I wrote about how Irish MEPs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly use their European Parliament speaking time, media platforms and legislative power to champion the views of authoritarian governments, particularly those of Putin and Assad irishtimes.com/news/politics/…
Some sample amendments from Mick Wallace, seeking to delete a condemnation of Russia's occupation of Crimea, and delete a mention of a Dutch-led investigation that found Russian arms were used to shoot down the MH17 passenger flight.
You can see more here: parltrack.org/activities/197…
Both Clare Daly and Mick Wallace declined to respond to my texts, calls, and emails to them in the hopes of speaking to them for this article. Mr Wallace made it clear he wasn't in the mood to chat.
Both Daly and Wallace will speak to state-controlled media elsewhere however.
Here's Daly on Russia Today, and
Mick Wallace on the Chinese Communist Party outlet Global Times, where he was prominently featured as an overseas voice praising China on the CCP's anniversary.
Mick Wallace's parliament activities frequently make news in Chinese, Russian, and Arabic-language media interestingly.
This moment when he called the visiting Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya a Western puppet was quite a hit.
Here's Mick Wallace's confrontation of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya reported on Belarusian state television; separately, he also gave an interview to Belarusian TV explaining sanctions were illegal following the downing of the Ryanair flight, according to his podcast
'Guaidita' receives a cold shower from the Irish in Brussels', reports Russian conservative pro-Putin station Tsargrad.
'Tsikhanouskaya's request for sanctions didn't get the response she expected', reports Belarusian state-owned CTV
(Mick Wallace in Russian is 'Мик Уоллес')
Here's Clare Daly reported in the Chinese Communist Party outlet Huánqiú/Global Times and others to say 'we're in no position to lecture anyone about human rights', and describing the issue of Navalny as an excuse to attack Russia world.huanqiu.com/article/41uUL1…
Clare Daly's famous speech after the arrest of opposition poison-surviver Alexei Navalny calling him a racist and asking where was the outcry for sundry other arrested people was shared by RT in English and Arabic, interestingly, and in Syrian media too.
"كلير دالي": Clare Daly
Here is Syrian state news agency and Assad's party newspaper reporting Clare Daly to say the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has lost credibility, and can't be trusted for evidence that the regime was responsible for a chemical weapons attack on its civilians
Here is Iran's semi-official news agency reporting Mick Wallace's advocacy of the view that Iran saved Iraq from Isis, and Wallace quoted in a Syrian newspaper criticising sanctions on the Assad regime and saying Europe had tried to destroy Syria by supporting rebels (regime POV)
This stuff is endless; you can explore it yourself by looking up their names:
A story I’ve been working on for a while is out.
How tenants in the property empire of Luxembourg landlord Marc Godart are surveilled in their kitchens with CCTV that records audio and video - and mercilessly evicted if they complain irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/0…
Our investigation reveals new details on the Godart beds-for-rent operation in Dublin, thanks to a whistleblower who worked within it.
208 beds are offered across 19 different properties. In Cork Street, one property has 33 beds in a single house irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/0…
In Reuben House, where tenants were controversially evicted last year to make way for unauthorised short-stay lets, rooms are stacked with three-tier bunk beds, with six adults sharing some rooms, photos and internal documents show irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/0…
The World Health Organisation has described what it found in Al Shifa hospital, after it led a dangerous mission to reach it.
Among the patients still unable to evacuate are "32 babies in extremely critical condition"
I don't think history will forget this emro.who.int/media/news/who…
"Due to time limits associated with the security situation, the team was able to spend only one hour inside the hospital, which they described as a “death zone"".
This is not a typical WHO statement. emro.who.int/media/news/who…
"Signs of shelling and gunfire were evident. The team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and were told more than 80 people were buried there."
Not a typical World Health Organisation statement. emro.who.int/media/news/who…
There is deep concern among EU institutions and capitals that by appearing to sanction Israel's expected invasion of Gaza, von der Leyen has squandered the EU's credibility - including on Ukraine.
She had no mandate to visit Israel from the member states. irishtimes.com/world/middle-e…
She arrived in Israel as it ordered the displacement of 1 mln people in Gaza, to the vocal horror of the UN, and said not one word about it.
Instead, she shook hands with Benjamin Netanyahu for the cameras.
This does not reflect the EU position.
My piece: irishtimes.com/world/middle-e…
In her public declarations since the horrific Hamas attack von der Leyen has yet to call for restraint or respect for international law in Israel's response, instead declaring the EU's support "in the next weeks".
This does not reflect member states' view irishtimes.com/world/middle-e…
Croatia becomes the 20th country to join the euro today.
These are the Croatian Euro coins that are now coming into circulation and being given as change in Croatian shops as the country says goodbye to the Kuna irishtimes.com/business/econo…
Croatia's one euro coin bears the kuna or marten, which is the country's national animal and gave its name to the old currency due to a tradition of using its pelts as a unit of exchange in historical times.
The checkerboard pattern features on all coins, another Croatian symbol
Croatia's 10, 20, and 50 cent Euro coins bear the face of inventor Nikola Tesla, the pioneering engineer and developer of wireless and electricity technologies that gave his name to the car brand irishtimes.com/business/econo…
Ireland has one of the highest levels of public sympathy towards Ukrainians of any EU country, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey - the numbers of those saying they aren't sympathetic are small enough to be a statistical error
Over half of respondents in Ireland said they "totally agree" that Ukraine should join the EU when it is ready - only Lithuania had a higher level of strong support for that question.
Military aid and cooperation can be controversial in Ireland so you might expect mixed views on these issues, but interestingly the survey showed strong majorities for sending military aid to Ukraine, and saying more EU military cooperation is needed in response to the war
The embassies of Ireland and Ukraine to the EU this week jointly hosted the European premiere of this film, which features ordinary women in Ukraine – train conductors, paramedics, war crimes investigators – holding the fabric of the country together irishtimes.com/world/europe/2…
I moderated a discussion with Olga Hamama of refugee service United for Ukraine and Oleksandra Matviichuk @avalaina, the human rights lawyer who was on her way back from accepting the Nobel peace prize in Oslo, and who features in the documentary irishtimes.com/world/europe/2…
A human rights lawyer, Matviichuk told us her organisation the Centre for Civil Liberties had documented evidence 27,000 war crimes. It's far beyond what Ukraine’s justice system could conceivably process. irishtimes.com/world/europe/2…