james beppleton

weekend in wicklow I shall spend

[Cuban Embassy in US @EmbaCubaUS]

🇨🇺 Cuba has done it again.

Meet VAXIRA® — a therapeutic cancer vaccine developed by Cuban and Argentine scientists that helps the immune system recognise and destroy lung cancer cells. Approved in both Cuba and Argentina for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

🔬 It works by mimicking a molecule found on cancer cells but almost entirely absent in healthy human tissue — meaning it targets tumours with remarkable precision and very few side effects.

📊 Clinical trials showed a significant improvement in survival for advanced lung cancer patients, with 1-year survival nearly doubling compared to the control group. Real-world data shows median survival of up to 24.5 months in maintenance therapy.

💉 Minimal side effects. Suitable for long-term use. Affordable and accessible — unlike many Western immunotherapies that price patients out of treatment.

And in 2025, VAXIRA® received Cuba's National Technological Innovation Award. All of this achieved by a country under decades of US economic blockade.

The United States spends billions on cancer research. Cuba, under sanctions, develops vaccines the world hasn't seen before. 🇨🇺🔬

#VAXIRA #CubanScience #LungCancer #CancerResearch #Biotechnology

[ZazaFL @ZazaFL]

This is Khalifa from Gaza, he came to Ireland twice, played football, met the President, charmed us all. He was a Palestine National Youth Team player. He was 20 when he was murdered by Israel, one of the 421 football players they killed. He is why the FAI must not play Israel.

[Bohemian Football Club @bfcdublin]

#StopTheGame

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

Micheál Martin lied to journalists when he said armed US soldiers weren't landing at Shannon Airport.

Martin said there are “no weapons” passing through the airport – but his colleague Darragh O’Brien authorised US troops carrying guns to land there.

https://t.co/bRreBsCvX1

[Vincent Bevins @Vinncent]

@greejis May 20, 1986, Los Angeles Times - "South Africa Raids 3 Nearby Nations: Attacks Rebel Bases in Capitals of Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana"

[Between the Stripes @betweenstripes]

Joanna Byrne statement:

✍️𝐋𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐚 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐬

Dear Drogs,
I write this letter with a heavy heart as I note, the statement made by Trivela this morning removing me from my position as co-chairperson and member of the board of management of Drogheda United Football Club.

The past few weeks have been a difficult time for me personally, but I have carried myself with integrity at all times in recent weeks, for the good of the club.

This approach is the opposite to the cold, underhand move by Trivela, initiated in the dark of the night, which was planned and co-ordinated without any consultation with me. This is symptomatic of the way they do business.

A narrative has been peddled in recent weeks of a conflict of interest between my role as co-chair and my role as an opposition spokesperson on sport, something I categorically dispute. I have consciously kept my politics and Drogs hat separate for many years, something which wasn’t easy to do but something I managed successfully.

I have always been transparent and open with fans and in the spirit of that transparency it is important to put a number of facts on the record and outline the sequence of events over the last few weeks.

On February 12th, following the UEFA Nations League Draw I released a written statement in my capacity as the Sinn Féin spokesperson for sport, which never mentioned Drogheda United in any form.

On February 16th I met with two Board Members of the club for a private conversation, I had no intention of making the matter public and always hoped for an amicable resolution but unfortunately details of this conversation were leaked to our fans, fans who elected me into the role as Chairperson and those who I have always vowed to be transparent and open with, as a result I had no option but to respond on February 18th to let the fans know that I had no intention of resigning.

The facts also are that I was a sitting Councillor when Trivela took over Drogheda Utd and subsequently stood in two elections since, another local election and then a general election. Neither of these were ever an issue with Trivela and they were consulted prior to both, and they were supportive at the time.

At the time Trivela took ownership of the club, the issue of a potential conflict was discussed with them and no issue was raised.
Despite this, following my election as a TD, I asked Trivela last summer to do their own due diligence on this potential conflict of interest to reassure us all, which they did by consulting with both international and our own national governing bodies, and following no concerns being raised from any stakeholder, Trivela re-iterated they were happy for me to stay on in my role.

This very fact proves to me that the underlying issue here is as I’ve stated from the beginning, my strong stance that Ireland should not play Israel in the UEFA Nations League while a genocide against the Palestinian people continues.

Finally, it is important to point out that despite this previous internal process of due diligence, Trivela stated last week in a statement that they had carried out another internal review which I was not aware of, nor asked to partake in even though I was a board member, director and co-chairperson of the club. This alone is an injustice in itself.

I’ve said it before and will say it again, Drogheda United has been the longest love of my life. I’m proud of our history and tradition and exceptionally proud that we are the first League of Ireland Club to ever have appointed a Female Chairperson.
This, I hope, will in time pave the way for other clubs to reflect on their top tables and start implementing gender balance. To go down in history as having the honour of being the first female chair is obviously something I cherish, but more importantly, if it shows other women involved in the game that they too can smash their own glass ceiling that will always be my greatest achievement.

