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Dr John Coulter ✍ There’s a lot of muttering on the political jungle drums about a UK reset with the EU, even silly talk of wanting to rejoin the EU.

But do these ‘head in the clouds’ so-called Remainers actually know what is happening in Europe - namely, the electoral march of the Hard Right?

Even before the 2016 referendum in which the UK - albeit narrowly - voted Leave, I have been a staunch euro-skeptic. The old European Economic Community (EEC) was a workable body, but the expanding EU is nothing but a bureaucratic nightmare.

I voted for Brexit and if there was another referendum, I’d vote to stay outside the EU. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than for there to be a similar referendum in Southern Ireland on EU membership, and for Eire to follow the UK in voting Leave now that the republic is geographically isolated from the remainder of the EU.

However, there is one trend which even hardline Brexiteers like myself have to take into consideration. Of the 27 current EU member states, there is a significant Hard Right contingent in at least 16 of those nations, especially Germany and France.

There are two crucial factors we Brexiteers - and all of your Remainers, too - need to take into consideration. Firstly, the military agenda of the new Imperial Russia under modern-day Tsar Vladimir Putin.

While Irish nationalists are hoping for a border poll on Irish unity by 2030, the hard reality is that by that year we could be in a war with Russia. In this respect, the UK Government needs to stop wasting billions of pounds on overseas aid and pump that cash into getting our Armed Forces onto a war footing.

In terms of recruitment to our Armed Forces, recruits should be in no doubt that they are signing up to be prepared for conflict. Putin is not going to stop with Ukraine. That is merely a stepping stone for the rest of Europe. Both the UK and the wider NATO alliance need to box clever when it comes to military strategy.

Emperor Napoleon of France in the early 19th century, Kaiser Wilheim II of Germany in 1914 during the Great War, and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in 1941 during World War Two all made the same military blunder - they invaded Russia. In all three conflicts, all the Russians had to do was rapidly retreat as far east as possible and let the fierce Russian winter do the rest.

So the key question remains - is the EU and NATO ready for a ground war with Russia, or will the Russians ‘play dirty’ militarily and use chemical and biological weapons against the West? Or even more bluntly, which side would be prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons first?

Or perhaps, wishful thinking may come into play and we hope that World War Three against Russia will be a cyber war against computer hackers, or using AI-developed drones to bomb targets - anything to avoid ‘boots on the ground’ and troops fighting each other in World War One-style trench warfare.

And all of these scenarios are excluding that Russia’s pals in China and North Korea - both nuclear powers - don’t decide to get involved on Putin’s side. Then there’s the Israelis, who also have nuclear weaponry.

If faced with a Biblical-style Armageddon, would the Israeli leadership be prepared to ‘push the red buttons’. Or is Israel’s current sworn enemy, Iran, crazy enough to create a situation where it can ‘nuke Israel’? And if the conflict should dramatically escalate during the remaining term of Donald Trump’s Presidency, how will the US react?

But the second real question for Brexiteers with the looming threat from Russia is, what happens if after future European Parliamentary elections, the Hard Right becomes the dominant political force within the overwhelming majority of the 27 EU member states? For example, if the significant influence of the Hard Right increases from its current 16/27 to 21/27?

If populism becomes the ruling ideology across the EU, could that Union be reformed into a military coalition rather than the current political bureaucracy? In such a scenario, especially if Reform UK can maintain its poll ratings, would joining a Hard Right-led, military European Union make sense?

Obviously, rejoining or even resetting the UK’s relationship with the current EU is a non-starter with us Brexiteers. But if the next UK Government was a coalition of the Right involving the Tories and Reform, and the Hard Right made more gains throughout other EU nations, then a purely military reset could be on the cards.

However, in such a reset scenario, the Windsor Framework, Protocol, Irish Sea Border and all the foot-dragging Remainer ploys would have to be permanently politically binned. The UK would be signing up to a new military alliance against Russia - and Southern Ireland would have to play ball, too. No more hiding behind the ‘neutrality’ smokescreen as in 1939 when the Second World War erupted.

