GOOD MORNING.

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

Twitter layoffs

1. Billionaire Elon Musk has defended mass layoffs at Twitter, just over a week after he finalised his ¢44 billion takeover of the the social media company. 

Twitter fired half of its 7,500-strong staff yesterday, as Musk launched a major overhaul of the company.

Commenting last night on Twitter, Musk said that there was “no choice” but to fire staff.

“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk tweeted.

Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.

 Sinn Féin 

2. The Sinn Féin Ard Fheis will take place this morning at the RDS in Dublin.

The meeting takes at a time when when the latest Ipsos/Irish Times poll put Sinn Féin at 35%, down one point, but still the party with the largest support. 

The clár outlines a range of motions to be put to a vote, including around party membership rule changes, Irish unity and the party’s opposition to an EU army. 

COP 27

3. The United Nation’s annual climate conference is set to kick off tomorrow in Egypt.

Cop 27 comes at a time of increased instability around climate change. The conference is held against a backdrop of heatwaves seen across Europe this summer and the deadly flooding in Pakistan, to the threat of famine in Africa and heavy drought in the western United States.

At last year’s summit in Glasgow, countries agreed to come back with updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs), but the ongoing war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and soaring inflation have since changed the geopolitical landscape dramatically.

Missing

4. Gardaí have appealed for the public’s help in finding two 13-year-old children missing from Monaghan. 

Kelsey Kenny and Seamus Hynes were both last seen Friday afternoon in the Cloghernagh area of Co Monaghan.

Garda enquiries to date suggest these two missing persons are travelling together and may currently be in the Dublin area.

Robberies 

5. A man is due to appear before the court this morning charged in relation number of robberies from pharmacies in the North Dublin area between 1 November and 4 November.

The man was arrested by gardaí yesterday following the robbery with a knife of a pharmacy in Artane, Dublin 5. 

The male, aged in his 30s, was arrested and taken to Coolock Garda Station where he was detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

Restrictions

6. Restrictions on hospital visitors are still in place across the country, with some hospitals only allowing one visitor per patient or refusing to admit children.

A majority of hospitals still have some kind of restrictions on visiting, with measures in place as part of efforts to reduce the spread of Covid-19 within healthcare settings.

Eurogroup

7. The government will nominate the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe for a second term as President of the Eurogroup.

However, if he is re-elected, he will take up the presidency as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, a government spokesperson said.

The Finance Minister at that time, expected to be current Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath after December’s Cabinet reshuffle, will represent Ireland and will attend Eurogroup and the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN). 

Inflation

8. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said inflation is the “number one enemy”, as he vowed to rebuild trust in the UK Government following Liz Truss’s calamitous tenure in No 10.

The prime minister said he is doing everything he can to “grip” the issue and limit rises in mortgage repayments, as the Bank of England is forced to put up interest rates to curb rising prices.

Weather

9. According to Met Éireann, it will be a wet and breezy start in the east today, but the sunnier weather in the west will extend quickly to all areas. Isolated showers in the west will become more frequent as the day progresses. Highest temperatures of 11 to 14 degrees are expected, in moderate to fresh and gusty southwesterly winds.