LAST UPDATE | 31 Oct 2023

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

Gaza

1. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees told an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting that “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire has become a matter of life and death for millions”, accusing Israel of “collective punishment” of Palestinians.

Philippe Lazzarini warned that a further breakdown of civil order following the looting of the agency’s warehouses by Palestinians searching for food and other aid “will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the largest UN agency in Gaza to continue operating”.

Briefings to the Security Council by Lazzarini, the head of the UN children’s agency Unicef, and a senior UN humanitarian official painted a dire picture of the humanitarian situation in Gaza 23 days after Hamas’s 7 October attacks in Israel and its ongoing retaliatory military action aimed at “obliterating” the militant group, which controls Gaza.

Children’s hospital

2. Staff at the new National Children’s Hospital may be offered accommodation in soon-to-be-vacant buildings on the site of the children’s hospital in nearby Crumlin.

The long-awaited hospital is expected to open in 2025, but there are already concerns as to where employees will live due to the housing crisis in Dublin and beyond.

Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), which will run the new hospital, is already trying to find accommodation for staff.

One of the options CHI is considering is housing staff at the site of the children’s hospital in Crumlin once those buildings are vacant, The Journal has confirmed.

Flooding

3. Flooding in Wexford that brought water into some homes yesterday has not receded, while motorists in the North have been urged not to unnecessary journeys due to heavy rain.

In the city of Newry, close to the border, a number of roads are impassable due to flooding after the canal burst its banks and some businesses have been flooded.

The flooding comes ahead of further forecasted downpours later in the week when Storm Ciarán passes close to Ireland. 

Vaccines

4. The public has been encouraged to take up Covid-19 and flu vaccines ahead of the “peak” of winter’s virus season.

The seasonal vaccination programme will offer a flu vaccine in the form of a nasal spray for those aged 2-12, and an injectable flu vaccine for all other eligible groups.

A Covid-19 booster vaccine is also available for those aged 50 and over, and certain other categories including those who are immunocompromised. 

Mica blocks

5. Delegates from the European Parliament have arrived in Ireland to investigate the defective concrete blocks crisis, also known as Mica scandal.

Homeowners saw concrete blocks, that were used to build their homes and were made with a natural mineral named muscovite mica, begin to crumble. The issue hit headlines in 2021.

The presence of mica absorbs moisture, weakens the concrete and causes the homes to crack and crumble.

Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens

6. A Superior Court judge in the US will determine sentences for Molly Corbett and her father, Thomas Martens, after both entered arranged pleas in the death of Irishman Jason Corbett, Molly Corbett’s husband at the time of his death in 2015.

Martens, accused of beating Jason Corbett with a baseball bat, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Molly Corbett, accused of striking her husband with a paver, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, although Superior Court Judge David Hall said that a no contest plea is treated as a form of a guilty plea.

Donald Trump

7. Efforts to use the US Constitution’s “insurrection” clause to bar former president Donald Trump from running for the White House again has entered a new phase as a hearing begins in the first of two states’ lawsuits that could end up reaching the US Supreme Court.

A week-long hearing on one lawsuit to ban Trump from the ballot in Colorado got underway today, while on Thursday oral arguments are scheduled before the Minnesota Supreme Court on an effort to kick the Republican former president off the ballot in that state.

Matthew Perry

8. The cast of Friends have said in a joint statement that they have been left “utterly devastated” by the sudden death of their co-star Matthew Perry.

In their first public reaction since Perry’s death on Saturday, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer told People magazine: “We were more than just cast mates. We are a family.”

Ballon d’Or

9. Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d’Or for the eighth time in his career at a ceremony in Paris.

Messi, 36, succeeded France’s Karim Benzema as the winner of the prizes and was awarded for his performances last season when he inspired his country to triumph at the World Cup.