LAST UPDATE | 25 Oct 2023

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

Fianna Fáil MEPs

1. In our main story this morning, Muiris O’Cearbhaill reports from Brussels that Fianna Fáil MEPs believe there will be a “big shift to the right” in the results of the upcoming European elections in June 2024.

Overnight strikes on Gaza

2. Gaza’s Hamas government has said Israeli air strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory during the night killed at least 80 people.

This comes as UN refugee agency UNRWA warned it could be forced to stop aid operations in war-riven Gaza today due to dwindling fuel supplies.

After 18 days of withering Israeli air strikes and a near-total land, sea and air blockade of the Palestinian territory, UNRWA warned operations were at breaking point.

Ireland on Israel-Hamas

3. Ireland has no issue with raising the issue of the Israel-Palestine conflict with the US, according to Tánaiste and Minister of Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin. 

Speaking to reporters on the fringes of the Global Ireland Summit at Dublin Castle yesterday, Martin said Ireland has always engaged with the US on the Middle East. 

When asked if Ireland would use the close relationship it has with the White House to put forward the Irish position for a ceasefire, Martin said the “US is urging restraint on Israel right now”.

Ukrainian refugees

4. Government is revisiting the idea of limiting social welfare supports for Ukrainian refugees, The Journal understands. 

An overhaul of the whole Ukraine refugee response is on the cards, with significant changes due to be made in areas such social protection, education and housing, political editor Christina Finn reports. 

Storm Babet

5. Further funding of €3 million has been announced for people affected by Storm Babet.

The Humanitarian Assistance Scheme will provide flood relief for small businesses, as well as sporting and voluntary organisations, that were affected by the storm.

HAP housing

6. Just 27 properties were available to rent within the discretionary rate of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) sceme in September, according to a new report by the Simon Communities of Ireland. 

The latest Locked Out of the Market report was published this morning. 

The figure of 27 is the lowest number of HAP properties recorded by the Locked Out of the Market series. 

Michael Cohen

7. Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen has told the former president’s civil fraud trial that he worked to boost asset values to “whatever number Trump told us to”.

Five years after turning on a boss who he once pledged to “take a bullet” for, Cohen is a key witness in New York attorney general Letitia James’s lawsuit alleging that Trump and his company duped banks, insurers and others by giving them financial statements that inflated his wealth.

US House speaker

8. Republicans chose Mike Johnson as their latest nominee for House speaker last night, hours after an earlier pick, Tom Emmer, abruptly withdrew in the face of opposition from Donald Trump and hardline Republicans.

Johnson of Louisiana, a lower-ranked member of the House Republican leadership team, becomes the fourth nominee after Emmer and the others fell short in what has become an almost absurd cycle of political infighting since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as party factions jockey for power.

Hurricane Otis

9. Hurricane Otis has intensified to a potentially “catastrophic” Category 5 storm as it barreled towards Mexico’s Pacific beach resort of Acapulco, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has said.

Maximum sustained winds increased to near 260km/h, according to the NHC, which put Otis in the most powerful category of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.