The establishment of such a reformed military EU needs to begin this year. There’s no use waiting until Putin’s tanks cross into EU member state territory. The politically snowflake and woke Left-wing of the EU needs to understand that Putin is ex-KGB, and therefore, he plays the long game when it comes to conflict and territorial advantages.

Of course, if Putin was to be deposed in a rerun of the 1917 revolution in Russia which saw the end of the Tsarist monarchy, might we see an even more hardline president take over in Moscow. Is it a case of ‘better the devil you know’ when it comes to Putin?

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Dr Coulter has been a journalist since 1978 and is currently a political commentator with GB News.

Rejoin The EU? Be Careful What You Wish For, Remainers!

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Ninety Nine

 

A Morning Thought @ 3271

John Crawley ✍ I would like to congratulate and commend the American Fenian Memorial Committee and the Irish National Graves Association for joining forces to organise the unveiling of this long-overdue monument, the first on Irish soil, commemorating the Fenians who, in 1876, took part in the most daring, challenging, and thankfully successful escape in the annals of Irish rebel escapes from British custody. Thanks also for the honour of inviting me to speak today.

On Saint Patrick’s Day 1858, at a timber yard on Lombard Street in Dublin, six Irishmen founded a secret society dedicated to establishing an independent democratic Irish republic.

This society became known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Its counterpart in the United States, founded a year later by John O’Mahony, a veteran of both the 1848 rising and the American Civil War, was called the Fenian Brotherhood. IRB members soon came to be known as Fenians by the British press.

Ireland in 1858 was a country prostrate with oppression. The people had been profoundly traumatised by the Great Hunger which ravished the land from 1845 to 1852. The countryside was devastated and laid waste by starvation, fever, disease and forced emigration. Most landless labourers lived in abject squalor, their only possessions a pig and a manure heap. A French observer noted that the poorest beggar in Europe lived like royalty compared to an Irish peasant. Shattered, shocked, overwhelmed and overpowered by an Empire that never took its boot off their necks, most Irish people were in no condition to resist nor capable of imagining the possibility of doing so.

Into this black hole of hopeless and helpless despair stepped the Fenians. Little could those six men have foreseen that within a decade they would have tens of thousands of members on five continents, launch a rebellion in Ireland and invade British Canada. Not for the first or last time in Irish history, the right men and the right moment combined to change the narrative and inject hope and inspiration into a cause the British government had confidently assumed was a beaten docket.

The fact that only one IRB leader in its sixty-five-year history had any professional military training was a principal reason they tasked John Devoy with recruiting Irishmen from within the British Army. While attracting some outstanding men, they also recruited informers.

Poor planning, a lack of arms, infiltration by spies, and the prior arrest of much of its leadership led to the failure of the Rising in 1867. Yet things did not end there. There was strong support for the release of Fenian prisoners, and Amnesty Associations sprang up across Ireland to campaign for their freedom. The Fenians Allen, Larkin and O’Brien’s cry from the dock of ‘God Save Ireland’ before they were hanged in Manchester in 1867 added an inspirational slogan to the lexicon of resistance and became the title of one of Ireland’s most stirring rebel songs.

In 1871, the British succumbed to mounting pressure and began releasing Fenian prisoners on the condition that they exile themselves from Ireland. Prominent Fenians, including John Devoy and Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, were released and went to America, where they received a rapturous reception. A resolution of welcome was passed by the United States House of Representatives.

However, this amnesty did not extend to Fenians who had served in the British Army. Known as the ‘Military Fenians’, they were transported to Western Australia, where they were sentenced to hard labour under appalling conditions.

In 1874, Fenian prisoner James Wilson smuggled out his ‘Letter from the Tomb’, describing the mental and physical torture they endured and appealing for rescue. The letter eventually reached John Devoy in New York. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Fenian Rising combined with a bombing campaign in London in the late 1860s had a profound effect on British Prime Minister William Gladstone. When informed by a messenger in December 1868 that he had been charged with forming his first cabinet, he remarked, ‘My mission is to pacify Ireland’.

