LAST UPDATE | 12 Nov 2021
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
Covid-19 statistics
1. In our main story today, Rónán Duffy takes a closer look at where we are with Covid-19 case numbers, incidence rates and hospitalisations after NPHET asked people to reduce their social contacts in order to reduce the spread of the virus.
Last week, Ireland recorded 24,995 new cases of Covid-19, the third-highest number of weekly cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
The average daily cases are now at 3,487, double what they were only two weeks ago.
Alcohol advertising
2. New restrictions on the advertisement of alcohol during sports events and events focused on children come into effect from today.
The new laws ban alcohol being advertised in or on a sports area during a sports event, as well as at events aimed at children and events involving driving mechanically propelled vehicles.
Northern Ireland Protocol
3. The UK Government’s chief negotiator to the EU David Frost is to meet European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic in London today in the latest round of talks about the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The talks over the protocol remain deadlocked, and there is growing speculation that the UK is set to trigger Article 16, which would effectively suspend elements of the arrangements.
COP26
4. As the COP26 climate summit enters its final day, a new draft of the deal that could be agreed at the talks appears to have watered down its push to curb fossil fuels.
While the first draft called for countries “to accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels”, the new draft calls on countries to accelerate the shift to clean energy systems, “including by rapidly scaling up clean power generation and accelerating the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels”.
The talks are heading towards a rocky conclusion today after two weeks of fraught debate failed to resolve several key disputes or produce the emissions cutting plans needed to limit global warming to 1.5C.
Capitol riots
5. In the US, a federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the release of records sought by a US House committee investigating the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol.
Yesterday, the court granted an administrative stay sought by Trump, which will give the court time to consider the former president’s arguments against the release of the documents, which was otherwise scheduled for today without a court order.
Kyle Rittenhouse
6. Staying in the US, the defence has rested its case at the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse.
On Wednesday, the 18-year-old told the jury he was defending himself from attack and had no choice when he used his rifle to kill two men and wound a third on the streets of Kenosha in the summer of 2020.
Kinahan cartel
7. Back in Ireland, the Special Criminal Court has refused an application by gardaí to ban the media from court while officers who took part in covert operations give evidence in the trial of a man accused of assisting a Kinahan cartel murder plot.
Presiding judge Justice Tony Hunt ruled there was “nothing wrong” with the media being present as long as there was no identification of the surveillance gardaí who are to give evidence.
Bird flu
8. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine confirmed that a white-tailed sea eagle has tested positive for avian influenza (H5N1) near Tarbert in Co Kerry.
The bird has been submitted to the veterinary laboratory in Limerick as part of the department’s wild bird avian influenza surveillance programme.
Richard Ratcliffe
9. And finally, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is enduring his 20th day on hunger strike after a meeting with a British Foreign Office minister left him feeling “deflated” about his wife’s continued detention in Iran.
Richard Ratcliffe described being “stuck in the same status quo” after the discussion with James Cleverly on Thursday, and accused the British Government of not doing enough to resolve the situation.
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