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LAST UPDATE | 29 Sep 2023
GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
Housing
1. Housing prices the third quarter of 2023 were 1.1% higher than a year ago, according to the latest Daft.ie House Price Report released today.
This comes after the second quarter of the year marked the first time since mid-2020 that asking prices had fallen in year-on-year terms.
The typical listed price nationwide in the third quarter of 2023 was €322,602, up 3.7% on the previous year and roughly 13% below the Celtic Tiger peak.
Spinal surgeries
2. The chief executive of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) has “stepped back” from the serious incident review into the use of non-medical grade ‘springs’ in children’s spinal surgeries, after she learned “last month” of a letter purportedly sent to her in 2020 flagging concerns about the practice.
She said that the CHI deputy CEO has now taken over work in relation to the review, as the letter that was allegedly sent to her is now under investigation.
The deputy CEO did not attend today’s Oireachtas Health Committee meeting, and her absence was questioned by TDs.
Dáil protest
3. Social media posts featuring a mock gallows and which targeted politicians in the wake of last week’s Dáil protest remain online despite a Garda investigation into intimidation of TDs at the far-right demonstration.
The Journal analysed social media pages across multiple platforms which belong to prominent far-right figures who attended last week’s protest, and found multiple posts taking aim at politicians or featuring the controversial imitation gallows.
Meta and YouTube have both allowed content on such accounts to remain after reviewing posts and deciding they didn’t break moderation guidelines. TikTok has removed posts and taken down at least two accounts.
Mediterranean crossings
4. More than 2,500 migrants died or went missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far in 2023, a UN High Commissioner for Refugees official has said.
“By September 24, over 2,500 people were accounted as dead or missing in 2023 alone,” Ruven Menikdiwela, director of the UNHCR New York office, told the Security Council.
That number marks a large increase over the 1,680 dead or missing migrants in the same period in 2022.
Gardaí
5. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said an appeals board did not uphold his recommendations to dismiss gardaí who he claimed had misused their power to coercively pursue sexual relationships.
He said there are a number of people who have been returned to service that he has concern about remaining as members of An Garda Síochána.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Policing Authority, he said: “These matters are around gross misconduct and they relate to the misuse of their position primarily, therefore, to pursue sexual relationships which I would have viewed as coercive but did not cross the criminal threshold.”
Extinction Rebellion
6. Two Extinction Rebellion activists, who locked themselves to the gates of Leinster House preventing politicians from driving out to highlight the climate crisis, have been spared jail.
Dublin District Court heard Rónán Ó Dálaigh and Art Ó Laoghaire’s “lock on, lock off” action saw them attached to the Dáil gates with bicycle locks around their necks on the night of 10 October, 2019.
They argued that they used “non-violent direct action” because of Government inaction.
Netherlands
7. A gunman dressed in combat gear and wearing a bulletproof vest went on a shooting rampage at a house and a hospital in Rotterdam today, killing a 14-year-old girl, her mother, and a teacher.
Dutch police said they were still investigating the motive for the twin attacks by the 32-year-old man, who also set fire to the hospital and the house.
The man first burst into a house in the Dutch port city and opened fire, killing a 39-year-old woman and seriously injuring her 14-year-old daughter, police chief Fred Westerbeke told reporters. The girl later died of her injuries.
US democracy
8. US President Joe Biden launched a blistering personal attack on “extremist” Donald Trump yesterday, accusing his likely 2024 challenger of plotting to subvert the US constitution if he wins a return to power next year.
The Democrat said in a speech in the battleground state of Arizona that Republican frontrunner Trump was driven by “vengeance and vindictiveness”, and he urged Americans to stand up for democracy before it was too late.
The speech came as House Republicans launched impeachment inquiry hearings into the 80-year-old president, based on unproven allegations that he lied about his son Hunter’s business dealings.
Fukushima
9. Japan will begin releasing a second batch of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant from next week.
On 24 August, Japan began discharging into the Pacific some of the 1.34 million tonnes of wastewater that has collected since a tsunami damaged the facility in 2011.
“The inspections following the first release have been completed… The (second) discharge will start on 5 October,” TEPCO said yesterday.
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How many girls watched ‘The Little Mermaid’ and grew up wanting to be half fish half human.
I’m a merman.
My entire junior infants class wanted to be mermaids after that movie came out so that argument doesn’t really hold lol.
In fairness I’m actually currently undergoing surgery to make myself look more like a ninja turtle.
Some women smell like half fish. Does that count?
I don’t think any kind of beauty should exist any more. It just makes other people feel bad
You should drop in here more often stephen…
A consumer society cannot exist unless people feel miserable and that is from the man who constructed and invented the consumer society; Edward Bernays.
Yeah before this chap came along nobody desired material wealth
Ah, let it go, will ya.
Next they’ll say that Mickey Mouse is a poor role model for mice because he wears shorts.
Donald where’s your trousers?
Females (Young and old) are clever enough to figure out that a 2d kids character is not actually real, give us some credit!. Sick of this PC crap.
I must have been a stupid kid then. I wanted a waist like a Disney princess when I was younger.
But you knew they weren’t real at some point right?
