Your morning briefing: Massive clean-up in Cork after storm Babet destruction, Biden seeks billions for Israel and Ukraine

Joe Biden seeks billions in military aid for Ukraine and Israel

It is vital for the national security of the United States that both Ukraine and Israel succeed in their current conflicts, president Joe Biden has told Americans in an address to the nation.

Speaking from the White Hous on Thursday night as he prepared to seek the US Congress to authorise billions of dollars in military aid for both countries, he said the world was facing an “inflection point in history”.

The president in his speech did not specify the exact amount of money involved. However, he is expected to look for about $100 billion (€94 billion) in emergency funding over the next year for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan as well as for security along the border with Mexico.

Israel-Hamas conflict

• Initial Gaza aid deliveries set to cross from Egypt: Deliveries of aid from Egypt are expected to cross into the southern Gaza Strip on Friday as the coastal enclave’s residents continue to suffer under intense Israeli bombardment and a siege imposed in the wake of the Hamas attack of October 7th.
• Israeli defence minister says troops will soon see Gaza ‘from inside’: Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered at the Gaza border on Thursday that they will soon see the Palestinian enclave “from inside”, suggesting an expected ground invasion with the aim of annihilating Hamas could be nearing.
• A Dubliner in Israel: ‘I don’t want to leave,’ my friend’s mother said. ‘But I can’t go through another war’: “We need to talk ...” This was how my good friend woke me up in his home in Nazareth on October 7th, the day Hamas attacked Israel in one of its worst onslaughts in history.

The best from Opinion

• President Higgins’s pronouncements on foreign policy are reckless, inappropriate and dangerous: It may be a trivial issue in the midst of the crisis now gripping the Middle East but President Michael D Higgins has once again breached constitutional convention and demeaned his office with his attack on the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, writes Stephen Collins.

Cork Floods

• Flooding in Cork: Widespread damage after Storm Babet expected to cost millions of euro to repair: Widespread damage across Co Cork in the aftermath of Storm Babet is expected to cost millions of euro to repair, prompting the establishment of an emergency Government fund that could surpass its initial €10 million budget.
• Cork floods: ‘We couldn’t stop the water – it was coming too fast. It was coming in waves’: Debbie Walsh, proprietor of The Old Thatch, was at the landmark pub and restaurant in Killeagh, east Co Cork, on Wednesday morning when the flood water from the nearby river Dissour started pouring in.
• Why was the Storm Babet flooding so bad?: After the deluge, the questions. As towns across counties Cork and Waterford began counting the cost of flood damage, people were questioning whether more could have been done to mitigate the impact of the rainfall, and whether it will require existing plans to be revamped as the impact of climate change hits closer to home.
• Storm Babet: Yellow rain warnings issued for parts of Munster and Leinster for Friday: Met Éireann has issued new rain warnings for Friday as businesses and homeowners struggle to clean up after the floods from Storm Babet.

Top News Stories

• Stephen Donnelly promises ‘in-depth report’ on future costs of healthcare after budget row Minister for Health: Stephen Donnelly has said he is commissioning an “in-depth report” into the future costs of healthcare.
• Breast cancer screening ‘doesn’t make much of a difference’ to death rates, says oncologist: Screening women for breast cancer “doesn’t make much of a difference” to death rates from the disease, according to a leading breast cancer specialist.
• Irish Army demonstrates Javelin missiles in advance of south Lebanon deployment: Since the beginning of the Ukraine war the Javelin anti-armour missile has become one of the best-known and most sought-after weapons in the world.
• Nursing home residents to retain all income from renting homes under new plans: Nursing home residents will be able to retain all income from renting out their homes under plans being finalised by the Government, despite concerns previously being raised about the risks to older people.
• An Post launches stamp honouring Irishman who made the Sydney Opera House a reality: Fifty years ago this week Queen Elizabeth II opened the Sydney Opera House and it immediately became one of the best known buildings in the world. The famous shell structure is now synonymous with Australia and is universally admired as a masterpiece of 20th century architecture.
• Urgent action needed to improve private drinking water quality, EPA warns: Private drinking water quality distributed through group schemes in rural areas and private wells has not improved in recent years despite the availability of public funding to support upgrades to supplies, says the EPA.
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• Ireland’s weather today: Slow moving downpours in parts of the west and southwest will ease for a time with some brighter spells, but rain will linger near some coasts. Heavy spells of rain over Ulster will spread into north Leinster this morning and other areas during the afternoon and early evening , heavy at times with some localised flooding possible. Some drier brighter spells will return to the north by the end of the day.
• Happening today: The CSO will publish research on Social Housing in Ireland and the Stardust inquest is sitting.