A major concern for Gladstone was that, largely because of the Great Hunger, over a million Irish now lived in America, hostile to England yet beyond British jurisdiction and reprisals. Worse still, these Irish were experiencing life in a democracy within a republic that had thrown off the shackles of British rule. Many had money and resources denied to them at home, and, because of service in the American Civil War, many thousands had first-class military training and combat experience.

The British government came to the conclusion that the Irish people had to be protected and insulated from what the London Times called ‘the despicable ideas’ inspired by ‘American democracy’. In addition, events within the UK such as the 1867 Reform Act doubled the electorate, and the rising tide of democracy had to be manipulated and managed so as not to threaten the status quo.

Achieving Irish assent to British authority has dominated British thinking since Gladstone first jettisoned his Liberal Party’s hostility to Irish Home Rule and embraced it as a buffer between Irish independence and British sovereignty. Nurturing a loyal nationalist leadership is a major strategic objective for the British government. This political class, who refer to themselves as Constitutional Nationalists (despite the fact that Britain has no written constitution), has never clarified at what point in history Britain gained democratic title in Ireland; when, precisely, the Brits achieved political and legal legitimacy over whatever section of the Irish people they could control, their laws elevated to a moral imperative, and the British soldiers and constables enforcing those laws invested with a sole monopoly on the lawful use of force. It is simply taken as a given that the Irish people were lawfully subjugated and that the fundamental principles of British sovereignty and the primacy of British law are sacrosanct on every inch of Irish soil where Britain claims jurisdiction.

Today, we are told that the struggle for Irish freedom is about achieving a United Ireland. Furthermore, we are assured that the only way to unite our country, now referred to as this island, is to await a judgement call on a border poll by a British politician from an English constituency who hasn’t personally secured a single vote in Ireland.

If the struggle for Irish freedom was merely about ending partition, why were there Risings in 1867 and 1916 when there was no partition? What was Wolfe Tone determined to achieve when he helped form the United Irishmen in 1791? What did he mean by a united Ireland? There was no partition in 1791. His objective, of course, was to break the connection with England and to embrace national unity across the sectarian divide.

Republicans are continually told we must compromise. Republicanism is the compromise - a compromise between plantation Protestantism and monoethnic Catholic nationalism. A compromise first proposed by the founders of the United Irishmen. The proposition that Ireland should be an independent sovereign republic, adopting a citizen-based view of Irishness rather than the divisive ethnic and sectarian spin Britain imposed on it.

Our national flag is a compromise. Its colours of green, white, and orange denote peace through national unity. The tricolour does not represent an ‘Agreed Ireland’ in which the two traditions agree to disagree in peace and harmony over the constitutional source of Irish sovereignty and the legitimacy and extent of British influence in constraining Irish democracy. It represents a national community of citizens, comprising all traditions and persuasions. The tricolour symbolises the republican vision of a United Ireland. That is why it flew over the GPO in 1916.

We are told we must reach out to Unionists. We certainly should. But when Republicans speak of reaching out to Unionists, we mean reaching out to them as fellow citizens, not as foreigners who happen to live here. Foreigners are born in another country. The vast majority of Ulster Unionists were born in Ireland. They must not be treated as the civil garrison of an alien state. That is not a progressive reimagining of pluralism; it is submitting to the social and political modelling of colonial conquest.

The United Irishmen called upon us to abolish the memory of all past dissensions. The signatories of the 1916 Proclamation called on us to be oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past. Neither Wolfe Tone nor Padraic Pearse claimed that those differences did not exist, nor did they say they could be dismissed as irrelevant. They were saying that these differences should never be used to shape the political architecture of Ireland.

In contrast, the Good Friday Agreement bakes in the British/Irish cleavage in national allegiances, regardless of constitutional change. It enshrines the sectarian dynamic in perpetuity. It guarantees that the political malignancy through which Britain historically manipulated and controlled Ireland will remain intact, ensuring that a unitary state, should it ever come to pass, remains a divided country.

