LAST UPDATE | 11 Dec 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. In our main story this morning, Valerie Flynn reports that transport authorities have significantly reduced the amount of public lighting on two stretches of primary road and at a number of motorway junctions this year.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) said the public lighting was removed to help achieve Ireland’s target of a 33% reduction in public sector energy usage, towards the 20% national target set out in the EU’s 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive.
The most recent locations where lights have been removed included the N25 Waterford bypass, excluding the toll plaza and junctions W1 and W2; the N40/N22 Ballincollig bypass, including some junctions; and nine of the 11 junctions on the M1 between Gormanstown, Co Dublin and Dundalk, Co Louth.
2. Israel has bombed southern Gaza’s main city after Hamas warned no Israeli hostages would leave the territory alive unless its demands for prisoner releases were met.
Yesterday, Hamas warned that Israel would not receive “their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance”.
Israel says there are still 137 hostages in Gaza, while activists say around 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli jails.
3. The UN climate chief has urged an end to obstruction a day before the deadline for a deal at COP28 in Dubai, with oil producers resisting historic calls for the world to wind down fossil fuels.
With barely 24 hours before the official close of COP28 in Dubai, negotiators spent a sleepless night trying to find an agreement that can find consensus among all the nearly 200 countries.
Spurred by pleas by low-lying island nations that fear for their very existence, the conference in the glitzy metropolis built by oil money is considering the first-ever call to exit oil, gas and coal, the main culprit in the planet’s climate crisis.
4. A clean-up operation is underway today after Leitrim town was hit with a localised tornado yesterday afternoon.
The freak weather event happened at 12.30pm yesterday afternoon and caused significant damage to cars and some property in the small village.
5. Funding of €17 million has been announced to expand apprenticeships across the higher education sector.
The funding will be used across four Technological Universities and one Institute of Technology in the higher education sector to deliver an additional 132 apprenticeship craft training blocks.
6. More than one third of Irish journalists have faced legal action in the last five years, according to new research.
A new report from the School of Communications at DCU shows that 34% of Irish journalists surveyed have faced legal action arising from their work over the past five years.
7. A new division of the High Court has been established to deal with planning and environmental cases.
The Department of Justice said the change will improve the delivery of housing, infrastructure and environmental commitments through greater efficiencies.
8. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said that UK government talks with Northern Irish political leaders today will focus on stabilising the finances of a returning Stormont Executive.
Heaton-Harris also said negotiations with the DUP on the post-Brexit Windsor Framework have not concluded, contradicting an earlier claim from Sinn Féin.
9. Argentina’s President Javier Milei took office with a stark warning to citizens to brace themselves for painful austerity measures as he seeks to cut spending and curb triple-digit inflation, all with empty coffers.
The 53-year-old libertarian addressed thousands of supporters from the steps of Congress yesterday, who waved flags and chanted “freedom!” and “chainsaw!” in reference to the power tool he carried around on the campaign trail to symbolise spending cuts.
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