News from around the World

• Why don’t many on the left see Russia as a colonial power?: This week I had the opportunity to ask President Michael D Higgins a question I had been wanting to put to him for a long time: “In relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, do you see Russia as a colonial power?,”writes Naomi O’Leary.
• Journalist charged in Russia with failing to register as foreign agent: A Russian-American journalist working for a US government-funded media company has been detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, according to her employer.
• Ukraine moves to ban church over alleged links to Moscow: Kyiv has moved towards banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) over its alleged ties to Moscow, as Ukraine’s forces reportedly launched raids on the occupied left bank of the Dnipro river and a Russian-American journalist was arrested in Russia.

The Big Read

• Wetherspoon finds the Irish going tough as it rolls back on expansion: Almost exactly a decade ago Ireland’s pint-supping public was preparing for its biggest shock to the system since the smoking ban as British pub group JD Wetherspoon announced its entry to the market with its first acquisition here, writes Ian Curran.

Today's Business

• Intel and Siemens pull out of Web Summit over Cosgrave comments: Two large multinational companies, Intel and Siemens, have pulled out of this year’s Web Summit following comments made by the tech conference’s founder Paddy Cosgrave on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
• Irish national debt equates to €43,357 for every man, woman and child in the State: The Republic’s national debt stood at €224.8 billion at the end of last year, equating to €43,357 for every man, woman and child in the State, which is high internationally in per-capita terms.

Top Sports news

• Powerful New Zealand strong favourites to reach a fifth Rugby World Cup final: For Irish players and coaches especially, this first Rugby World Cup semi-final will be a tough watch, as it will invariably prompt thoughts of what might have been.
• International Rules series was great while it lasted but has had its time: Twenty five years ago this week, the GAA concluded the second test of a resumed International Rules series. The hybrid game had originally been devised for the GAA’s centenary year but after four series in 1984, ‘86, ‘87 and 1990, the concept stalled.
• GAA set to address rule used by Kilcoo to appeal referee’s appointment: The GAA’s Rules Advisory Committee (RAC) is set to tighten up the rule which was used by Kilcoo to go to the Disputes Resolution Committee (DRA) to challenge, on the basis of potential bias, the appointment of referee Paul Faloon to take charge of last Sunday’s Down county final.

Picture of the Day

Letters to the Editor

A chara, – Well done to President Michael D Higgins in taking European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to task for her one-sided comments during her recent visit to Israel and her presumption to speak for the entire European Union on the issue (“Von der Leyen’s approach to Israel-Hamas conflict thoughtless and reckless, says Higgins”, News, October 16th).

First look at new over 23s nightclub in Dublin city centre: ‘It’ll be big. It’ll be loud. It’ll be spectacular’

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Eric Clapton in Dublin review: guitar hero rocks the grey-haired faithful with a night of classics

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Dublin-Monaghan bombings: ‘When I looked out into the street, I knew all normality was gone. It was like hell on Earth’

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Two great-value Portuguese wines perfect for summer tables

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President Higgins has the pulse of the Irish people on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is an utter abhorrence at the horrific attack by Hamas on defenceless civilians in Israel. But there is also an instinctive sympathy with the plight of the Palestinian civilians who are now caught in the crossfire. These people have in effect been ordered by the Israeli military to leave their homes and vacate their city of over one million residents. With all water and electricity supplies cut off, this forced displacement of an entire city would be unbelievable if it wasn’t happening before our eyes.

Two wrongs never made a right, and how fortunate we are to have a President who is not afraid to speak out in support of the rights of innocent civilians on both sides of the tragic divide in Israel and Palestine. – Is mise,

JOHN GLENNON, Hollywood, Co Wicklow.

The Movie Quiz

• The Movie Quiz: How many films have Robert de Niro and Martin Scorsese made together?: Think you know your films inside out? It’s time to put your cinema knowledge to the test in our weekly movie quiz. Along with De Niro and Scorsese, this week’s questions feature Star Trek, opening lines from best picture Oscar winners and more.

Video & Podcast Highlights

• In the News: Israel-Hamas war: two weeks that shook the Middle East: Hannah McCarthy reports from Tel Aviv

Review of the day

• Julia by Sandra Newman: Retelling Orwell’s 1984, but from the viewpoint of Winston Smith’s lover: Feminist retellings of classic works hinge on the author’s ability to pay homage to the original text while offering a new perspective on material events already known to readers. To reappropriate Emily Dickinson’s famous line: tell the truth, but tell it slant.

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