Those who argue for making concessions for a United Ireland often begin by assuming that Irish Protestants are British and can be nothing else.

Despite the reactionary, racist, and sectarian mindset of settler colonialism, we must never forget that it was Irish Protestants, inspired not by the plantations but by the Enlightenment, who were the founding fathers of Irish republicanism.

Of the 28 founding members of the United Irishmen in 1791, 26 were Ulster Presbyterians, and two, Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russell, were Anglicans. Protestant Robert Emmet led the 1803 Rebellion. He did not request his epitaph be withheld until his country had taken its place as two nations among the nations of the earth. Protestants were founding members of the Young Irelanders; it was a Protestant member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Thomas Clarke Luby, a Dubliner present at that meeting in Lombard Street in 1858, who wrote the oath, which read in part:

I…do solemnly swear allegiance to the Irish Republic, now virtually established, and…I will do my very utmost, at every risk, while life lasts, to defend its independence and integrity…

It was a Protestant Thomas Davis who wrote: “A Nation Once Again”. Thomas Darragh, one of the Freemantle Six whom we honour today, was a Protestant from County Wicklow and a former member of the Orange Order who became a Fenian while serving in the British Army.

Many Unionists in Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal had signed the Ulster Covenant in 1912 and were as loyal to the Crown in their day as their brethren a mile up the road in Fermanagh or Tyrone are today. Many still attend Orange Lodges and Orange marches. Yet, 104 years after Britain withdrew from those three Ulster counties, this community are now equal and valued citizens of the Irish State and, those born since the Ireland Act 1949, have no claim to British citizenship or a British passport. No one would refer to them as the British presence in Ireland.

We are told that in order to reunite Ireland we must persuade Unionists of its merits. Unionists did not partition Ireland - England did. It did so for deeper and far more strategic reasons than the refusal of a pro-British minority to submit to the democratic decision-making of a national electorate that contains a Catholic majority. Nor can Unionists end partition of their own volition. That decision lies exclusively with the British government. Unionists are not the problem in Ireland. The British government in Ireland is the problem.

Abraham Lincoln put it best while struggling to overcome divisions within his own Republic when he said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’. We must not be seduced by the false narrative that the British/Irish cleavage in national loyalties should be embraced for the sake of peace. We must end it for the sake of peace, and the first step is ending British jurisdiction in Ireland. Until then, we cannot begin to repair the damage done to our national cohesion. In the meantime, Britain will continue to encourage, manipulate, and co-opt as many Irish citizens as possible into becoming willing accomplices in Ireland’s constitutional division along broadly sectarian lines.

The American Fenian Memorial Committee and the Irish National Graves Association have done invaluable work in honouring and memorialising our patriot dead. Their initiative and resolve in dedicating this beautiful monument are a credit to them that will one day be acknowledged in a free and grateful nation. Let us strive to achieve the ultimate monument to these men. A national democracy within an All-Ireland Republic.

Glory O to the bold Fenian Men.

Up the Republic!
 
John Crawley is a former IRA volunteer and author of The Yank.

Catalpa Memorial Unveiling 19 September 2026

Heartlands Tribune ☭ Written by Paul Knaggs. 

MPs have defeated the assisted dying bill by 286 votes to 270, a majority of 16. Support fell by 44 as Andy Burnham faced his first big Commons test.

MPs rejected a fresh attempt to legalise assisted dying on Friday, defeating the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill by 286 votes to 270.

Support for the bill fell by 44 MPs on last year’s vote. Three Labour opponents, including a minister who resigned after her own terminal diagnosis, said the result reflected a bill that was “unsafe and unworkable”, not a change of heart on the principle.

