LAST UPDATE | 10 Jan 2023

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Health

1. As record-breaking overcrowding continues, there are calls for the HSE to “expedite” the use of some 760 nursing home beds to free up room in hospitals.

There are also warning in the in mid-west where public health experts are warning that some people have more than one virus.

St Vincent’s

2. Our morning lead today reveals how the hospital at the centre of controversy over the building of a new national maternity hospital has created an inventory of religious artefacts and images at their main hospital which may have to be removed or returned to the religious order to which they belong.

Ken Foxe reports that St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin has developed a lengthy list of Catholic iconography around its buildings after the shareholding of the Religious Sisters of Charity was transferred to a charitable trust last year. 

Sean Binder

3. The court case for an Irish rescue volunteer facing charges in Greece related to alleged people smuggling and espionage is being heard on the island of Lesbos this morning.

Seán Binder, who travelled Lesbos in 2017 to volunteer with a Greek NGO to help migrants cross the Mediterranean Sea, could be sentenced more than 25 years in prison if he is found guilty. 

UK rocket launch

4. An attempt to make British space history by launching a rocket into orbit from UK soil has ended in failure after suffering an “anomaly” during the flight.

After taking off from Cornwall, the Virgin Orbit plane flew to 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean where it jettisoned the rocket containing nine small satellites towards space.

Brazil 

5. Around 1,500 people were arrested after thousands of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed congress, the supreme court and presidential palace in the capital Brasilia. 

Brazilian authorities have vowed to protect democracy with hundreds of soldiers and police have mobilised to dismantle an improvised camp outside the army’s headquarters in Brasilia, where some 3,000 supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro had set up tents.

Golden Globes

6. The Banshees of Inisherin leads the way for today’s ceremony with eight nods, the most for any film in almost two decades. 

The awards will attempt to stage a celebrity-filled comeback today after being rocked by recent scandals. 

California mudslide

7. A California town that is home to a range of celebrities was ordered to be evacuated yesterday, with firefighters warning mudslides could engulf homes.

Montecito, a town of about 9,000 people, is a favorite of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as well as American entertainment royalty such as Oprah Winfrey and Jennifer Aniston. 

Peru protests 

8. At least 17 people died yesterday in Peru as protesters trying to storm an airport clashed with security forces in the latest violent spasm of a month-old political crisis.

This new chapter of bloodshed took place in the southeastern city of Juliaca, in the Puno region, an official in the local ombudsman’s office told AFP.

Rugby injury updates

9. Leinster’s Johnny Sexton and Tadgh Furlong are both set to miss the side’s trip to play Gloucester this weekend due to a calf problem, however they are still expected to recover in time for the Six Nations.

Leinster captain Sexton will sit out the Gloucester game as he recovers from a cheekbone injury, but the out-half is also expected to be fit in time for Ireland’s campaign beginning with a trip to play Wales on 4 February.