LAST UPDATE | 8 Mar

GOOD MORNING.

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

Referendums

1. Polling stations around the country opened at 7am today for voting in the two referendums.

The public today are being asked to change two constitutional amendments relating to the definition of family and the provision of care in the home.

Ballot papers for the ‘Family’ referendum will be coloured white. Ballot papers for the ‘Care’ referendum will be coloured green. If you need a quick catch up, click here.

Gaza

2. The US military is set to establish a temporary port off Gaza to bring in emergency aid, President Joe Biden announced last night in his annual State of the Union address.

Biden urged Israel to let more assistance into Gaza, though he still defended its military operation against Hamas.

“Tonight, I’m directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water medicine and temporary shelters,” Biden told the joint session of Congress.

Sexual violence

3. The number of female rape victims in Ireland is almost three times higher than the EU country average, new research by Noteworthy and the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet) has found.

Staggering statistics reveal how in 2022 alone, the average number of women reporting rape in Ireland stood at 34 per 100,000 of the female population – significantly higher than the average of almost 12 per 100,000 across the six countries with data available.

From 2012 to 2022, there has been an average of 25 female rape victims per 100,000 women in Ireland per year – the sixth highest in Europe.

Nato

4. Sweden has become the 32nd member of Nato in the shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, turning the page on two centuries of non-alignment and capping two years of torturous diplomacy.

Days after Hungary followed key holdout Turkey and became the last NATO member to sign off, Sweden ceremonially handed over accession documents to the United States, the leading force of the transatlantic alliance that promises joint security for all.

“It is a major step but, at the same time, a very natural step,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said at the State Department.

Licensing laws

5. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has cast doubt over whether reforms to late licensing laws will be in place in time to allow pubs and clubs to stay open later this summer, as previously hoped.

It had been expected that the changes, which will allow nightclubs to open until 6am and pubs to open until 12.30am, would be in place before Christmas but complications with updating the laws have significantly delayed the process.

Varadkar said he would like to see the legislation in place as soon as possible but that he does not know if it will be done by the summer.

Agent Stakeknife

6. A major report into the British Army’s top agent in the North during the Troubles is set to be published today.

The interim findings of Operation Kenova will be revealed after an investigation lasting seven years and costing approximately £40 million (€46.8m).

Kenova has probed the activities of the agent Stakeknife within the Provisional IRA.

Mahsa Amini

7. Iran is responsible for “physical violence” that led to the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 and sparked nationwide protests against the country’s ruling theocracy, a United Nations fact-finding mission has said.

The stark pronouncement came in a wide-ranging initial report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran.

It also found that Iran employed “unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force” to put down the demonstrations that erupted following Ms Amini’s death, and that Iranian security forces sexually assaulted detainees.

Passport design

8. An Irish wolfhound is set to take centre stage on a new design for Irish passports.

A drawing of the breed will feature prominently in the redesigned document after being chosen as the most popular animal in a public consultation.

The current passport book is ten years old and the International Civil Aviation Authority recommends documents undergo frequent revamps to include new security features.

Theresa May

9. Former British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that she will step down at the next UK general election, ending a 27-year career in Parliament.

May was first elected as MP for Maidenhead in 1997 and served as home secretary under then-PM and current foreign secretary David Cameron between 2010 and 2016.

She then succeeded Cameron as prime minister in the summer of 2016, following Cameron’s resignation after losing the Brexit referendum.