The result brings to an end, at least for this Parliament, a two-year campaign to change the law. MPs had twice backed the legislation before: at second reading in November 2024, by 330 votes to 275, and at third reading in June 2025, by 314 votes to 291. Both times the bill, sponsored then by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, went on to the House of Lords. Both times it stalled there. An unprecedented number of amendments from peers meant it ran out of parliamentary time before the 2024 to 2026 session ended, and the bill fell without becoming law.

Assisted Dying Bill Falls As Support Collapses

Atheist Ireland ★ Catholic baptisms in Ireland have dropped by 30% in the ten years from 2015 to 2025, according to a report published by the Iona Institute. But births have also dropped by 19%, which accounts for a substantial amount of the change.

19-August-2026

The drop in baptisms in Dublin is highest at 40%, and the average drop outside Dublin is 26%. Elphin in the West of Ireland is the only diocese with a slight rise of 1%. The figures are complicated, but only slightly, by three missing dioceses.

Iona concludes that around 60pc of the fall in baptisms is accounted for by declining births and 40% by rising secularism, particularly the number of people who say they don’t belong to any religion.

A more useful headline statistic would first adjust the baptism figures for the fall in births, and lead with the adjusted drop of about 13%.

This also reveals a bigger difference between Dublin and the other dioceses: a drop of about 23% in Dublin compared to about 10% elsewhere. So baptisms relative to births have dropped by more than twice as much in Dublin than outside Dublin.


The report assumes these drops relative to births are all down to secularisation. This likely explains most of it, but it could be a mix of that plus immigration, mixed-religion couples, or other reasons.

The secularisation reflects the weakened impact of the Catholic Church’s evangelisation of Irish culture. As the report concludes, it remains to be seen what happens if and when cultural Catholicism fades as a force in Irish life.

Babies and parents

The report says fewer children aged 0-4 are listed in the census as Roman Catholic: 65% in 2022, down from 78% in 2016. This is slightly lower than the figures for all Roman Catholics.

And it says more children aged 0-4 are listed in the census as no religion or not stated: 24% in 2022, up from 12% in 2016. This is slightly higher than the figures for all with no religion or not stated.

It also notes that the 65% of children listed as Catholic in 2022 corresponds very closely to the 68% of mothers aged 25-39 who identified as Catholic in that year.

But why count only mothers aged 25-39? And why not fathers? Why not measure this: of parents identifying as Catholic who had a child in year X, what percentage of those children were baptised?

In any case, the report concludes that almost all parents who consider themselves to be Catholic still have their children baptised, and that this shows that cultural Catholicism still remains quite strong in Ireland.

The report also claims that the number of Catholics still having their children baptised shows approval of the Catholic Church. But parents who disapprove of the Catholic Church might baptise their children for any number of reasons.

It might be family tradition. It might be to please their parents, who are the child’s grandparents. One partner might approve of the church while the other disapproves. They might want their child to fit in in the only available local school, which is Catholic.

All of the above is the essence of cultural Catholicism, which the report itself invokes to explain why baptism remains relatively popular. But cultural Catholicism does not equate to approval of the Church.

Marriages and schools

The weakest inferences in the report are the assertions about marriages and school choices.

The report says it is simplistic to say that the number of church weddings is in decline simply because of secularisation. If this was the biggest explanation, then why do so many of the same couples who marry in a hotel get their children baptised?

What do we know about the decline in church weddings? In the space of a generation, marriage culture has moved from a traditional religious default to personal choice.

Four in ten Irish marriages are now nonreligious (either Civil Registry or Humanist), while only three in ten are Catholic. Almost beneath the radar, a quarter are now religious alternatives, mostly some variation of Spiritualist.

But the report provides no data showing that the couples marrying in hotels are the same couples later baptising their children. These are separate statistics, and many recent newlyweds will not yet have children.

The report also says that, if more people disapproved of the church, the recent Department of Education survey about the sort of primary schools parents want would have shown far more demand for divestment.

But you can’t equate demand for a different school patron to approval or disapproval of the Catholic Church.

