Last week, Angelina Jolie recently wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times where she revealed that she had a double mastectomy. She had tested positive for a faulty BRCA1 gene, which, she thought, gave her an 87 % risk of breast cancer and a 50 % risk of ovarian cancer.

The fact that her mother died of ovarian cancer after a nearly 10-year struggle at the age of 56 was another major factor in her decision.

Jolie herself noted that:

From Caesar to Napoleon the attempt to ‘divide and conquer’ has been a favoured tactic of elites everywhere. Imperialists from the British in India to the Belgians in Rwanda instinctively understood the need to set up spurious divisions amongst their opponents.

In response the maxim of the oppressed must surely be ‘united we stand, divided we fall’.

This is why the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) is intuitively appealing. The idea of organising a multitude of unions into a collective structure should surely work to the advantage of workers.

Health Minister Edwin Poots should be removed from his position as Health Minister due to his callous approach to care homes for the elderly. Edwin Poots is the health minister and despite attempts to deflect responsibility onto chief executives of various trusts-the buck stops with him. It is he who decides whether care homes open or close in the North.

Over the past several weeks it has been announced that 18 National Health Service (NHS) care homes would close, affecting 307 residents. The reason given by Poots et al. is that they want to “Deliver care in the community”.

Calls for Western intervention in Syria are getting louder.

Last week rumours that dictator Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons against the opposition was being used as a justification for a military intervention.

Now the accusation has been thrown at the rebels.

Western powers want to retain influence in the region and help usher in a post Assad regime that will cooperate with them.

But interference from the West will not stop the suffering of ordinary Syrians resisting Assad’s dictatorship.

In the last few weeks Margaret Thatcher has died and the Irish trade union movement has shown signs of revival. That these events have happened simultaneously is particularly fitting given the fact that Thatcher did more than most to smash the power of organised labour.

The PSNI has promised “numerous arrests” when the G8 leaders descend on Fermanagh next month.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that an additional 2,500 police are being drafted in from Britain. Three hundred new cells are being readied at Maghaberry and Magilligan prisons, the Hydebank Young Offenders Centre and the women’s prison in Belfast to handle the numbers the police expect to arrest.

For the first time ever in the North, courts will sit late at night and on Sunday. So much for the DUP’s commitment to “keeping the Sabbath holy”.

Meet Ritchie Boucher, the chief executive of Bank of Ireland who was paid €843,000 last year.

He thinks he is worth far more than ordinary folk and he deserves all he gets.

Far more, for example, than staff nurses, who are stressed out trying to cope with up to ten or fifteen nurses at a time. Last year, a young staff nurse at the start of her career was paid €24,041.

In a statement this morning Richard Boyd Barrett TD expressed grave concern over the restrictive and punitive nature of the proposed Bill for the Protection of Life During Pregnancy 2013.

The proposed bill requires a potential 2 panels of 3 doctors before a suicidal woman would be allowed an abortion in Ireland. The number of doctors and the requirement for unanimity will result in lengthy delays which are problematic in pregnancy and will also put far too much pressure on already distressed women.

The G8 summit will take place near Enniskillen on 16 and 17 June. The most powerful world leaders will gather to co-ordinate policies for defending privilege and inequality. It will be an occasion for protestors to gather and voice demands for global justice.

So far, the ICTU is planning a march in Belfast on Saturday 15 June. A counter summit is being organised by G8 Alternatives on Sunday 16 June in Belfast. And a major protest is scheduled for Enniskillen on Monday 17 June. There will also be public meetings in various locations to explain the role of the G8.

The recent inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar revealed the truly barbaric nature of Irish abortion laws. Savita’s consultant, Katherine Astbury said she did not agree to Savita's repeated requests for an abortion because of the legal situation in Ireland.