LAST UPDATE | 27 Sep 2022

GOOD MORNING.

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

Budget 2023

1. It’s Budget day, and Christina Finn has a rundown of everything we can expect from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe’s speech at 1pm.

While the last two budgets focused on Covid-19 supports, this year the focus is all on the rising cost-of-living.

Renters will receive a much-discussed tax credit, social welfare payments set to increase by €12 per week and a 25% reduction in childcare costs has been agreed as well.

UK tax cuts fallout

2. British Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is contending with massive market turmoil sparked by his tax-cutting mini-budget.

A disastrous day for the pound yesterday saw Labour take its biggest poll lead over Tories for more than 20 years.

Iran

3. Iran is stepping up arrests of activists and journalists in a crackdown against civil society as anti-regime protests rage nationwide, campaigners say.

Twenty journalists have been imprisoned since the protests erupted earlier this month over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested by the country’s notorious morality police, according to the Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Numerous activists and lawyers have also been held.

Ukraine

4. Annexation polls organised by Kremlin-installed authorities in four regions of Ukraine mostly controlled by Russian forces are due to close today, with Moscow’s threats of nuclear weapons looming.

The outcome of the ballot is being viewed by observers as a foregone conclusion. Election officials brought ballot boxes door-to-door in many cases accompanied by armed Russian forces.

Nasa

5. Nasa has successfully crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid as part of a planetary protection test mission.

While this asteroid – named Dimorphos – posed no threat to Earth, the aim of the mission was to demonstrate that dangerous incoming rocks can be deflected by deliberately smashing into them.

Shinzo Abe funeral

6. Japanese and foreign dignitaries have paid tribute to assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe at a controversial state funeral, as long lines of people gathered to offer flowers and prayers.

His death sent shock waves through the country and around the world, but decision to give him a state funeral has provoked opposition.

Crime

7. New data shows a 38% decrease in homicides and a 36% fall in burglaries in the second quarter of this year when compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Attempts to, and threats to murder, as well as assault, harassment and related offences were up 21% however, as well as reports of sexual offences which rose 5.6%.

Italy

8. As Giorgia Meloni celebrates victory for her Fratelli d’Italia party, Niall O’Connor reports from the plush surrounds of the five-star Parco dei Principi Grand Hotel and Spa, where Meloni and her party faithful based themselves for the final moments of their campaign.

Away and down the hill from the five-star hotel, Italy’s impoverished society is very obvious – with crumbling buildings, vacant shop fronts and tents of homeless people living underneath the bridges along the banks of the Tiber river.

Russian gas

9. Leaks have been reported on the Nord Stream 1 Russia to Europe gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, just hours after a similar incident on its twin pipeline, Scandinavian authorities said today.

Denmark’s climate and energy ministry confirmed the fresh leaks this morning after Germany’s economy ministry reported a drop in pressure in the pipeline.