Parents might prefer the existing school because it is their only or most convenient local school, their child is already settled there, they like the teachers, they don’t want their child’s education disrupted, they don’t want to be seen to be causing trouble, or any other reason.

It would also be interesting to see if the drop in baptisms increased after the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, which prevented Catholic schools from giving priority in admission to children who were baptised as Catholics.

This drop in baptisms would also mean that the numbers of children in schools exercising their right to not attend religious instruction would increase significantly. At present there is no evidence that this is happening as we believe parents find exercising the right discriminatory.

Cultural Catholicism

The report repeatedly notes that cultural Catholicism is a factor in Irish life. But cultural Catholicism did not emerge in a vacuum. For generations, the Catholic Church has explicitly sought to shape and evangelise our culture.

The Pontifical Council for Culture says that:


“What matters is to evangelise man’s culture and cultures, in a vital way, in depth and right to their very roots… Though independent of cultures, the Gospel and evangelisation… are capable of permeating them all without becoming subject to any one of them.”

Pope Francis said that that:


It is imperative to evangelise cultures in order to inculturate the Gospel. In countries of Catholic tradition, this means encouraging, fostering and reinforcing a richness which already exists. In countries of other religious traditions, or profoundly secularised countries, it will mean sparking new processes for evangelising culture.

In 2020, the Irish Catholic Bishops held a series of Zoom conferences titled “Evangelising Irish Culture Today.” It cited Pope Paul VI as saying:

What matters is to evangelise culture: not in a purely decorative way, as it were, by applying a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth and right to its very roots.

This helps explain the Catholic Church’s extraordinary influence over Irish culture and public institutions, including the school system that it still largely controls. As the Iona report concludes, it remains to be seen what happens if and when cultural Catholicism fades as a force in Irish life.

⏩ Follow Atheist Ireland on X @atheistie

Big Dip In Irish Baptisms, And What Does It Mean For Cultural Catholicism

Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 13-September-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤  More evidence of Russian torture.
⬤ Russia’s Crimes against Ukrainian Women.
⬤ citizens told to flee Donbas cities. 
⬤ fighting corruption in Ukraine. 
⬤ the war and the Russian economy.
⬤ life under siege in Kyiv.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

The Mission Discussed the Situation in Occupied Crimea and Strengthening the Policy of Non-Recognition of the Occupation (Crimea Platform, September 11th)

Melitopol husband and wife sentenced to 20 & 18 years after describing Russian abduction and torture (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 11th)

Russia doubles to 21 years its sentence against savagely tortured Crimean Tatar political prisoner Mamut Belyalov (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 11th)

Inside Russia's FSB prison system in Crimea (Kyiv Independent, September 11th)

Russia comes for father of 19-year-old Crimean Tatar political prisoner after he actively sought her release (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 10th)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, September 9th)

Russia sentences husband and wife, abducted from occupied Kherson oblast, to 16 and 12 years for supporting Ukraine (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 8th)

New depths plummeted in Russia’s torment of Crimean Tatar political prisoner with a malignant brain tumour (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 7th)

Russia sentences abducted 64-year-old Melitopol journalist to 15 years after holding her incommunicado since 2023 (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 7th)

Progress of the war

Russian losses in the war with Ukraine. Mediazona count updated. (Mediazona, September 11th)

Civilians told to flee Ukraine's fortress cities as Russia bids to control Donbas (BBC, September 11th)

Why pay rent just to sleep in the metro (Counteroffensive News, September 10th)

Putin dismisses rumors of another mobilization as `nonsense’. But can Russia keep fighting without another draft? (Meduza, September 10th)

Ukrainian sea drones strike Sochi waterfront, injuring nearly 30. Photos and video from the scene (Meduza, September 10th)

Russian sky on the castle. Is it real? (ZN, UA, September 4th)

How many more missiles does Russia have – and can it keep firing them? (Kyiv Independent, September 3rd)

News from Ukraine

Risk of humanitarian catastrophe: UN "very worried" about upcoming winter in Ukraine (Ukrainska Pravda, September 13th)

