LAST UPDATE | 2 Mar 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Greek train collision

1. The death toll from Greece’s worst rail accident has risen to 42, as hopes faded of finding anyone still alive in the wreckage from the head-on collision.

The two trains collided near a tunnel outside Larissa before midnight on Tuesday. Two carriages were crushed and a third caught fire, trapping people inside.

Wexford General Hospital

2. Wexford needs its hospital to be operational again “as a matter of urgency” in the wake of a fire that caused the building to be evacuated yesterday, a local councillor has said.

It’s believed that the hospital could be open again in a matter of days but the operation to return evacuated patients could take considerably longer. 

Patients were evacuated from Wexford General Hospital last night after a fire broke out, drawing a major response from emergency services.

AIB debt writedown

3. Nearly 2,000 AIB customers received over a 90% write-down of their loan in the years following the global financial crisis, AIB executives will state to an Oireachtas committee today.

The number of borrowers, other than those who went through a bankruptcy or insolvency process, who have received a reduction of over 90% of their loan amounted to circa 1,900. 

AIB representatives will tell the Finance Committee that compared to around 150,000 customer resolutions, this represents a ratio of just over 1%.

Ukraine

4. Ukraine said it had survived a months-long winter onslaught of Russian strikes on water and energy infrastructure, as it marked the first day of spring yesterday.

Since October, Russia has been pummelling key facilities in Ukraine with missiles and drones, disrupting millions of people’s water, heating and electricity supplies.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Ukrainians for surviving a winter marked by systematic Russian strikes on energy facilities, which plunged millions into darkness and cold.

SpaceX

5. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off this morning to the International Space Station carrying two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and the second Emirati to voyage to space.

The SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 mission launched at 12:34 am (05:34 Irish time) this morning from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a livestream of the launch showed.

Spanish PM meeting

6. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will brief Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on the deal agreed between the UK and the EU in Dublin later.

Sanchez’s visit to Government Buildings comes as Spain prepares for its EU Presidency in the second half of the year.

Varadkar will also speak to Sanchez on political developments in Northern Ireland.

Robert F Kennedy

7. A California panel has denied parole for the man who killed Robert F Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan.

Sirhan’s lawyer Angela Berry said the parole board decided the 78-year-old prisoner still lacks insight into what caused him to shoot the senator and presidential candidate in 1968.

G20 meeting

8. Top diplomats from the world’s major industrialised and developing nations have today opened what are expected to be contentious talks dominated by Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s moves to boost its global influence.

Host India appealed for all members of the fractured Group of 20 to reach consensus on issues of deep concern to poorer countries, even if the broader East-West split over Ukraine cannot be resolved.

Hijacking

9. A man in his 20s and a male teenager have been arrested following a car hijacking and criminal damage incidents in Dublin and Kildare. 

The incidents happened in the Leixlip and Lucan areas last night.