[Dr. Luke in China @96Stats]

I just spent a day going through China's new law (the original in Mandarin) which the BBC and other media all completely misunderstood legally and linguistically. A total misdescription. Let me go through those mistakes ⬇️

[Daniel Lambert @dlLambo]

What are we becoming as a nation?

A Taoiseach who refuses to state a war is illegal when it's an objective fact.

An airport playing an active role in illegal attacks that murder kids.

I have never been more sickened by our government.

They are representing the US ahead of us.

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

Two US Air Force aircraft stopped at Shannon Airport before flying straight to the main European hub used to transport weapons for use against Iran

They arrived in Ireland the same day a US-backed Israeli airstrike killed more than 150 schoolgirls in Iran
https://t.co/gJQaqi4xYU

[Nikola @niktaylorde]

Would you look at that

[Vijay Prashad @vijayprashad]

Dear @paulmasonnews - you make an outrageous allegation in this email to your lawyers that I have been ‘identified’ as part of a $65 million ‘dark money network linked to Uighur genocide denial’. Identified by whom? By your friends in British intelligence or in the @CIA? Where is your evidence? These are lazy accusations by you that are dangerous for me since we know what Western intelligence is capable of doing.
Vijay Prashad.

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

Claiming antisemitism is a serious problem in Ireland, Martin and Harris cited an organisation accused of major factual distortions – and whose vice president, an ex-IDF general, had to cancel a trip to South Africa for fear of a war crimes arrest.

https://t.co/BCXcfXXLlr

[Connolly Books @ConnollyBooks]

1/5 Bohs at Connolly Books 🟥 ⬛ 🇮🇪🚩

Delighted to announce that we’ve joined forces with @bfcdublin & are now the official retailer of their iconic jerseys in Dublin city centre. We launch the initiate on Saturday January 31st

[Heshmat Alavi's Trenchcoat @UrOrientalist]

>>start by crashing the currency, worsening an already bad econ situation
>>use your media power to induce more instability
>>normal people getting hurt by crash take to the streets
>>state tries to deescalate, protests not that big to begin with, start to die down...

[Clare Daly @ClareDalyIRL]

Yes but more needs to be said. Many people mistakenly believe "the United Nations/international law" and the "rules-based international order" are interchangeable terms. They are not.

International law exists and must be upheld, especially by those who abhor war and atrocity. Just because international law is violated by states does not mean it does not exist.

The "rules-based international order" is a rhetorical trick used by American and European leaders to claim the moral high ground of international law without any of the obligations, to denounce opponents even as they launch their own wars of aggression and participate in the live-streamed holocausts of entire peoples. The "rules-based international order" has no basis in law. It does not exist except as a propaganda term for promoting the myth of Western exceptionalism.

Every time a Western leader or institution uses this phrase, it is a deliberate omission of international law. They omit international law because it applies to everyone, including them. In the "rules-based international order" of their imaginations, the world is expected to dance to their double standard: they make the rules, and everyone else just has to follow orders. It is little wonder this language is rejected at the UN by a majority of the world's countries representing a majority of the world's people, many of whom remember the last time Europeans made all the rules and everyone else had to follow orders.

This is a really important distinction to remember. As the world has watched unspeakable atrocities happen without accountability, many are losing faith in international law. Many are concluding it was all just a self-serving lie. That is a mistake. To do this is to unintentionally aid the attack on international law that is so abhorrent in the first place. The world cannot afford for those who oppose war and genocide to fall into listless cynicism.

The post-war international system is not perfect, but it is hard won, and it is all we have. The UN Charter is the single most consensual document of international law in history. It was the product of decades of war and nearly 100 million deaths. It was written to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind." Those ignoring and eroding it (including those in Europe parroting the lie that the UN is "no longer fit for purpose") are attempting to bring us back to the violent free-for-all where "the strong do what they want and the weak suffer what they must" - the world that created the need for the Charter in the first place.

The war criminals and the genocidaires in Tel Aviv, Brussels, London and Washington would like nothing better than to convince us all that international law does not exist. Do not reward them! It is imperative that those of us who insist on a world free from war and injustice ensure that it is the myth of Western exceptionalism that dies in the bonfire they are building, not international law and the United Nations.

[Ruairí Casey @Ruairi_Casey]

The Berlin branch of @djuverdi, one of Germany's largest journalist unions, has shared an article calling Anas Al Sharif a terrorist. Is this supposed to be a defence of his murder?

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

For the past ten months @gardainfo has refused to investigate the illegal carriage of munitions through Irish territory to Israel on dozens of flights

Commissioner Drew Harris even lied to the public accounts committee about criminal complaints he received on these flights

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

Lobbyists for international arms manufacturers organised a secret meeting with Department of Defence officials – and instructed attendees to maintain secrecy about it.

There was “no advance publicity or social media promotion” of the meeting.

https://t.co/u5LZChZEo9

[james beppleton @inoffensivebear]

Mfw this isn't mentioned

[Steo 🇮🇪 🟣  @steokelly]

Vincent Browne is a national treasure who held politicians to account in his own unique way when his show was on TV3 📺 🔥

Lets take a look at some of his highlights 🧵👇🏼

[james beppleton @inoffensivebear]

Bitch I know guac is extra!