BY OUR MEDIA EDITOR AS THE BATTLE for Bakhmut nears its climax, it has been revealed that Ukrainian forces defending the city have been using soundtracks of BBC Correspondent Orla Guerin’s reports from the war-torn country, and similar places, in a furious attempt to stem the Russian tide. “Yeah, a couple of our guys were…

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BRINGING EXPENSIVE EASTER EGG GIFT FOR US PRESIDENT STOPPED AT CUSTOMS, AS EGG WOULD CONTINUE ON INTO EUROPEAN UNION TERRITORY WITH BIDEN, IN BREACH OF PROTOCOL. BY OUR TROUBLES CORRESPONDENT, NAPPER TANDY THEY HAD egg all over their faces. Lots of it! They were the British Prime Minister and his entourage, who…

BY ZELDA SCOTT HEMINGWAY, EDITOR IN DESPAIR ONCE UPON a time it was cars, then technology; now it’s plain despair. And not any old despair, hardcore kick ’em in the nuts male despair. And it’s shot to the top of the industry charts, and off, in the U.S of A. When everything else is slowing,…

BY OUR CONSPIRACY EDITOR J.F. KENNEDY THE DEATH OF the man said to be Irish Republican Army informer Stakeknife (or Stake Knife) (or Steaknife) (or Steak Knife) has caused chaos in the conspiracy world. Freddie Scappaticci, said to be the IRA’s head of internal security for much of the 1980s, was outed two decades ago…

ENVIRONMENTAL DESK AN ENVIRONMENTAL campaigner says she was able to walk all the way from Acapulco to the Barrier Reef on a trail of human garbage. Rita Murphy-Mendez, a Mexican born Irish activist, says the journey of about 13,000 kilometres, took the better part of two years and involved stops at Pacific islands and dead…

BY HUGH COWARD, DEFENCE REPORTER HIGH OCTANE CHINESE MILITARY exercises off Taiwan have seen Canberra send a top secret diplomatic mission to Beijing, to plead with Chinese leaders not to start a war, that Australia might be forced to join, for at least 20 years, as Australia is not ready for such a fight. “Old…

SPORTS DESK IT COULD be the golf game of the century. Imagine two titans of American politics slogging it out in the wind and rain at Doonbeg links, Co Clare, in Ireland. The Prize: the Presidency of the United States. That’s the offer some Trump supporters have made to current President Joe Biden, who just…

ARCHAEOLOGY DESK IT APPEARS it’s a tale as old as civilization itself: an elite class of drug abusers leading a society down the toilet. Take you mind back several thousand years, past Mohammed, past Rome, past Jesus, Past Socrates, past Homer (the poet, not the Simpson), to an age when no one used iron. You’re…

DERRY, LONDON, BELFAST, IRELAND, NORTH US PRESIDENT Joe Biden will conduct his short visit north of the Irish border in a DeLorean motor car. He is due to attend the University of Ulster near Belfast for a celebration of 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, and because Derry is unavailable as it’s on fire…

BY MARCUS BRICKFRONT, HOUSING CORRESPONDENT AN INTERNET VIDEO of a young European woman with a mobile phone, a laptop, and a state subsidy when she is not working, claiming she was living below the poverty line, has drawn the expectations of today’s young Australians into sharp focus. A recent gathering of Australian youngsters has revealed…