LAST UPDATE | 13 Sep 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

1. Ozempic shortages

The number of medicines facing shortages in Ireland has risen yet again, prompting the Minister for Health to meet with the health products regulator to try to fix the problem.

Lauren Boland reports that around 350 medicines are currently out of stock or in short supply in Ireland, according to the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), up from 250 at the start of the year.

The shortages cause complications for patients who rely on certain medications. In many cases, alternatives are available – though it can require time-intensive coordination between GPs and pharmacists to find the most appropriate option.

2. Harris V GRA

The results of the Garda Representative Association vote of no confidence in Commissioner Drew Harris will be released today – it is anticipated to be a landslide against the force’s leader. 

Gardaí are currently engaged in a major industrial relations row with Harris over his decision to push through a working time roster they believe will adversely affect  members.

The results will be released at an event in Dublin this morning. While sources have not disclosed the results it is widely believed to be a resounding ‘no’ against the commissioner’s leadership.

3. Odesa

Russian drones have damaged the Danube river port of Izmail in Ukraine, causing a fire and civilian injuries, the regional governor said today.

The Ukrainian military claimed 32 drones were downed during the attack.

4. Trafficking

A suspected trafficking for organ removal was recorded for the first time in Ireland last year, according to a new anti-trafficking report from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

The report has made several recommendations to the Government for improving its methods of supporting victims of human trafficking.

5. Flood in Libya

At least 5,300 people have been killed in Libya and thousands more are reported missing after catastrophic flash floods broke river dams and tore through an eastern coastal city, devastating entire neighbourhoods.

As global concern spread, multiple nations offered to urgently send aid and rescue teams to help the war-scarred country that has been overwhelmed by what one UN official labelled “a calamity of epic proportions”.

6. Chinese spies

The UK’s Conservative Party dropped two potential candidates to become MPs after MI5 warned they could be Chinese spies, it has been reported.

It comes as ministers continue to face questions about allegations of espionage in Westminster after the arrest of a parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

6. Boundaries

The Bill that gives stat statutory effect to the Electoral Commission’s constituency boundaries redraw will be brought to Cabinet by Housing and Local Authority Minister Darragh O’Brien today. 

With the publication of the Electoral Commission’s report last month, the next step is for the Bill to be brought to the Government and then to the Oireachtas.

The Electoral Commission recommended the number of TDs should be increased from 160 to 174. 

7. Police brutality

Five police officers already charged in the murder of Tyre Nichols, a young African American who died after being beaten, now face federal indictment, the US Justice Department has announced.

Videos showed the officers, who are also black, repeatedly kicking and punching Nichols during a traffic stop close to his home in the US city of Memphis on 7 January, three days before he died in hospital.

8. ‘Unconditional support’

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has said that his country would “always be with Russia,” as he met with president Vladimir Putin for a rare summit likely to focus on arms deals.

“Russia is now confronting… such hegemonist forces to protect (its) security interests… we have always expressed full and unconditional support for all the measures taken by the Russian government, and  I take this opportunity again to affirm that we will always be with Russia,” Kim said, according to footage broadcast on Russian TV.

Kim said that his meeting with Putin was a “stepping stone” to stronger ties between the two countries.

9. Bill Kenneally 

Convicted child abuser Bill Kenneally is to be called before the inquiry examining the State’s handling of complaints against him.

Yesterday, the inquiry’s chairperson Mr Justice Michael White said that “it is the intention of the commission” to call upon Bill Kenneally for evidence before it concludes its hearings later this year.

Last May, Kenneally received a four-and-a-half-year sentence for abusing five boys on unknown dates between December 1979 and March 1990. He was aged between his 20s and 40s when carrying out the abuse.