LAST UPDATE | 28 Feb 2022
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. Fighting in Ukraine is into its fifth day, with the UN’s nuclear watchdog reporting that missiles have hit a radioactive waste disposal site in the country’s capital Kyiv.
Talks between Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to take place at the former’s border with Belarus later today.
You can follow the latest updates on our liveblog here.
2. Meanwhile, the UN’s two major bodies – the 193-nation General Assembly and the more powerful 15-member Security Council – are to hold separate meetings about the conflict later today.
The Security Council voted last night to hold its first emergency session of the General Assembly in decades, despite Russia’s opposition and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining.
3. The Russian rouble has plunged to an all-time low following the announcement by the EU yesterday of new sanctions against Russia.
The EU took the unprecedented of funding arms supplies to Ukraine to help it defend itself, closed its airspace to Russian planes – including private jets owned by oligarchs – and banned Russian media sites RT and Sputnik, while sanctions were also issued against Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
You can read full details of that announcement here.
4. Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said that Ireland will not be purchasing lethal weapons as part of a €500 million package of military support to Ukraine from the EU.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Coveney said the military package agreed by the EU yesterday was formulated under the European Peace Facility mechanism, which allows for lethal weapons to be supplied by the EU to prevent conflict.
He explained that it contained provisions for countries like Ireland that are uncomfortable with being able to supply lethal arms to other countries, which instead allow them to supply non-lethal military aid.
5. A major new climate report due out today will outline the most up-to-date evidence of the ways in which climate change is impacting the planet and peoples’ lives.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report will examine the limits beyond which certain climate impacts are irreversible and how adaptation can reduce climate-related risks.
Full details will be released at 11am.
6. The Government will lift the vast majority of Covid-19 restrictions from today, a move hailed as a “milestone” for the country.
It was decided last week, following advice from health officials, that there will be no legal requirement to wear a mask in any setting from today onwards.
The requirement for pods, staggered breaks, masks and physical distancing in schools will also end today.
7. A new Government report has highlighted data on the well-being of children in Ireland, including housing needs and those at risk of poverty.
The State of the Nation’s Children (SONC) Report for 2021 says that the number of households with children identified as being in need of social housing decreased by 46.7% between 2016 and 2020.
However the number remains high, with 24,646 households with children on the list in 2020.
8. The Government has approved the publication of the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill, which would provide standards for and the regulation of reproductive healthcare and fertility technologies in Ireland.
The decision paves the way for the bill to be presented to the Dáil for scrutiny by TDs.
The legislation encompasses the regulation of a wide-ranging and technology-centred area of healthcare for the very first time, which is predominantly provided for here by the private sector.
9. It will be a generally dry morning with some scattered showers and sunny spells following, but rain and drizzle will spread across much of Leinster and east Munster during the morning. Highest temperatures today will be 7 to 10 degrees Celsius.
Tonight will be cold and dry, with frost and icy patches expected to develop as temperatures fall to between -2 and +1 degrees.
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