But the Kim Kardashian ppl are making it really for young girls…forget Disney…Have you seen the Kylie lip challenge?
Real*
I knew they were drawings by they still had that feminine curviness that I really wanted. And when they all look like that you start to think that’s how girls should look. It’s weird though that people think this way of figures represented in the media rather than everyday people in real life.
Why is there never any concern for the ‘unrealistic ideals’ the likes of Action-Man or He-man set for young boys? I don’t believe in any of it to be honest, but it’s almost as if girls are expected to not be able to make that distinction between fantasy and reality, bit sexist in itself.
Nobody praises He-Man for his looks though O_o
Trust me, women do not find He-Man attractive. =P
Really? I thought the tiny pants and furry boots look was a good one!
Journal, too cheap to pay for a picture of Elsa?
They couldn’t take the risk in case any little girls are reading the article
Hilarious!
For goodness sake, what next??, of course dolls are pretty, they’re supposed to be, what little girl wants to play with an ugly doll??, dolls have been with us for centuries, every little girl remembers her favourite doll, not because it was pretty but because she got hours of enjoyment out of it, this is all that is wrong in our world, analysing and over analysing our children!, ever heard the term doll face??, , it frightens me all this gender neutral business, let little girls be little girls and little boys be little boys, the natural order of things, there would be a lot less wrong in our world if we could go back to basics and to a time where children were allowed to be children and plain speaking and a no nonsense attitude were the order of the day!
Hear hear kate.
Kate- very well said.
He is entirely correct. How many women do you know that can shoot ice or build an ice palace from nothing? Completely unattainable!
Disney and realism aren’t compatible. Take the real story about the extremely young native American Indian girl getting carted off by some fat old fella, that became something completely different in Pocahontas.
I’ve never seen Frozen, I know the song but not the movie. I feel like I’ve let everyone down.
Teddington , do you feel left out now ? You should watch it over the weekend . great movie !
Reality is often quite far from expectation. Teach them that and don’t fret so much.
I know several women that fit into the size zero category naturally.They’re sick and tired of articles telling them they’re unhealthy and unnatural.They eat well and exercise regularly.One was bullied throughout her school days and nicknamed the sardine can because of her of her physique developing an eating disorder where she’d periodically stuff her self with food to the point of being hospitalized for a near ruptured stomach.The point being that this unhealthy obsession with others appearance can cut both ways. Just teach kids to be healthy and happy and stop the bloody moaning if you yourself can’t be arsed to be the same.
If people really learned not to depend on unattainable looks for their self-esteem, the guy would be out of a job or removing warts and scars for a living.
I thought I was Steve Mcgarrott, when I wore a pair of checkered trousers, watch the original Hawaii five O, and you’ll see I’m not such a weirdo.
What’s even worse is the real life girls on Facebook who photo enhancing apps to make their eyes bigger, whiter in the whites than they really are, their wastes smaller, their lips bigger, their baps bigger…..the list goes on. Thousands of people are living lies every day. I think it starts with not telling your little girl she is a beautiful little princess every day or else she will grow up thinking her sole purpose is to be beautiful, make her see she has other qualities and while being pretty, while it can be nice or fun, is not a trait worth her entire self esteem.
Yup. Definitely want to minimise those ‘wastes’ alright!
Sorry Michael, yes, waists of course. Glad to see you got so much out of that, jog on.
She’s a cartoon, you morons – of course it’s unattainable.
The film is not a true story so why would it based on real looks Disney deal in fantasy not reality
More bollocks!
Headline should read: “Plastic Surgeon Keeps it Real”, with sub head, “#Isn’t it ironic”.
The only realistic looking Disney female I’ve ever seen was in Lilo and Stitch. Nani was a reasonable body shape. And she is the most beautiful female Disney has ever produced, in my opinion.
unless we start having Disney films all look like lilo and stitch, we won’t get realistic looking women. And having only one style of drawing in films will not be interesting at all. Do they want Disney to stick with animals, monsters and cars as their main stories so they are PC enough?
You’re kidding right? A cartoon is bad for little girls while the models and actresses aren’t? Her eyes are unrealistically too big, yes, but because she’s an ANIMATION! And little girls are smart enough to realise that as they also know that most girls don’t look like the emotions from Inside Out.
Whats the betting that if it were possible to alter the female appearance to mimic this cartoon character then the plastic surgeon wouldn’t have an issue with it.
I really don’t think anybody who’s job it is to carry out a lot of unnecessary cosmetic surgery is really in a position to say what or who can be considered a good role model.
Dying to see how Tom Burke swings this one to be about abortion.
I had a thing for Wilma Flintstone, when I was a young fella.
He’s quite right. I for one am disappointed plastic surfpgery can’t make me absorbent, yellow and porous, or allow me to live in a pineapple under the sea. Cartoons LIE!!!
Another RTE transcript…
I can see where he was coming from… I saw The Incredibles when I was younger, very pissed that I wasn’t going to attain superpowers
……………”that’s nice” ………
Irish plastic surgeon says Frozen’s Elsa is not a good role model for little girls…
Tron might be better then lol.
have your say