GOOD MORNING.

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

US and UK strikes on Yemen

1. The US and UK have carried out strikes on 36 Houthi targets in Yemen across more than a dozen locations associated with weapons storage and missile launchers.

Israel’s violence in Gaza has sparked further conflict elsewhere in the Middle East, including in the Red Sea, where the Iran-backed Houthi militants have been attacking ships.

The US and UK joined up for a coordinated assault on the Houthis for the third time last night. The strikes hit 36 Houthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen.

Restaurant closures

2. Restaurant owners have appealed for government support and warned that without it, Ireland will see a tidal wave of closures across the country.

Owners of restaurants and cafes have said the pressures facing them are like never before and many have said they are fearful for the future.

Low margins, rising costs and the housing crisis are all contributing to the perfect storm that makes doing business increasingly challenging, they say.

Northern Ireland

3. New ministers were appointed to the Northern Ireland Assembly as it returned to business yesterday after nearly two years out of Stormont due to the DUP’s backlash against post-Brexit trading arrangements.

After leading Sinn Féin in the 2022 election, where it took the most seats for the first time, Michelle O’Neill made history by becoming Stormont’s first nationalist First Minister.

Air ambulance bases

4. The state is set to regularise the deployment of specialist paramedics to the country’s two air ambulance bases. A recruitment campaign is underway within the Health Service Executive to appoint medics to be permanently deployed to bases. 

Ireland has two helicopter bourne emergency air ambulances – one an Air Corps operated aircraft based at Custume Barracks in Athlone and the other is located at Rathcool in North Cork.

Gaza

5. President Michael D. Higgins decried Israel’s strikes in southern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled from further north, calling the prospect of more violence a ‘moment of global crisis’.

The president received an update on Friday night in a phone call from Dr Mike Ryan of the World Health Organisation, who detailed the dire situation in Gaza as the recorded death toll since October passes 27,000.

Israel initially focused its attacks on Gaza in northern areas, telling civilians to evacuate towards the south, but has turned to bombing southern cities like Khan Younis and Rafah, killing refugees who had fled from the north.

President Higgins has said that any further strikes on areas densely populated with refugees would “leave any respect for humanitarian law in tatters”.

Transport training centre

6. A training centre purported by the government to “help make transport accessible for everyone” ending up costing €1.5 million more in public funds than its initial grant allocation of €2 million.

Disabled persons’ organisations have raised multiple concerns about the development of the Wayfinding Centre which “simulates real-world public transport scenarios” since it was first mooted.

Social media

7. The mother of Brianna Ghey, the 16-year-old who was murdered by two teenagers known to her last year, has called for young people to be prevented from downloading many social media apps.

Esther Ghey is campaigning for under-16s to be limited to smartphones with built-in restrictions and for any searches for inappropriate material to be automatically flagged to parents.

Man died in prison custody

8.  A man with a health condition collapsed in a court holding cell and later died minutes after asking a prison officer for his medication which had been stored in a locker, according to a new report.

The report from the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP) examines the circumstances surrounding the death of a 42-year-old man while he was in the temporary custody of the Irish Prison Service at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on 8 December 2021.

Brussels and big pharma

9. MEPs in government coalition parties have taken opposing sides in a row between Brussels and big pharma over plans to cut the price of medicines by reducing patent protection on new drugs, boosting access to cheaper generic medicines.

Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher says the plan will hit investment in research and development (R&D) – and Ireland’s multi-billion euro tax take from the pharmaceutical sector – and he hopes the state will oppose it. He has signed amendments that would reverse the European Commission’s proposal.

However, Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan is backing Brussels, telling The Journal that ”to oppose this proposal is to prioritise pharmaceutical company profits over the affordability of medicines for sick people”.