LAST UPDATE | 20 Mar 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Delays to autism services

1. There are more than 700 vacancies across the 91 HSE teams responsible for providing autism services, a new Noteworthy investigation has found.

Parents and guardians have described financial pressure as they turn to the private system while facing long waits for State services. 

According to Adam Harris, the CEO of AsIAm, Ireland’s national autism charity, waiting extensive periods of time to access assessment is “a systemic problem encountered by just about any family that is going through the system”.

Climate crisis

2. A major international climate report pulling together years of science about the crisis to inform policymakers will emphasise that there is no room for ‘inaction and delays’.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – a United Nations body that publishes reports written by hundreds of scientists – is set to release today what is perhaps its most important publication in nearly a decade.

How are rising temperatures affecting the earth’s climate system, and how will it be affected in the future? What are the impacts for humans, animals and nature? Who will be hit the worst – and crucially, what can we do to stop it?

These are among the questions that the research, which will be thousands and thousands of pages long, will seek to address in the IPPC’s synthesis report of its sixth assessment cycle (AR6).

John Caldwell shooting

3. A man who was arrested in connection with a claim of responsibility by the New IRA for the shooting of senior PSNI detective John Caldwell has been released from police custody.

A PSNI spokesperson said: “A 23-year-old man arrested in connection with the claim of responsibility made following the attempted murder of Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell has been released following questioning. The investigation continues.”

The man had been detained in Derry the previous day.

Credit Suisse

4. Swiss investment bank UBS has agreed to buy Credit Suisse for more than $2 billion in a government backed deal which would combine Switzerland’s two largest banks.

“With the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, a solution has been found to secure financial stability and protect the Swiss economy in this exceptional situation,” said a statement from the Swiss National Bank, which pledged a loan of up to 100 billion Swiss francs (€101 billion) to support the combination.

Confidence in Credit Suisse fell last week after it acknowledged “material weakness” in its bookkeeping and fears grew that the demise of the US’s Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank could lead to the collapse of other institutions. 

Partygate

5. Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s defence against claims he lied to the British parliament over the partygate scandal is expected to be published today as he prepares for a showdown with MPs.

The Privileges Committee is due to publish the lengthy submission from Johnson’s barrister David Philip Pannick KC before the former prime minister gives evidence on Wednesday in a session which could decide his political future.

An estimated £220,000 of taxpayers’ money has been allocated for Johnson’s legal bills.

Trump inquiry

6. Former US President Donald Trump has said he expects to be “arrested” tomorrow in connection with a grand jury inquiry into a 2016 payment to a woman to allegedly to keep her from revealing a past affair with Trump.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has not confirmed any plans for an indictment, though multiple signs – including the recent appearances before the grand jury of Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen and the porn star known as Stormy Daniels – point to a quick conclusion.

Democrats said they feared Trump’s call could provoke violence, with Nancy Pelosi, the former House of Representatives speaker, calling Trump’s announcement “reckless,” saying he was trying to “foment unrest among his supporters”.

Ukraine

7. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a surprise trip to Mariupol, his first visit to territory captured from Ukraine since the start of Moscow’s invasion.

Just hours after Putin visited Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsula’s annexation, video distributed by the Kremlin showed him landing by helicopter in Mariupol, the port city that Moscow captured after a long siege last spring.

The visit triggered an angry reaction from Ukraine, with a presidential aide blasting its “cynicism” and “lack of remorse”. 

French pensions

8. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne faces two motions of no confidence in the lower house of the country’s National Assembly today after forcing through an unpopular pension reform last week without a vote.

While her allies in President Emmanuel Macron’s camp have the largest number of MPs, they do not control an absolute majority in the chamber – meaning they could be defeated if the entire opposition unites in one of the ballots.

However, few observers believe the opposition can get the numbers to topple the government.

Dancing with the Stars

9. RTÉ 2FM Presenter Carl Mullan was crowned the winner of this year’s Dancing with the Stars last night.

The host of 2FM’s breakfast show won the dancing competition with his professional dancing partner Emily Barker.

Brooke Scullion, who represented Ireland at last year’s Eurovision, singer and actor Damian McGinty, and SoSueMe blogger and businessperson Suzanne Jackson were the other three celebrity finalists.