LAST UPDATE | 13 Jul 2022

GOOD MORNING.

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

Planning permission

1. In our lead story this morning, Cormac Fitzgerald for Noteworthy explains how “deeply controversial” planning law changes could lead to “years of litigation”.

The government has been criticised for adding last-minute amendments to a proposed law due to be voted on today.

The proposed legislation is primarily to do with a form of retroactive planning permission that unauthorised developments found to be in breach of EU law can apply for.

However, new amendments put forward by the government would expand it to cover a wider range of issues, including new regulations for short-term lets and changes to the judicial review process.

Confidence

2. The government won a confidence motion in the Dáil last night, securing 85 votes against 66.

After tense debate, the three government parties emerged victorious in a confidence motion that was originally tabled as a vote of no-confidence by Sinn Féin.

Child poverty

3. Children and young people are falling into poverty at a rate higher than the general population, according to the Children’s Rights Allliance.

Tanya Ward, the charity’s CEO, said that “issues for children and young people are indeed starting to worsen– growing waiting lists for key health services and mental health supports; barriers to access education; increased need for social housing”.

She said that thousands of children are going without basic essentials and that families are borrowing money to be able to afford to send their children to school.

Uvalde shooting

4. New footage of the police response to the Uvalde school shooting shows police officers waiting in a hallway while the gunman fired on children and teachers.

The video, which is 80 minutes long and taken from suveillance footage, shows police in body armour and some with rifles and bulletproof shields.

They massed in the hallway and waited more than an hour before going further inside.

Tory leader

5. The first round of balloting in the race to be the UK Conservative party’s next leader is taking place today.

Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Jeremy Hunt, Nadhim Zahawi and Suella Braverman will be on the ballot today after security the necessary 20 nominations from MPs.

Several other early contenders have dropped out – former Health Secretary Sajid Javid appeared to fail to attract enough support; Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was abandoning his bid and would be supporting Sunak; and backbencher Rehman Chishti said he failed to get enough nominations.

Twitter

6. Twitter has sued Elon Musk to try to compel him to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.

On Friday, the billionaire said he was stepping back from his agreement to buy the company, sparking backlash from Twitter.

Its lawsuit accuses that “Musk refuses to honour his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests”.

Sri Lanka

7. Crisis-hit Sri Lanka has declared a nationwide state of emergency hours after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country.

The president flew out of his country to the Maldives early today on a military aircraft ahead of his likely resignation and driven to an undisclosed location.

The country is in turmoil with high foreign debt and scarce supplies of petrol, leading protesters to storm the presidential palace at the weekend and demand Rajapaksa’s resignation.

Ukraine

8. The US and EU have separately announced a total of nearly $3 billion in aid for Ukraine as the battle continues for control of the east of the country.

EU member states approved €1 billion in financial help for Kyiv, describing it as the first instalment of a promised €9 billion rescue package agreed in May.

Meanwhile, the US announced $1.7 billion to help fund recovery.

Heatwave

9. In Britain, the public is being warned of disruption due to dangerously high temperatures. 

As a heatwave continues, temperatures could break a record of 38.7 degrees Celsius.

An amber extreme heat warning that is in place over much of England and Wales says there could be a danger to life or potential serious illness.