LAST UPDATE | 7 Feb 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. The death toll has surged past 4,000 as rescuers in Turkey and Syria worked overnight to find more survivors of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the region.
Seismic activity continued to rattle the region, including another jolt nearly as powerful as the initial quake, with workers carefully pulling away slabs of concrete and reaching for bodies as desperate families waited for news of loved ones.
2. The United Nations chief has warned the world could be facing a wider war as the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said experts who surveyed the state of the world in 2023 set the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight – the closest ever to “total global catastrophe”.
3. The Attorney General is due to provide a report to Cabinet today on a legal strategy in relation to people who were entitled to nursing home care provided by the State decades ago.
It comes after the Irish Mail on Sunday last month reported a whistle-blower’s claims of a secret government strategy to limit pay-outs to people on medical cards – who would have been entitled to nursing home care provided by the State – by settling cases out of court.
4. Fears have been raised over the length of delays facing people awaiting the results of tests for colon cancer.
The Irish Cancer Society said it is also concerned that the winter surge in the country’s hospitals may have piled pressure on colonoscopy waiting times.
5. The US is in the process of recovering debris from the Chinese balloon out of the Atlantic for analysis by intelligence experts and there is no plan to give the remains back to Beijing, the White House has said.
“They have recovered some remnants off the surface of the sea and weather conditions did not permit much undersea surveillance of the debris field,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, two days after a US fighter jet shot down the balloon, which had previously traversed the country.
Drones
6. Ryanair has called for immediate Government action after a third day of drone activity at Dublin Airport led to serious delays affecting thousands of passengers.
7. Tributes have been paid following the death of former Minister for Education Niamh Bhreathnach at the age of 77.
Bhreathnach worked as a Labour party Councillor in Blackrock, Dublin and later as a TD for Dún Laoghaire.
8. A man has been arrested and charged in relation to an alleged theft from a Hugo Boss shop on Grafton Street in the capital.
9. Sunny spells for most areas today, with patchy rain and drizzle extending slowly from the northwest, though many areas will stay fully dry. Clearer, brighter conditions will extend from the northwest later. Highs of 8 to 11 degrees in near calm conditions.
Full forecast here.
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