Russian strike on shopping centre in Pavlohrad: death toll rises to five, 67 injured – photos, video (Ukrainska Pravda, September 10th)

Top officials of the Luhansk region are suspected of embezzling UAH 5 million from state procurement (Babel, September 10th)

Ukraine’s readiness to implement the EU methane regulation: Initial assessment (Razom We Stand, September 9th)

How a corruption scandal and loyalty to Zelensky brought down Ukraine’s prosecutor general (Kyiv Independent, September 9th)

`Kyiv is gasping for breath’. Russia’s escalating attacks are upending daily life in the Ukrainian capital. Here’s how residents are coping (Meduza, September 9th)

Unpublished audits obtained by the New York Times show Ukraine ignored red flags in defense procurement as the country lost at least $1.2 billion to fraud, waste and mismanagement in 2024 alone (Meduza, September 7th)

Majority Russian-speaking city in Ukraine considers language ban in the arts (BBC, September 6th)

Rail Sector: Italy, Pakistan, Senegal, Ukraine (International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggle, September 6th)

What’s behind the standoff between Ukraine's two intelligence agencies? (Kyiv Independent, September 4th)

`Hanging by a thread’ - Kyiv under psychological siege amid ceaseless strikes (Kyiv Independent, September 4th)

War-related news from Russia

Electric shock torture and a meeting with Victoria Roshchyna: What Ukrainian journalist Iryna Levchenko told the court in the Kapralov family case (Mediazona, September 11th)

War eating away at Russia's economy (Posle Media, September 9th)

The Georgy Pirogov case and Russia's high treason epidemic (The Russian Reader, September 6th)

Research into human rights abuses

New DIGNITY country infographic on Ukraine: access to justice in times of war (Zmina, September 9th)

KHPG and ADC Memorial Inform UN CEDAW Committee about Russia’s Crimes against Ukrainian Women (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, September 7th)

ZMINA and OMCT submitted a report to the UN Committee against Torture on Ukraine’s implementation of recommendations issued at its 82nd session (Zmina, September 7th)

A study on the prosecution of those involved in enforced disappearances was presented to diplomatic missions and international organisations (Centre for Civil Liberties, September 7th)

Comment and analysis

How Ukraine’s biggest corruption scheme persisted despite all odds (Kyiv Independent, September 12th)

Are Ukrainians capable of turning experience into knowledge? (The Ukrainer, September 11th)

Ukrainian Urban Forum 2026 in Cherkasy (Cedos, September 11th)

The Democratic Centralists in Ukraine: Challenging Stalin and the Russian Leadership (Commons, September 9th)

How to make social protection reform in hromadas more effective: Findings from an expert workshop (Cedos, September 9th)

Russian empire, social dynamics and where Marxism goes from here (People and Nature, September 7th)

International solidarity

22 trade unions call for UK government to push to free imprisoned Zaporizhzhia nuclear workers (USC, September 12th)

Free the Zaporizhzhia power workers (Anti-Capitalist Resistance, September 8th)

Also not to be missed

Zine about culture of remembrance (Solidarity Collectives, September 13th)

Issues concerning residents of occupied territories must be part of negotiations – ZMINA (Zmina, September 7th)

A summer in Ukraine (International Viewpoint, September 7th)

Upcoming events

Ukrainian Workers Under Attack And Occupation - Free The Zaporizhzhia 15 - Free Ukraine 5.45pm, Tuesday 15th September – Harbour Hotel, 64 Kings Road, Brighton BN1
🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.


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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 212

Friendly Atheist ★ Barbara Williams is suing the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Unified School District over her disputed firing.

This past March, Kansas State Rep. Carolyn Caiharr, a first-term Republican who also serves as a local mayor, visited Edwardsville Elementary in Wyandotte County as a guest judge for their “Read Across America” door decoration contest.

It’s not often that you get to see a politician face-to-face, and Barbara Williams, a paraprofessional staffer who worked in the building, was eager to see her because they’re on opposite sides of the political aisle.

