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JD Vance says US take over of Greenland ‘makes sense’ during scaled back visit
Verona Murphy has ‘full’ government support and opposition needs to ‘get on with it’
Garda superintendent appears in court accused of assaulting woman in Dublin city
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The 5 at 5 Five things you need to know: Gaddafi says Libyan uprising is al-Qaeda’s fault, government denies ‘three strikes’ downloading rumours, and who’s that girl in the Rubberbandits video?
Every afternoon, TheJournal.iebrings you five things you really need to know at 5 o’clock.
1. #LIBYA: Leader Muammar Gaddafi has once again spoken to the nation and refused to stand down from power – saying his role is similar to that of the Queen of England, while blaming the country’s ongoing unrest on al-Qaeda.
Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, is assembling a crisis team on the ground in Tripoli as a second attempt gets underway to evacuate some of the 70 Irish citizens from the country, following yesterday’s unsuccessful attempt to remove them from the airport.
Meanwhile, PayPal has frozen a major account set up to provide for the legal defence of the suspected source of most of WikiLeaks’ material, Bradley Manning – in a move criticised by groups rallying around the sequestered US soldier.
4. #THREE STRIKES RULE: The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation has dismissed reports that it was preparing secondary law to introduce mandatory internet filtering for Ireland’s internet service providers.
Reports yesterday suggested that a statutory instrument was being prepared to allow for the mandatory implementation of filtering, with ISPs then bound by a ‘three strikes rule’ to disconnect users who were suspected of illegal filesharing.
5. #RUBBERBANDITS: The Limerick hip-hop duo have unveiled their new video, for ‘I Wanna Fight Your Father’ – an ode to male machismo, featuring Irish actor Páraic Breathnach as the father of Blind Boy Boat Club’s new belle, Róisín.
But following the lead of Madeline Mulqueen, who became an immediate star following her appearance in the ‘Horse Outside’ video, the video may have created a new modelling superstar: We’re told ‘Róisín’ is played by someone called ‘Holly’, but we’re not entirely convinced ourselves…
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Agree with you Jason. They always seem to pounce with a downgrade just as it seems countries are reaching a solution to some of the financial problems. As European leaders seem to finally getting their heads in gear to sort out the euro S&P through this in. Who are they? Who owns or controls them. Is there a Mr or Ms Standard. (lord knows we are all Mr &Ms Poors at the moment!)
As far as I’m aware, the ratings agencies are funded by the stock exchanges. The bigger problem is these agencies were asleep at the wheel in the run up to the financial crisis in 2008 and actively contributed to these problems. They’re overcompensating now.
Standard and poors , Moody’s , the markets , Moore McDowell , the troika … Go and find a hole and throw yourselves into it and let us go back to our half normal life before youse gobshites came along and rated us.
The agencies are owned by public companies and earn their revenues from bond issuers asking to be rated. If we weren’t rated, many pension fund rules would prohibit them from investing in our debt.
The rating agencies were absolutely shocking in the run up to the sub prime crisis, but as for this recent action, they’re just saying what everyone else knows – that banks aren’t as safe as they used to be and government support is no longer guaranteed. They’re just doing their jobs.
JD Vance says US take over of Greenland ‘makes sense’ during scaled back visit
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25 mins ago
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Ceann Comhairle
Verona Murphy has ‘full’ government support and opposition needs to ‘get on with it’
37 mins ago
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Courts
Garda superintendent appears in court accused of assaulting woman in Dublin city
4 hrs ago
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