LAST UPDATE | 8 Nov 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. Israeli ground forces are operating “deep in the Gaza Strip” as its campaign to eliminate Hamas militants moved into its second month, despite mounting calls for a ceasefire.
Underlining Israel’s determination to destroy Hamas, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant described Gaza as “the largest terrorist base ever built.”
Despite further calls for a ceasefire from the international community, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that there will be no pause until the more than 240 hostages seized by Hamas are freed.
2. The latest National ICU Audit Annual Report has shown that there has been a reduction in the percentage of deceased patients becoming organ donors.
Brain death was diagnosed in 103 patients in 2021, the year in question, with only 50 becoming organ donors.
The biggest factor in these patients not becoming an organ donor was families not consenting, something that happened in 27 cases.
3. Reporting from the West Bank, journalist Hannah McCarthy met a community in the Palestinian village of Susiya who told her of how settler violence is uprooting people across the territory.
Resident Nasser Nawajeh said that an Israeli contractor from a nearby illegal outpost installed a roadblock near the village under the Israeli military’s order and destroyed several of the community’s water cisterns and a field growing crops.
The playground by Nawajeh’s home in Susiya is empty and few people are outside that morning. “Settlers have been pointing guns at Palestinians and telling them to stay inside and not graze,” said Nawajeh, who is also the South Hebron Hills field researcher for Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem. On 13 October, an Israeli settler shot Nawajeh’s brother-in-law in the stomach.
4. Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said he hopes China will be able to make a decision “in the coming months” on the continuation of beef exports to the country after it was suspended following a case of Atypical BSE being detected during the testing of a cow in Ireland last Friday.
The Department of Agriculture said that the decision was made by China and that the lifting of the suspension was at the discretion of the Chinese authorities.
5. Last month was the hottest October on record globally, Europe’s climate monitor has said, as months of exceptional heat likely to make 2023 the warmest year in history.
With temperatures soaring beyond previous averages by exceptional margins, scientists say the pressure on world leaders to curb planet-heating greenhouse gas pollution has never been more urgent as they prepare to meet in Dubai for the UNCOP28 climate conference this month.
6. The Dáil committee on parliamentary privileges and oversight is set to meet today to discuss giving the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) powers to compel a range of RTÉ witnesses to appear before it.
The committee, which is held in private, will also discuss powers of compellability for the PAC in relation to getting RTÉ to hand over certain documents.
7. A senior aide told the UK Covid inquiry that Boris Johnson considered injecting himself with the virus on TV to show it did not pose a threat – but later said he would rather “let the bodies pile high” than impose a second national lockdown.
The inquiry also heard further details of the “toxic” culture at No 10 and was shown messages from Simon Case describing people working there as “mad” and “poisonous” as he prepared to become Cabinet Secretary.
8. Jon Boucher has been appointed as the next Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Northern Ireland Policing Board has confirmed.
Boucher, who has been serving as interim chief constable since Simon Byrne stepped down in September, has 35 years’ experience and has served as Assistant Chief Constable and Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI.
9. Web Summit announced it would “conclude” its funding relationship with the Irish online investigative journalism platform The Ditch.
This comes after The Ditch, which was funded by Web Summit’s former CEO Paddy Cosgrave through the firm, in a now-deleted Tweet, labelled Israel a “racist, supremacist, apartheid state” yesterday evening.
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