LAST UPDATE | 10 Jan 2022

GOOD MORNING.

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

Unproven ‘miracle cure’

1. In our main story this morning, Garreth MacNamee reports that the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) is investigating the use of a so-called “miracle cure” for cancer.

Quantities of the drug are suspected to have been brought into the country recently, including by people suffering with cancer who are pinning hopes of a cure on it. 

Several videos, seen by this publication, show Irish people displaying vials which are claimed to contain GcMAF, and preparing the drug for injection. 

GcMAF is a blood product that is often sold online as a treatment for a range of conditions, including cancer. However, there is no scientific basis to support these medicinal claims.

Australia court battle

2. World tennis number one Novak Djokovic won a shock victory in his bid to remain in Australia today, overturning the cancellation of the tennis star’s visa on Covid-19 health grounds and ending his detention.

It was an extraordinary setback for the Australian government, which has imposed strict pandemic requirements on arriving foreign travellers for the past two years.

But the Australian government’s lawyer told the court that Immigration Minister Alex Hawke may still decide to use his “personal power of cancellation” despite the player’s victory.

NPHET

3. The National Public Health Emergency Team is set to discuss the possibility of introducing mandatory vaccination.

The issue is to be discussed after the Department of Health prepares a legal and ethical paper.

New York City

4. 19 people, including nine children, have been killed in an apartment fire in New York City, in what the city’s fire commissioner called one of the worst blazes in recent memory.

Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the fire “started in a malfunctioning electric space heater” in an apartment unit spanning the second and third floors of the 19-story building.

The door of the apartment was left open, allowing smoke to quickly spread throughout the building, Nigro said.

Ukraine

5. A top Russian diplomat predicted “difficult” talks with the US after attending a dinner with US officials in Geneva yesterday as part of the kick-off to a string of meetings this week.

Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, and other Russian officials met with US deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, the head of the US delegation, and her team.

The dinner was a prelude to a broader discussion between the two teams at the US mission in Geneva starting today – culminating a string of meetings among US officials, their Western allies and Russian leaders in recent days and weeks as tensions over Russian pressure against Ukraine have grown.

Kazakhstan

6. More than 160 people were reported to have died in several days of unrest in Kazakhstan and almost 6,000 have been arrested after violent riots in Central Asia’s largest country.

The nation has been rocked by a week of upheaval with dozens killed.

A government-run information portal yesterday said that 164 people were killed in the riots, including 103 in the largest city Almaty, which saw some of the fiercest clashes between protesters and security forces.

Poverty 

7. New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that households in receipt of housing subsidies were two-and-a-half times more ‘at risk of poverty’ after they had paid their rent in 2020.

According to a new report, the poverty rate among households in receipt of housing subsidies, such as the Housing Assistance Payment and Rental Accommodation Scheme, was 22.7% before they made any rent payments.

RIP

8. US comedian Bob Saget, known for starring in sitcoms including Full House, has died at the age of 65.

Saget was pronounced dead at a hotel room in Orlando, Florida.

Crash

9. A man was seriously injured in a single-vehicle collision in Dalkey on Saturday night. 

Gardaí are investigating the incident, which took place on the Vico Road in Dalkey, Co Dublin. During the collision, a car collided with a pole on the roadside.