LAST UPDATE | 16 Nov 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. In our main story this morning, Mairead Maguire reports that families of residents at Cherry Orchard Hospital in Ballyfermot who are to be moved temporarily to a private residential home have described the situation as a “nightmare”.
In May, health watchdog HIQA inspected two units at the hospital and identified problems with the flooring, posing a potential health and safety risk. The HSE has decided to temporarily move 67 residents who live in the units to a private nursing home in Clondalkin.
Campaign group Care Champions Ireland this week published an open letter in which families of the residents accused the HSE of choosing low-cost solutions at the expense of patients.
2. Israeli troops remain in Gaza’s largest hospital today, targeting what it said was a Hamas command centre nestled among patients, medics and the displaced.
“Tonight we conducted a targeted operation into Shifa hospital,” said Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israeli military operations in Gaza. “We continue to move forward.”
Gaza’s health ministry said today that Israeli bulldozers had “destroyed parts of the southern entrance” of the hospital.
3. US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to restore military communications at their first summit in a year yesterday, even as Biden went off script by saying he still considered Xi a “dictator.”
The leaders shook hands and strolled in a garden at a historic California estate during four-hour talks aimed at preventing growing tensions between the world’s largest economies from spiraling into conflict.
Despite agreeing that China would crack down on the production of ingredients for the drug fentanyl, Xi and Biden remained far apart on the wider flashpoint of Taiwan, with the Chinese president telling his US counterpart to stop arming the island.
4. The Government has defeated a motion in the Dáil seeking to expel the Israeli ambassador and impose economic sanctions on Israel.
The Social Democrats brought a motion to the Dáil yesterday evening calling for the Government to bring economic sanctions against Israel, refer it to the International Criminal Court for investigation of alleged war crimes, and to withdraw the Israeli ambassador’s diplomatic status in Ireland.
However, Government TDs voted to replace the Social Democrats’ motion with one reasserting that the government will maintain diplomatic relations with the Israeli ambassador and “pursue all possible avenues at the EU and the UN to build an international alliance for peace”.
5. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will seek to revive his plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda with emergency legislation, after the Supreme Court ruled the landmark plan unlawful in a major blow to the UK government.
Ministers sought to play down the scale of the court defeat, as the British Prime Minister pledged that he would “not allow a foreign court to block these flights” amid pressure from the Tory right to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
6. A search of a Co Monaghan site for the remains of one of the “Disappeared” has come to a “disappointing” end after the search team were unsuccessful in their search.
Columba McVeigh, 19, from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone, was last seen in November 1975. Columba was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA.
7. Champions Limerick lead the way with seven players represented on the 2023 PwC GAA-GPA All-Star hurling team.
Beaten finalists Kilkenny have five players on the side, while there are two Clare players and one from Galway to complete the set of hurlers honoured this year.
8. SpaceX is aiming for another test flight of its mega rocket tomorrow after getting final approval from federal regulators in the US.
The first launch of Starship ended in an explosion minutes after lifting off from south Texas in April.
9. A Belgium-bound cargo plane was forced to return to New York after a horse bolted from its holding pen in mid-air, US media reported.
The horse got loose within half an hour of the flight’s takeoff last Thursday evening, when the plane was flying at about 31,000 feet, according to ABC News, which cited an air traffic control recording.
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