GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. Brian Stanley, Sinn Féin’s long-serving Laois-Offaly TD, made a shock announcement last night and declared he he was leaving the party.
Stanley, who is also chairman of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee, said he’s departing after a “seriously flawed” internal investigation in the party.
3. As Florida continues to deal with the damage caused by Hurricane Milton, the US government’s response has become a divisive political issue.
The Journal has been examining how some political figures have been exploiting the death and destruction left by Milton and Hurricane Helene.
Republicans and conspiracy theorists alike have spread a deluge of misinformation about how the federal government has responded to both events, and even the origin of the storms.
3. Staying in the US, our Political Editor Christina Finn was in Washington this week covering Simon Harris’s meeting with Biden.
As she reports this morning, the cost-of-living is likely to be the number one issue in the upcoming elections on both sides of the Atlantic.
4. Former Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell has said she’s decided to run as an independent in Dublin Bay South in the upcoming election, the Sunday Independent has reported today.
Speaking to the paper, O’Connell said that she was angered by the “wastage” of public money as featured in recent controversies.
“I want to win a seat and I believe looking at the lie of the land the best way to do that — and to be true to my values and my principles, the value and principles that I hold dear — is to run Independent.”
5. A working group of health experts led by the Medical Council has told the government it should consider reclassifying a widely precribed – and misused – anti-anxiety and pain relief medicine as a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
It comes after pregabalin caused 83 drug deaths in 2021.
6. A largescale crowd turned out in Shannon yesterday to protest against the use of Shannon Airport by the US military.
There has been a renewed focus on the use of the airport by US military planes in the last year due to the conflict in Gaza and the United States’ support of Israel.
7. Alex Salmond, the former First Minister of Scotland, has died aged 69.
Salmond took ill while in North Macedonia to deliver a speech yesterday.
He was a prominent figure in the Scottish nationalist movement, with his second term as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) seeing him use his mandate to hold an unsuccessful referendum on the country’s independence in 2014.
8. Our native natural forest area is highly fragmented and makes up less than 1% of Ireland’s land area. Forest owner Dermot McNally asks why we aren’t planting more?
9. There’s a Status Yellow rain warning in effect for Cork and Waterford this evening.
Sunday morning will be largely dry across the country, according to Met Éireann, with rain developing in the west around midday.
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