As Caiharr (pronounced KAY-har) walked down the hallway to look at the doors, Williams came up to her and said “Trans rights are human rights” and that “diverting taxpayer [money] to private schools is not right.”

During a conversation we had last night, Williams told me that she did this before the official school day started and before she was contractually obligated to clock in. Caiharr, she added, never acknowledged what she said. No response. No nod. So as they walked down the hallway (in the direction of Williams’ office), she said it again: “Trans rights are human rights.” She said it once more, too. There was never any response from the state representative.

Those seem like fairly innocuous statements.

But according to a lawsuit that Williams filed against the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Unified School District last month—by herself because she doesn’t have a lawyer—she was fired later that day.

Continue @ Friendly Atheist.

A Teacher Told A Kansas Lawmaker “Trans Rights Are Human Rights.” Hours Later, She Was Fired

Right Wing Watch ðŸ‘€ Written by Kyle Mantyla.

God Told Hank Kunneman That 'Gas Prices Are Going To Go Down'


Hank Kunneman is a Christian nationalist Trump cultist conspiracy theorist MAGA pastor who, despite a demonstrably lackluster record, declares himself to be a prophet of God.

In this capacity, Kunneman generally delivers two sorts of prophecies: Those that are conveniently open-ended and vague and those that are so laughably predictable as to be essentially useless. Both forms of prophecy serve Kunneman well by allowing him to claim credit whenever something resembling the predictable ones inevitably occur while also allowing him to insist that the vague, open-ended ones will eventually come true at some indeterminate point in the future.

Kunneman's gift for delivering self-serving prophecies was on full display last week when an episode of the "FlashPoint" program was broadcast from his church during his annual "Opening The Heavens" conference.

Terrified that Republicans could lose control of Congress in the midterm elections due in no small part to skyrocketing oil and gas prices stemming from the war that President Donald Trump started against Iran, Kunneman sought to use his prophetic gift, and some props, to assure nervous voters that God has promised that gas prices will fall.

Continue @ RWW.

Props And Prophecy

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Ninety Eight

 

Pastords @ 62

 

A Morning Thought @ 3270

Enda Craig ⬟ The shameful truth of the Donegal Defective Concrete Scandal has been smothered beneath carefully curated figures pumped out by Donegal County Council and the Government’s Housing Agency. 

The official narrative is neat, sanitised, and utterly disconnected from the lived reality of thousands of families whose homes are still crumbling.

Most victims have now given up hope of ever receiving genuine 100% Redress. They are simply trying to rebuild or patch their homes before the relentless progression of structural failure destroys their lives beyond recovery. This is not “support” — it is abandonment.

Every attempt by community groups, campaigners, and affected homeowners has barely dented a Government machine fixated on minimising the cost to the Exchequer. The so‑called “grant” is a partial subsidy that only the well‑heeled can top up. Everyone else is stranded in no man’s land, left without the means to rebuild, repair, or recover.

The Core Failure Has Never Been Investigated

Until there is a Public Inquiry into the deliberate misattribution of the cause to “MICA”, and a Judicial Review challenging the legality and validity of IS 465, nothing will change.

The system will continue protecting itself.

The victims will continue paying the price.

A Two‑Tier Scheme By Design

A small minority with access to substantial private funds will continue to navigate the Enhanced Grant Scheme successfully.

The majority — ordinary families, pensioners, single‑income households — will remain trapped in distress, unable to bridge the financial gap the State refuses to close.

This is not an accident.

It is a policy choice.

The Final Verdict Will Be Damning

In time, the Donegal Defective Concrete Scandal will be recognised as one of the most significant failures of public oversight in modern Ireland. No amount of slick accountancy, selective reporting, or bureaucratic spin will conceal the truth:

Those responsible failed — and the people of Donegal were left to carry the consequences.

⏩ Enda Craig is a Donegal resident and community activist.

The Reality Of Donegal’s Defective Concrete Scandal Is Being Buried

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