intelligence industrial complex has co-opted the far Left, largely unrealized to themselves in the fight for US imperialism. The story of Kobane and Rojava got a surprising amount of coverage in the mainstream and that in itself is often a red flag because they don't give publicity for nothing unless there is a propaganda reason for it. While maybe a surprise to some, the US via it's pawns like Saudi Arabia and up to recently Turkey, were and are the main backers of ISIS in all it's forms, from support, logistics, weapons, oil-purchase, it is all part of a greater goal to destroy Syria, and use the Kurds to carve out their own state and in the process to give the US a bridgehead to attack Iran, break up Iraq, and permanently cripple Syria. The US will also ensure that if the Kurds manage to form their own state, they will setup it up to Balkanize it and leave it in a permanent state of war so they can play the old divide and conquer game. Over the previous decades the US has previously backed and then dropped the support for the Kurds many time and betrayed them. So while the Kurds may well deserve their own state, these things do not occur in a vaccum.

When the Russians were invited by Syria to support it in crushing ISIS in 2014 and so far they have gone along way and block the US's plan A for Syria, they came up with plan B to use the Kurds to achieve the goal. There is no doubt that there was and is a pre-existing left leaning movement within the Kurds and even with Anarchist tendencies or elements to it but it just seemed all too good to be true and the immense resources and budgets of US imperalism and it's NATO allies, has the means to control the show as outlined in Meyssan's article read full story / add a comment

Dear friends, in case you missed this shocking news last week, while en route to occupied Palestine four Irish people were seized by Israeli authorities in Ben Gurion airport and deported. Below is a statement issued by the four deportees which includes a call for you to write to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney (minister@dfa.ie) voicing your concerns about this arbitrary expulsion of human rights activist to stop them from bearing witness to the effects of Israel’s apartheid regime read full story / add a comment

A major “coursing trials” event due to be organized by the high profile Kilflynn Coursing Club in County Kerry, on Saturday (September 23rd) was cancelled after a tip-off anti blood sports campaign groups read full story / add a comment

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) joins other religious and development groups in their call for ‎debt relief for hurricane-battered Caribbean islands. read full story / add a comment

Bord Pleanala have, in ’the interests of natural justice’ invited Indaver to respond to observations responding to Indaver’s additional material specific to flight paths and erroneous dioxin figures submitted at the invitation of Bord Pleanala in response to issues exposed at the 2016 Oral Hearing despite Indaver having being given opportunity to answer those issues in depth at the Oral Hearing. Indaver have four weeks from the advice letter dated 5 September to respond. read full story / add a comment

Caribbean islands recovering from Hurricane Irma, now confront Hurricane Maria. read full story / add a comment

Several foreign based volunteer networks are placing unsuspecting travellers in exploitative and manipulative situations and cashing in on free labour with no rights or security. read full story / add a comment

Monday the 24th of September at 5pm is the deadline for making submissions to An Bord Pleanála on the South Dublin County Council & Coillte plans for what is known as the Dublin Mountains Project for the Hellfire Club & Masseys Wood nearby. The plan is one dreamed up by the council and will cost € 19 million of taxpayer money i.e. collected property tax etc for what is basically a bit of a white-elephant project that will damage the environment, limit public access and charge a fee for what is now free and is expected to run at a loss for at least first 3 years, but yet the private contractors running it will be "insulated" from losses. In essence the project will put an valuable amenity that is in public hands effectively into private hands and give them a license to milk the public forever on it. If this gets through, it will be replicated all over the country in that arrogant and greed driven way we are all familiar with from the Celtic Tiger days and again today. read full story / add a comment

On behalf of Caribbean Catholic Bishops, Bishop Gabriel Malzaire called for islands dealing with Hurricane Irma to receive debt relief. read full story / add a comment

Cyclehack Dublin is running a three-day event this weekend to “test new cycling innovations” to improve cycling in Dublin.

“Whatever your background, if you want to brainstorm solutions for improved cycling experience in Dublin and prototype them, come meet other like-minded individuals for a weekend of hacking,” said the organisers.
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Age Action, Ireland’s leading advocacy organisation for older people, has expressed its opposition to another increase in the State Pension age.

The organisation was responding to media reports today ( http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/now-we-face-workin....html ) on proposals from the ESRI to increase the State Pension age to 70. read full story / add a comment