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LAST UPDATE | 7 Nov 2022
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news to know as you start your day.
1. Tech layoffs
Facebook-parent company Meta will become the latest tech firm to scale back its workforce, with plans to layoff thousands of employees this week, US media reported yesterday.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the layoffs could impact “many thousands” of Meta employees and that an announcement was expected as soon as Wednesday.
2. Climate change
Earth’s warming weather and rising seas are getting worse and doing so faster than before, the World Meteorological Organisation warned as world leaders started gathering in Egypt for international climate negotiations at Cop27.
“The latest State of the Global Climate report is a chronicle of climate chaos,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “We must answer the planet’s distress signal with action – ambitious, credible climate action.”
3. Ukraine
The mayor of Kyiv is warning residents to prepare for the worst this winter if Russia keeps striking the country’s energy infrastructure.
It means having no electricity, water or heat in the freezing cold cannot be ruled out in the Ukrainian capital.
4. Lucan
Compulsory Purchase Orders for the Lucan leg of the BusConnects scheme have been submitted by the National Transport Authority (NTA).
It has applied to An Bord Pleanála to CPO parcels of land 9.7km in length stretching from west county Dublin into the city centre.
5. Housing crisis
Capital expenditure housing by the end of September was drastically behind yearly targets, figures provided by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage indicate.
The data shows that major housing programmes had not yet reached half of their yearly targets as October began, and suggests spending must rise significantly during the final quarter of the year if Government spending targets under Housing for All are to be met.
6. Mahsa Amini
New protests erupted in Iran yesterday at universities and in the largely Kurdish northwest, keeping a seven-week anti-regime movement going even in the face of a fierce crackdown.
The protests, triggered in mid-September by the death of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly breaching strict dress rules for women, have evolved into the biggest challenge for the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
7. Ryanair
The company has announced a return to profit in its first half as the aviation sector recovers following the lifting of Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Profit after tax came in at €1.37 billion in the six months to the end of September, after a net loss of €48 million a year earlier, Ryanair said in a statement.
8. US Midterms
Republicans promised to deliver a “wake-up call” to Joe Biden and retake Congress in this week’s crucial midterm elections, as the US president’s Democrats insisted they were still in the fight with two days to go.
Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump have been pulling out the stops to draw voters to the polls in Tuesday’s contest — which Biden says marks a “defining” moment for US democracy.
9. UK Immigration
Hundreds of protestors have staged a protest in the pouring rain outside Manston detention centre demanding in the UK it is shut down.
Action Against Detention And Deportation demonstrators chanted and banged metal pots outside the Kent base, which has been at the centre of the immigration crisis this week after it became dangerously overcrowded.
FG is ideologically opposed to public funding of social housing.
@Tony Daly: Wicklow County Council has announced close to a billion euro in funding for social housing over the last 3 years…. In that time it hasn’t even turned a sod on a single solitary social housing unit….. Not one house…….
Isn’t Wicklow co co dominated by sf?
@Tony Daly: Social Housing worked excellently in council housing areas! No social repercussion at all, nope, none.
@FifiJamming: Sf have 19% of seats (28% including former members) while FF+FG collectively have 47% .
So SF doesn’t dominate the council .
Messed up a bit.
SF actually have 9% and formally 19%
@FifiJamming
God help Wicklow if that’s the case. Although does that mean anyone can now buy or build a house in Wicklow if they haven’t lived there for at least 15 years or more. Not an SF’er by the way!
@FifiJamming: 6 SF councillors out of 32 elected in 2014.
Currently down to 3.
Do your own math.
In a capitalist meritocracy low and middle income workers should be rewarded first with scheme of “affordable housing” possibly in a public private partnership. The grey cotton tracksuit brigade should not be prioritised over those who are paying into the system.
Biggest scam in the country is social housing.
The mini riot in Sweden reminded me of the million project they executed in the late 60s to fulfill the housing demands. It had a remit to build 1m housing units (a mix between 3 bed units and 1 bed units for students) over 10 years. At the end of the 10th year, there were 1,000,600 new units built, and public transit, schools, shops and community centres to all of them by the 3rd year. It has become an issue now as some areas have become ghettoed with immigrant numbers, but the idea was perfect in oversupplying the market, and subsidising it with 30% paid by the renters over the next 10 years. And we struggle to get a politician to actually plan over 100 houses. Something like this across the country would eliminate any social housing problems in areas where you can work.
Hard to believe Richie is lying ☺
You’re a coward Willy
Everyone knows no social houses are getting built anyone on the housing list has rented houses pushed upon them and landlords don’t want them it’s a horrible situation fine gael has put upon families
The party of lies and spin.
The Irish Tories.
Fat check go Enda go
Coming from dirty Dan here la
It could be any number now as theres an election on the horizon. False promises and all that!
Fine Gael and lies seem to go hand in hand, and you’ll still get morons to justify their position and vote for them.
fact checking a political promise? especially from fg? that the best you can do? you do know they fg are the first to tell you it means nothing!
if you ever need a sounding board on what to fact check let me know and I will tell you if its an exercise in futility
Why am i paying a mortgage and people are getting same house for nothing? Is it because i am working since im 15? Surely i should be rewarded for my contribution and good behaviour. Whilst people who contribute nothing get rewarded for bad behaviour. Raising my kids i never reward them for bad behaviour. A welfare bubble is developing..it is a sinkhole for tax payers money.
Yep. Richard has been known to deliver an occasional porkie.
Simple answer none cos they will be gone before a brick is layed
in fairness to him he built a load of housing in Collinswood and told no one about this we’re not against social housing but not 100 % its already a problem so be careful what you want
It’s much much cheaper for council to build they’re own houses than buy in ptivate estates, firstly they own the land ,and 50 % of a private house is taxes and fees therefore they should be able to build two houses for everyone private, also we who work are wonder why bother buy your house when the council can give you one for less than half a morgage, leaving you more pjamas time and an audi and a foreign holiday as I can see from my sitting room window ,wondering why bother working hard went your taxes are being used to fund some strangers leisure lifestyle .
Wow talk about splitting hairs!
John, “splitting hairs” or “alternative facts”?
,Brutons record with the truth isn’t the best,fact check on pill hogans expense account in Brussels compared to Hayes,excluding secretarial stuff as hogan is finding it hard to replace his other Secetary.
@John Smith: talk about accuracy.
@John Smith: It’s not splitting hairs, it’s either not knowing the correct information or just bare faced lying by Bruton…I’d go with the latter though.
While new houses, “social” or otherwise, are desperately needed, the housing problem will never be solved by convincing the Government itself to build a small token number of new housing units. What truly needs to happen is for the Government to unleash the private building market, so that the private sector can quickly and efficiently build the huge number of new houses that the Irish nation needs.
Fg and ff are couring the masses on social housing just as ff have over Irish water even though it’s like playing total con artists on the big screen. Parties should be heavily fined for carrying on a pretence of intention like this.
have your say