LAST UPDATE | 14 Nov 2023

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

Gaza

1. The World Health Organisation has described Gaza’s largest hospital as being “nearly a cemetery”.

After days of heavy air strikes around Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, witnesses said tanks and armoured vehicles were metres from the gate of the besieged facility, which has become a focal point of the five-week-old war.

With tanks massed at the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital, US President Joe Biden pressed Israeli allies to protect civilians, who have been trapped inside with dwindling supplies of fuel and water.

RTÉ

2. RTÉ staff will meet with management today where they will be briefed about plans to cut around 400 jobs at the national broadcaster.

The “strategic vision” cost-saving plan, which is due to be published today, sets out the cost of voluntary redundancy scheme at an estimated €40 million.

The plan also intends to further reduce operating costs by around €10 million next year.

Storm Debi

3. Around 12,000 homes and businesses are still without power this morning after Storm Debi battered the country yesterday.

The ESB yesterday said storm force winds associated with Storm Debi “caused damage to the electricity network overnight, predominantly in western, midwest and midlands counties”. 

Status Red and Orange warnings were issued for many counties early yesterday but they expired by the afternoon.  

Home loans

4. Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien is set to seek Cabinet approval to extend the Local Authority Home Loan to people who wish to purchase and renovate derelict properties.

The Local Authority Home Loan was launched in January 2022 as part of Housing for All with the aim of supporting borrowers who are unable to get sufficient finance from commercial banks to buy or build a home.

Currently, the loans are only available on self-build homes, new or second-hand properties that are habitable.

Environment

5. A new report has set out a series of failures and under-performing environmental monitoring by local authorities.

The document, published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), examines how councils have been regulating water, air and noise quality, along with waste management.

It has found that a number of councils are not adequately resourcing their inspection teams and are “not delivering” improved water and air quality, with many key environmental indicators are “static or trending in the wrong direction”.

Rental scams

6. A survey of international students in Ireland has found that 13% of the cohort have been the victim of an accommodation scam.

Research by the Irish Council of International Students (ICOS) also found that five percent of the students they surveyed have been offered a room to stay in return for sex or have seen an advert including the offer.

Executive Director of ICOS Laura Harmon says the results of this research has put the country’s reputation abroad at risk.

Mediterranean

7. Migrants arriving on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Samos have reported suffering violence and being sent back to sea, according to a report from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

According to MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, the majority of patients its staff interviewed on the islands made multiple crossing attempts prior to their ultimate arrival. The report details accounts of “pushbacks” from land and sea shared by migrants.

Trapped workers

8. Rescuers are working around the clock to remove debris and extract 40 workers who have been trapped for more than two days after a tunnel under construction collapsed in northern India.

Officials hope to extricate the workers in the next 24 hours, with about 200 rescuers from federal and state disaster relief agencies using drilling equipment and excavators to reach them.

A 0.76m steel pipe will be pushed through an opening of excavated debris with the aid of hydraulic jacks to safely pull out the stranded workers, authorities said.

Iceland

9. Residents forced from an Icelandic town damaged by hundreds of earthquakes in recent days have been able to briefly return to retrieve their belongings, authorities have said.

The southwestern town of Grindavik – home to around 4,000 people – was evacuated in the early hours of Saturday after magma shifting under the Earth’s crust caused hundreds of earthquakes in what experts warned could be a precursor to a volcanic eruption.

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