LAST UPDATE | 26 Oct 2021

GOOD MORNING.

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

Carbon budget 

1. Ireland’s emissions should fall by 95 million tonnes between 2021-2025 and 2026-2030, the newly proposed carbon budget outlines.

The Climate Change Advisory Council sent its proposed carbon budget to Minister Eamon Ryan yesterday after long deliberations over its recommendations.  

The budget is trying to create a map for Ireland to follow to meet the government’s target of cutting emissions in more than half by 2030. 

Ballyfermot 

2. A report by health officials recommended that the Labre Park Traveller housing scheme in the Ballyfermot area of Dublin be upgraded as a matter of urgency. 

It was just one of the conclusions of a report by the Department of Public Health on an outbreak of hepatitis A in west Dublin in December of last year.

The site – originally built in 1967 – is managed by Dublin City Council. It is severely overcrowded, with over 40 Traveller families, made up of about 180 people, living there in a mixture of houses and caravans. 

You can read the full investigation by Noteworthy and The Journal on the site this morning.

US shooting 

3. In the US, two people have been killed and four injured, including a police officer, in a shooting at a shopping mall in Boise, Idaho

Sudan 

4. Staying overseas, the UN Security Council is expected to meet in an emergency closed-door session today to address the crisis in Sudan after a general ousted the civilian government.

Rust

5. As the investigation into a shooting at a New Mexico movie set continues, it’s emerged that the assistant director who handed actor Alec Baldwin the loaded weapon had been sacked from a previous production for gun safety violations. 

Covid-19

6. Back at home, health officials will be closely monitoring the effects of Friday’s re-opening measures on Covid case numbers in the coming days. 

Meanwhile the chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has described as “striking” the fact that 20 pregnant and postpartum women have been admitted to intensive care units for Covid-19 treatment since June.

Dr Cliona Murphy, who also works at the Coombe Maternity Hospital in Dublin, said that the HSE are developing pop-up vaccine clinics at maternity hospitals this week.

New drug 

7. Staying with Covid-19 developments, EU medicines watchdog the EMA has started a review of an oral Covid medication from the US pharmaceutical firm Merck, raising hopes for an easy-to-administer treatment to reduce serious or deadly cases.

The move, which could eventually lead to authorisation on the European market, comes two weeks after Merck applied for emergency use in the US.

Life on Earth 

8. Broadcaster David Attenborough has issued a warning ahead of the UN climate summit in Glasgow that leaders must act now or “it’ll be too late” for the planet.

Wealthier western countries also have a moral responsibility, he said, to help refugees displaced by climate change. 

“We caused it – our kind of industrialisation is one of the major factors in producing this change in climate. So we have a moral responsibility.”

The outlook 

9. Good news if you like falling autumn leaves – we’re in for a windy, windy day.