GOOD MORNING.

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

Energy prices

1. Inflation is rising with energy prices among the most stark increases customers are facing. The cost of fuel and its knock-on effects are being felt across Europe and there are worries about what the problem mean as winter approaches. 

The big problem is there really isn’t a single, underlying issue to blame for the phenomenon as Ian Curran writes in this morning’s lead story. 

Road crash

2. A man has died in a crash involving a number of vehicles on the M7 motorway.  

Child vaccination 

3. Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he has “no issue” with children over 5 getting a Covid-19 vaccine, but said “at some point” we will have to ask if vaccine resources can be deployed to those more in need.

Pfizer and Biontech have said trial results show their Covid-19 vaccine is safe and produced an immune response in children aged five to 11.

New era in Germany

4. Germans go to the polls today in one of the most unpredictable elections in its recent history, with Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats in a tight race for her crown as she prepares to leave the political stage.

Merkel has been chancellor for 16 years but Armin Laschet, the man who now leads her CDU party, is struggling to replicate her appeal. 

Montana train crash

5. At least three people have died after a US Amtrak train operating from Chicago to Seattle derailed in north-central Montana.

The train derailed at about 4pm local time yesterday near Joplin, a town of about 200 people and 50 km from the border with Canada. 

Sabina Nessa murder 

6.  Detectives in the UK investigating the murder of school teacher Sabina Nessa in south-east London have arrested a 38-year-old man in East Sussex.

The Metropolitan Police said the suspect had been detained at around 3am this morning and is being held in police custody.

Foreign health workers

7. Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has announced changes to the application process for postgraduate medical training programmes that will make it easier for non-EU citizens to apply. 

The change will provide greater career opportunities for non-EU/EEA doctors who contributed significantly to Ireland’s health service. Up to now, a HSE and Department of Health policy of self-sufficiency meant that EU/EEA citizens were given preference for post-graduate medical training. 

Middle-East

8. An Israeli operation to dismantle a Hamas Islamist cell in the West Bank sparked fierce gun battles at multiple locations, killing four Palestinians, Israel’s army and Palestinian official sources said.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed a total of four deaths from Israeli gunfire, including one in Burqin near Jenin and three more in Bedu near Jerusalem.

Irish at the Ryder Cup

9. Europe faces a mammoth task to come from 11-5 down on the final day of golf’s Ryder Cup, despite a vital point secured by Ireland’s Shane Lowry. 

Lowry and his English partner Tyrell Hatton never trailed in their match but had to battle to the bitter end, Lowry sinking a 10-foot par putt to tie the 18th hole and beat Americans Tony Finau and Harris English.