Telegram founder says he rejects request to 'silence' conservative voices in Romania
"A Western European government... approached Telegram, asking us to silence conservative voices in Romania ahead of today's presidential elections. I flatly refused. Telegram will not restrict the freedoms of Romanian users or block their political channels," Pavel Durov wrote on Telegram, accompanying his post with an emoji of baguette which might hint at France.
Durov was arrested at an airport near Paris last August and subsequently placed under formal investigation, with a ban on leaving France. In March he returned to Dubai.
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BreakingNews.ie
15 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
'The working class must take back what is ours': Imagining James Connolly's Ireland
James Connolly is well-known for being a socialist and revolutionary leader in the fight for Irish independence, as well as a champion for the working class. "A revolution will only be achieved when the ordinary people of the world, us, the working class, get up off our knees and take back what is rightfully ours," is one of his famous quotes. Advertisement According to Dictionary of Irish Biography, Connolly arrived at a view that the future for socialism and the working class in Ireland lay in an independent republic rather than in continued union with Britain or in a federal arrangement involving home rule. This was quickly reflected in his and his colleagues' decision to disband the Dublin Socialist Club and to establish in its place the Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP). His manifesto for the new party was radical and ahead of its time, calling for free education and child health care, nationalisation of transport and banking, and a commitment to the further extension of public ownership. Connolly spent seven years (1903-1910) in the United States and, during that time, was instrumental in the development of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) militant labour organisation. Advertisement The group promoted the ideology of revolutionary syndicalism or industrial unionism, recruiting among the huge mass of unskilled and general labour in the USA. Connolly recruited Irish and Italian workers in New York for the IWW. Promoting socialism in Ireland The Dictionary of Irish Biography said Connolly's commitment to promoting socialism among the Irish was evident in his foundation of the Irish Socialist Federation in 1907. It was through its agency that he began to re-establish links with socialists in Ireland, notably with his former ISRP colleague, William O'Brien. By 1908, both he and O'Brien's Dublin socialists were considering the possibility of his coming back to be organiser for the newly emerging Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI). Advertisement The period after his return from the US saw much of the most significant theoretical and practical work of his life. In 1910, he published the important tract Labour, nationality and religion, written to rebut the attacks of the Jesuit Father Kane on socialism and to contest the notion that catholicism and socialism were irreconcilable. In the same year he also brought to publication his most famous work, Labour in Irish History. This was the first substantial exposition of a Marxist interpretation of Irish history. Highly original in some if its findings, the Dictionary of Irish Biography said it argued for the continuity of a radical tradition in Ireland, and sought to debunk nationalist myths about Ireland's past and to expose the inadequacies of middle-class Irish nationalism in providing a solution for Ireland's ills. Advertisement Easter Rising: Connolly the revolutionary During a period of time spent in Belfast, Connolly hoped to inspire union growth and socialist progress, but this agenda was quickly overtaken by the events of the lockout and general strike in Dublin from August 1913. He was summoned to Dublin to assist Larkin in the leadership of this conflict, and, when the struggle was lost and Larkin left for America in 1914, Connolly took over as acting general secretary of the defeated Transport Union. To the disastrous defeat of the locked out and striking workers was now added the calamitous outbreak of world war. This drove Connolly into an advanced nationalist position and, though he never abandoned his socialist commitment, the social revolution took a back seat. The Dictionary of Irish Biography said the growing militancy of Ulster unionist opposition to home rule, the British government's postponement of plans for home rule in the face of unionist opposition, the growing prospect of the partition of Ireland, the outbreak of world war, and the consequent collapse of international socialism, all contributed to his adopting an extreme nationalist stance. Advertisement As he wrote in Forward in March 1914: "The proposal of the Government to consent to the partition of Ireland . . . should be resisted with armed force if necessary." Connolly said that the "carnival of slaughter" that was the world war drove him to incite "war against war", and to make tentative overtures to the revolutionary IRB. By late 1915, his increasing militancy at a time when the IRB had decided on insurrection caused them in turn to approach him; by late January they and he had agreed on a joint uprising. The Transport Union headquarters at Liberty Hall became the headquarters of the Irish Citizen Army as he prepared it for revolt. The Dictionary of Irish Biography pointed out that it was ironic that Connolly, who had always argued that political freedom without socialism was useless, now joined forces with militant nationalists in an insurrection that had nothing to do directly with socialism. It seems that Connolly believed national freedom for Ireland in the circumstances was a necessity before socialism could advance. In the event, he led his small band of about 200 Citizen Army comrades into the Easter Rising of 1916. His Citizen Army joined forces with the Volunteers, as the only army he acknowledged in 1916 was that of 'the Irish Republic'. As commandant general of the Republic's forces in Dublin, he fought side by side with Patrick Pearse in the General Post Office (GPO), until surrendering on April 29th. Connolly was badly injured in the foot, and was court-martialled along with 170 others. He was one of 90 to be sentenced to death, and was the last one of the 15 to be executed by firing squad. He was shot dead, seated on a wooden box, in Kilmainham Gaol on May 12th, 1916. Connolly was buried in the cemetery within Arbour Hill military barracks, and his wife and six of his children survived him. James Connolly's vision for Ireland would make the country a very different place to live in today. While all the participants in the Easter Rising shared the goal of Irish independence, each had their own ideas about what kind of Ireland should emerge afterward. If he had survived and lived beyond 1916, possibly becoming Taoiseach, it is fair to say Connolly's Ireland would be more socialist, secular, and worker-led in structure. He had envisioned a workers' republic where industry and land were publicly owned and democratically managed, and was not just simply fighting for Irish independence, but for the Irish working class.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Diane Abbott suspended AGAIN by Labour after repeating belief that anti-Semitism is less serious than racism endured by black people
