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On the world stage, the case of Julian Assange is about U.S. imperialism’s need to punish WikiLeaks. There is no doubt that the Swedish state and the government would be happy to assist the US. However, the case is also about serious allegations of rape, which must be investigated.

Enda Kenny announced last week that the Irish government would use their presidency of the EU Council in the first 6 months of next year to target the prevention of global child hunger. The announcement was made at a conference on the issue called by British Tory Prime Minister David Cameron who will lead the G8 next year.

The suffering people of Syria stand on the brink of a precipice. Each day brings new evidence that a sectarian conflagration of terrible proportions can ensue, unless a force emerges which could hold out a realistic prospect of uniting its 22 million people through offering a new dispensation. This would be one where the wealth and stewardship of the nation would be democratically invested in them rather than be the subject of warring factions led by local elites and sponsored by cynical international interests.

The persecution of Wikileaks has taken another dramatic turn with its leading figure, Julian Assange, seeking political asylum in Ecuador in late June. Assange has been in Britain fighting extradition to Sweden. Extradition was expected to begin on 28 June after all legal appeals had been exhausted.

The Justice for Mark and Andreas Campaign is fighting for the release from prison of Mark and Andreas Marku, two young Albanian men who have been sentenced to 18 years in a Greek prison for a string of armed robberies which they did not commit.

Castlebeck Ltd and Winterbourne View Hospital are names that will not be familiar in this country. Nor will they be, given the very scant coverage in the Irish media of a shocking report published last week, into grotesque abuse by staff at that hospital of adult residents with intellectual disabilities including autism and severe learning difficulties.

In April, billionaire tax exile Denis O’Brien did a deal with the former Anglo Irish Bank to purchase a company called Siteserv for €45 million. This sale saw €110 million of taxpayers’ money being simply written off by the bank in a manner which raises further serious questions about the links between this controversial businessman and politicians.

I joined the Socialist Party because listening to the party’s ideas I realised there was an organisation planning to act in a radical way to shift economic power away from the few born with it and towards the working people who create it.

John Delaney, the chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, has announced that he is to take a pay cut of 10% which brings his salary down from €400,000 to €360,000. Even with his pay cut Delaney will be payed more than the prize money for the entire League.  It cost €19,000 euro to enter the league yet if a club finishes fourth in the league they will receive a measly €15,000 euro. Delany could pay for €4,500 worth of Irish fans’ drinks in Poland, while at the same time Monaghan are allowed to fold because of debts of €6,000.