LAST UPDATE | 16 Nov 2022
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
Addiction in Limerick
1. In this morning’s lead story, Daragh Brophy shadows an addiction outreach service in Limerick city, where people seeking the team’s services each day are “more unwell than ever”.
The combined impact of the housing and cost-of-living crises has exacerbated problems in more recent years, according to the NGO’s outreach workers.
The results of a study carried out by the University of Limerick and published yesterday found that the main health impacts on drug users in the city are chest and throat problems, damaged lungs, blood clots, weight loss, body pains and damaged teeth.
Trump resurfaces
2. Former US President Donald Trump has said he will officially mount a third campaign for the White House in the 2024 election.
He made the announcement a week after an underwhelming midterm showing for Republicans, including for candidates that he had backed.
He was flanked by more than 30 American flags and banners that read: “Make America Great Again.”
Poland hit by missile
3. The missile that hit Poland was fired by Ukraine at an incoming Russian attack, according to US officials.
It comes after US President Joe Biden said it is “unlikely” the missile that killed two people in Nato-ally Poland was fired from Russia but pledged support for Poland’s investigation into what it had called a “Russian-made” missile.
Poland’s military is on high alert today after a deadly missile strike on a village near the border with war-ravaged Ukraine.
Housing
4. Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien admitted that not enough homes are being built in Irish cities.
However, he insisted that supply was “going in the right direction”.
He repeated that the government would exceed its target of providing 24,600 homes this year but acknowledged this would not be enough to meet housing demand.
Special Criminal Court
5. The records from a tracking device that gardaí placed on former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall’s vehicle were destroyed before the Regency Hotel murder trial began last month, the Special Criminal Court has heard.
The non-jury court heard from defence counsel that gardaí destroyed records from a tracking device on Dowdall’s jeep where he is alleged to have driven murder accused Gerard Hutch north for a meeting with republicans in the aftermath of the shooting.
Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch (59) denies the murder of Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne (33) during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel on 5 February 2016.
Tralee investigation
6. Gardaí have charged a man and a teenage boy in connection with the fatal stabbing of Tommy Dooley at a funeral in Tralee, Co Kerry last month, where his wife was also seriously injured.
The two were arrested yesterday and are due to appear before Tralee District Court this morning.
Two men have already been charged with Tommy’s murder: his brother, Patrick Dooley (35), and another relative, Thomas Dooley (41) of Bay 10 Halting Site, Carrigrohane Road.
Harvey Weinstein trial
7. The judge in the Los Angeles trial of Harvey Weinstein has dropped four of the 11 sexual assault charges against him after prosecutors said they would not proceed with the counts involving one of his accusers.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has not provided an explanation for why they opted to leave the woman out of the trial.
The remaining charges against Weinstein, who is serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York, are two counts of rape and five other sexual assault counts, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Moon mission
8. Nasa has launched the most powerful rocket ever built on a journey to the Moon, kicking off the start of the space agency’s new flagship program, Artemis.
The 32-story tall Space Launch System (SLS) blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6.47am Irish time.
The US last sent astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo era, from 1969-1972. This time it hopes to build a sustained presence – including a lunar space station – to help prepare for an eventual mission to Mars.
Grammys
9. Beyonce has claimed a leading nine nominations at the Grammys, making her tied — with her husband Jay-Z — as the most nominated music act in the history of the awards show.
Break My Soul gained nominations for record and song of the year while Renaissance was given an album of the year nod.
Jay-Z also earned five nominations this year, meaning they now jointly hold the record for most-ever Grammy nominations at 88 each.
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