I4C Trouble with Daly and Wallace

This week we’ve got something a little different for you. It’s the recording of the event we held at the parliament to launch our report on sanctions and their status under international law. It’s a long one but there’s lots of good stuff in here from the report’s authors Alina Miron and Antonios Tzanakopoulos, as well as from Alena Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of sanctions on human rights. Find the report here: https://mickwallace.net/study-unilateral-coercive-measures-and-eu-law/

This week Mick, Clare and Damien wonder what people talked about in the European Parliament before the war. They discuss a debate on “Putins cronies” in Europe, an excuse to bash any voices for peace, and the explosion of the Nord stream pipelines. They also discuss the release of a report on sanctions (read the report at https://mickwallace.net/study-unilateral-coercive-measures-and-eu-law/), EU presence in Africa and finally the ongoing floods in Pakistan.

This week on the podcast: Mick’s trip to Mozambique, Clare’s trip to Ireland and the question of Irish data protection laws, a new film on the Assange case, and the parliament doubling down on the disinformation narrative.

This week Mick, Clare and Damien are in Strasbourg discussing Commission President Von der Leyen's speech on the "State of the Union" - though it was really more of a rant on behalf of US imperialism.

We’re back as the parliament swings into action after the summer break. We discuss sanctions and why the Russians economy is doing better than ever despite them. We also touch on energy prices and inflation and the hard winter ahead for many in Europe. Finally we run through a recent discussion Mick had with the EU head of delegation for China and Taiwan about Nancy Pelosi’s recent ill-advised visit to Taiwan.

Mick and Clare were interviewed by Katie Halper and Aaron Maté for the Useful Idiots podcast back in July. On the podcast they discuss: war in Ukraine, Julian Assange, and Syria. To hear more from Useful Idiots follow @UsefulIdiotpod on Twitter or watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/usefulidiots

This week is our last episode before the Parliament goes on break for the summer. Mick, Clare and Kate talk about the increase in Irish defence spend, a recent exchange of views with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, what is happing to the arms flooding in to Ukraine, and finally, the protests in Macedonia against the EU accession process which has come with some hard-to-swallow conditions.

This week Clare, Mick and Damien are in Strasbourg, where the Parliament has just voted to classify gas and nuclear as “sustainable” - a huge win for interests in those industries and a huge loss for the planet. They also discuss the question of the rising cost of living and how the EU political establishment is reframing dissent on any issue as “support for Russia”.

This week on the podcast we talked about the wider implications of the war in Ukraine - particularly how it is affecting the cost of living and recent geopolitical shifts that it has occasioned. We also discuss the massacre of migrants in the Spanish enclave of Melilla in Morocco and the shocking reaction of the Taoiseach when asked about this in the Dáil. Finally we discuss how accusations of spreading disinformation are being used to silence dissenting voices

We’re coming to you little late with some updates from last week. We discuss the recent vote on Ukrainian accession to the EU, the US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the EU Emissions Trading System, and finally, inflation and spiralling inequality.