Diane Abbott was suspended by Labour for the second time in three years today for claiming anti-Semitism is less serious than racism aimed at people because of their skin colour. The veteran backbencher lost the whip after using a BBC interview to say she had no regrets about her 2023 claim about anti-Jew and anti-Traveller discrimination. And she reiterated the opinions aired in a letter to the Observer two years ago that led to her losing the whip and making a public apology. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Reflections programme, she said: 'Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know (what they are). 'I just think that it's silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism. 'I don't know why people would say that.' Her reiteration of her views heaped pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to take action against her as he did in 2023. A party spokesman said: 'Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation.' It comes a day after he stripped the whip from four leftwing labour backbenchers for 'persistent breaches of party discipline' while blocking his welfare reforms. After today's comments, a spokesman for the Jewish Labour Movement said: 'Anti-Semitism is anti-Jewish racism. 'It targets Jews regardless of how they look, and many of our community are visibly Jewish and suffer racism for it. 'We are disappointed that Diane Abbott MP has doubled down on comments she previously appeared to apologise for, and are pleased to hear that Labour are looking into them.' The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP was suspended by the Labour Party in 2023 after suggested that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experience 'prejudice' but 'are not all their lives subject to racism'. 'They undoubtedly experience prejudice,' Ms Abbott wrote in the Observer. 'This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable. 'It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice. 'But they are not all their lives subject to racism. In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus. 'In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships.' Ms Abbott issued a public apology in 2023 to 'wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them' She later issued a statement to 'wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them' as she blamed drafting 'errors'. But Labour pushed ahead with action against the ex-shadow minister in any case. She was given the whip back before the 2024 election but was at the centre of a fresh party row then when attempts were made to stop her from running for re-election in her north London seat. She eventually was allowed to stand as a Labour candidate and won with a much reduced majority of 15,000 in one of the party's safest seats. The longest-serving female MP in the Commons, who entered Parliament in 1987, told the BBC last night she got a 'bit weary' about people labelling her anti-Semetic and said she had 'spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds'. She said she was 'grateful' to be a Labour MP but was sure the party leadership had been 'trying to get me out'.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on an EU army: leadership and unity remain elusive
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called for the creation of a European army earlier this year, suggesting that, this time, the continent might finally be serious. Defence budgets are rising. Threats are mounting. The US is distracted. Surely now is the moment. Except, of course, it isn't. For all the political soundbites that rattle sabres with increasing confidence, Europe is probably no closer to fielding a unified military force than it was when the French rejected the European Defence Community in 1954. The problem is not one of capacity. Europe, including the UK, collectively boasts about 1.5m active military personnel, and some of the world's most successful defence firms. The problem, as ever, is politics. Or more precisely: who leads? Germany, claiming a Zeitenwende (turning point), and asking the EU to exempt military investment from budget rules, might be the frontrunner. Poland is spending more as a share of GDP than anyone. The French would like to think they would be at the front of any queue. But their Gaullist, unilateral instincts run deep. Italy has industrial knowhow but lacks the economic heft. Post-Brexit, the UK is building bridges with the EU's military powers but it still sees itself as Nato's keystone. And the Baltic states? They want no European project that might scare off Washington. Even defining a European army is difficult. Would it be a single force under the EU flag, combining the 27 national armed forces of the EU members into one common force? Or something looser, to keep Irish and Austrian neutrality intact? Could it be a smaller European intervention force? Or a joint effort by regional groupings in a new hat? The short answer is no one can agree on anything but disagreement. Squabbling might not be the best response to an increasingly assertive, hawkish and unpredictable Russian giant. Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine made territorial defence a pressing concern. Suddenly, Europe remembered why armies exist. Brussels pins its hopes of an industrial renaissance on a five-year rearmament plan that is meant to reduce reliance on US contractors. European firms like Rheinmetall and MBDA are scaling up, but the economies of scale found in the US military industrial complex elude the continent. Everyone wants to protect their local champion. No wonder the bloc has appointed a commissioner for defence whose role is about overseeing the companies making drones, shells and missiles – not the armed forces per se. A Gallup poll in 45 countries last year showed deep ambivalence toward war among Europeans. Four of the five least willing to fight were in the EU – including Spain, Germany, and Italy, where only 14% said they'd take up arms. Even in frontline states like Poland and Lithuania, fewer than half were willing to fight. This pacifist mood reflects an EU integration designed to make war between member states unthinkable. The irony is that the European army is seen as a symbol of independence from the US – while quietly relying on American satellites, command structures and munitions. Many European countries have upped defence spending, but they are not ready to go it alone. An integrated force would demand pooled sovereignty, unified command and a level of political consensus that don't currently exist. That may change. But for now, Europe continues to depend on Washington's capricious leadership – even as it dreams of 'strategic autonomy'.
