'Can't believe the news today…'

The songs of U2 have always responded to what's happening in the news.
From famine in Ethiopia in the 1980's to the war in Ukraine today, their music has often addressed complex political situations, and band members have always spoken out about what they believe is right. 

Larry captured this attitude, speaking on the release of the Days of Ash EP, a collection referencing conflicts in Iran, Ukraine, United States and Israel Palestine.

'Going way back to our earliest days, working with Amnesty or Greenpeace, we've never shied away from taking a position and sometimes that can get a bit messy, there's always some sort of blowback, but it's a big side of who we are and why we still exist.' 

Alongside the music the band have harnessed their platform in the public eye to work for political change and tackle injustice, including supporting the rise of anti-poverty organisations like the ONE Campaign and (RED). 

Here are some key moments from four plus decades of activism and artistry. 

1983
A boy's face stares out in innocence from the cover of an album called War. Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Year's Day and Seconds reveal the wide angle political lens of the songwriting. 

1984
The Unforgettable Fire album is named after art made in response to the nuclear attack on Hiroshima that ended the Second World War. The lead song Pride (In The Name of Love) is a tribute to Dr Martin Luther King. 

1985
U2 play Live Aid, a fundraising concert in aid of famine relief in Ethiopia. Bono will later describe a political journey 'from charity to justice'. 

Bono writes Silver and Gold for Stevie Van Zandt's Sun City album which targets South Africa's apartheid regime calling for a music and entertainment boycott. 

1986
Amnesty International asks for help marking 25 years of campaigning for human rights. The result is The Conspiracy of Hope, a six-show tour across the United States in which U2 play alongside Joan Baez, Youssou N'Dour and The Police, recruiting thousands of new supporters. Amnesty's partnership with the band continues to this day.

1987
Mothers of The Disappeared features on The Joshua Tree album, the lyrics inspired by the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and Bono's travels to Nicaragua and El Salvador. It is a tribute to the women whose loved ones were tortured, abducted and 'disappeared' by the political dictatorships in El Savador, Chile and Argentina. On the PopMart Tour in 1998, a group of mothers from the Chilean Madres walked on the U2 stage with photos of their children who had been disappeared by the Pinochet dictatorship, while Bono called for Pinochet to 'tell them where their children are'. 

1992
One, from the album Achtung Baby, is released as a benefit single for AIDS research. The artwork features a photograph 'Untitled (Falling Buffaloes)' by artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz, which is animated for the song's video by Mark Pellington. The band's AIDS activism continues to this day.

Also that year the band appear in radiation suits on the beach near the Sellafield nuclear plant in the UK, part of a Greenpeace protest against radioactive contamination in the Irish Sea.

1997
Fulfilling a promise made during the Bosnian war, U2 brings PopMart to Sarajevo, becoming the first major event in the city as it recovers from the almost 4-year siege (Apr 92 to Feb 96). The promise had been made during the ZOO TV Tour in 1993 when Bill Carter of Sarajevo TV attended the Verona show and set up a regular satellite link from the stage to the city, then under siege.

1998
U2 and Ash play a gig at Belfast's Waterford Hall, in support of The Good Friday Agreement referendum. They are joined onstage by Ulster Unionist (UUP) leader David Trimble and Social Democratic and Labour (SDLP) leaders John Hume with Bono raising the two men's arms in the air, sending a powerful message of unity, in the days leading up to the referendum.

The Sweetest Thing, a love song to Bono's wife Ali, is re-recorded and released as a single, with proceeds going to Children of Chernobyl, an Irish charity, supporting families affected by the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. 

1999
Bono and Edge join Jubilee 2000's Drop The Debt campaign, a global coalition of cultural and faith groups demanding G8 countries cancel the crippling debts they are owed by poorer nations. Bono acts as a spokesperson and lobbies world leaders directly alongside Jubilee staff. The legacy of the campaign will be the write-off of over $100 billion of old, cold war debts, freeing up monies to be spent on health and education. 

2002 
DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade Africa) is launched by Bono, Bobby Shriver and Jubilee activists Jamie Drummond and Lucy Matthew - a lobbying campaign to fight the injustices of old debt, unfair trade-rules and the lack of AIDS medicines on the continent of Africa. The acronym also stands for democracy, accountability and transparency. 

2003
Bono and the Edge perform at Nelson Mandela's 46664 AIDS concert in South Africa to help raise awareness of the magnitude of the AIDS crisis. 

2004
DATA becomes a founder of the ONE Campaign, a global political advocacy movement of citizens in different countries calling on their governments to fight extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Bono continues his lobbying and the work of ONE is promoted by the band during live shows. DATA is credited as a key player behind the creation of the PEPFAR AIDS programme, launched in 2003 by President Bush which has saved 26 million lives.

2005 
U2 perform at Live 8, 20 years after Live Aid. This time the message is not about raising money but political action, urging world leaders attending the G8 Gleneagles summit to increase development assistance and finish the job on debt cancellation. G8 leaders pledged to double aid from 2004 levels and the Live 8 shows were estimated to have drawn a global audience upwards of 1.5 billion. 

2006
Cofounded by Bono and Bobby Shriver, (RED) is born as a sister organization to ONE to harness the power of iconic brands and influencers to raise money to treat and prevent AIDS through The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria. U2 are one of (RED)'s main partners and introduce (RED)Zones at all their shows. To date, (RED) has raised more than $800 million and helped 350 million people. 

U2 also collaborate with Green Day to record The Saints Are Coming in aid of Music Rising, a charity founded by Edge and the producer Bob Ezrin to support the cultural restoration of New Orleans by replacing instruments lost during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

2009-2011
On the U2 360° Tour, Sunday Bloody Sunday goes out nightly to the people of Iran, following what are widely considered to be rigged Presidential election results: the stage is bathed in green, the script on the giant screens features poetry in Farsi with images by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat. 

2010
Fulfilling a long-held ambition to enable music education in schools across Ireland, U2 set up Music Generation in partnership with the Irish Government's Department of Education and The Ireland Funds. Coupled with Local Music Education Partnerships, Music Generation puts into practice the band's belief that all children should have the opportunity to access music lessons, regardless of circumstances.

2014
Ordinary Love, written in honour of Nelson Mandela, appears in the movie Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, and wins the golden Globe for Best Original Song. As Bono said of Mandela at the time 'We've been working for him since the '70s when we played our first anti-apartheid gig in Dublin. He kind of turned our lives upside down.'

2022
After Russia invades Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invites Bono and Edge to Kyiv where they play a short set in a metro station being used as a bomb shelter. They are joined by Taras Topolya, lead singer of the Ukrainian band Antytila, who began serving his country as a medic on the frontline. Taras will inspire U2's song Yours Eternally.

2025
U2 are honoured with the Woody Guthrie Prize. This is given to those who 'best exemplify' the American singer and activist's desire to 'speak for the less fortunate and serve as a positive force for social change'.

2026
Days of Ash is released on Ash Wednesday, featuring songs addressing conflicts in Ukraine, Iran, Israel Palestine and the United States. The band describe this as: 'A response to current events and inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom'.