US warns of ‘significant escalation’ as fears grow Israel-Hamas war could spread across region
The US has warned that there is a risk of a “significant escalation” of attacks against American troops and personnel in the Middle East, as fears intensified that the Israel-Hamas war could broaden into a regional conflict.
Lloyd Austin, the US secretary of defence, said on Sunday he was “concerned about potential escalation” of fighting in the region after militants attacked two military bases housing American troops in Iraq last Thursday.
Israel-Hamas conflict
- Netanyahu refuses to shoulder the blame in wake of Hamas attack: Israel’s military and security chiefs have queued up to take a share of the blame in the two weeks since Hamas militants from Gaza killed more than 1,400 people.
- Thousands march through Dublin in support of Palestine amid conflict in Gaza: Thousands of people have marched through Dublin city centre on Saturday afternoon in support of Palestinians and in opposition to Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
- Israeli ambassador to Ireland accuses President Higgins of repeating ‘misinformation’: The Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, has accused President Michael D Higgins of repeating “misinformation” in relation to the Israel-Hamas war and said the effect of his comments were “inflammatory”.
The best from Opinion
- Ursula von der Leyen’s solo run on Israel has damaged the EU: It seems trivial to talk about the European Union’s reputation at this moment but it does matter. As Israel geared up to drop countless bombs on Gaza, teed up a ground invasion, and used dehumanising, genocidal language such as “children of darkness” and “the law of the jungle”, any decent, peace-loving person was rightly horrified about what would obviously follow. Someone needed to shout stop, writes Una Mullally.
Top News Stories
- Irish woman (39) fatally shot in New York: An Irish woman was shot and died in an apartment in New York over the weekend. The woman, who was 39 years old, has been named as Denise Morgan, from Tullyallen in Co Louth.
- Cork flood relief payments set to exceed €70,000: Business owners whose premises were badly damaged by last week’s floods in east Cork will each be entitled to apply for payments with a maximum “in excess of €70,000″ under a new plan being finalised by Simon Coveney.
- Flood risk continues with status orange rain warning for Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny: A status orange rain warning is in place from 4am on Monday for Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny as an unsettled spell of weather in the wake of Storm Babet continues.
- Expelled from school at 14. Now she is an associate professor in education: Looking back, Hannagh McGinley says, it all began to go wrong when she moved to secondary school. “I just found it a very unsupportive environment,” recalls McGinley, a member of the Traveller community. At primary school in Donegal, she says, there was discrete support from “wonderful” teaching nuns. That all changed when she moved to post-primary in Galway.
- Expulsions and suspensions climb significantly at second-level schools: The number of young people expelled and suspended from secondary schools has climbed significantly since the Covid-19 pandemic, new figures show.
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- Ireland’s weather today: Cloudy with rain extending across Munster, Connacht and south Leinster this morning, turning heavy at times across the southeast and midlands where flooding is possible. Rain will spread further to the north and east this afternoon, followed by a mix of cloud and isolated showers pushing in from the southwest. Highest temperatures of 10 to 14 degrees with a moderate southeasterly breeze gradually falling light later this afternoon.
News from around the World
- Ukraine says six killed in Russian missile attack on Kharkiv postal centre: Six people have been killed and at least 14 injured in a Russian missile attack that hit a postal distribution centre in the war-devastated northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials have said
- Swiss general election signals shift to the right: Switzerland looked set to shift to the right in its national elections on Sunday, as concerns about immigration and political correctness trumped fears about climate change and melting glaciers.
The Big Read
- Ten ways to reduce the costs of winter, the most expensive season: Winter is upon us and, without wanting to be overly gloomy, we have at least six months of dark, cold and rainy days ahead, with maybe even the odd flurry of snow if we’re lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you view the white stuff).
Culture and Life & Style highlights
- What the first comedian to be cancelled teaches us about greed, taxes and relationships: Capitalism has brought us some good things but it also has a habit of making us act against our moral principles and pitting us against one another.
Today's Business
- CIF predicts record post-crash housing output next year as costs ‘stabilise’: Next year could see the biggest buildout of new homes in Ireland since the Celtic Tiger era, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has said.
- Business leaders fear ‘catastrophic cyber attacks’ on back of generative AI: More than half of Irish and international business leaders believe generative artificial intelligence (AI) could cause “catastrophic cyber attacks” in the next 12 months, according to PwC’s latest digital trust insights survey.
- Web Summit to take place as planned after Paddy Cosgrave resignation: Web Summit will proceed in Lisbon next month as planned, a spokesman said, despite the abrupt resignation of chief executive and cofounder Paddy Cosgrave over the weekend.
Top Sports news
- Ken Early: Has there ever been a worse time to be a goalkeeper?: Chelsea v Arsenal: a game featuring the three most expensive players in the Premier League. Few in the end would have come away dazzled by the three deep-lying midfield galacticos. Instead you were left wondering if there has ever been a worse time to be a goalkeeper.
- Denis Walsh: Bruised Ireland can recover from unique Rugby World Cup failure: In the 1990 movie The Grifters there is a famous scene where Anjelica Huston’s character Lily Dillon is alone in a room with Pat Hingle’s character Bobo Justus, expecting to be subjected to some kind of punishment beating. Bobo has arrived with a bag of oranges and he tells Lily to get a towel.
Picture of the Day
Letters to the Editor
Time for better data on road safety
Sir, – The Minister for Justice is clearly lacking insight if she believes the drop in detections in recent years is due to an improvement in driver behaviour (“Changes in ‘driver behaviour’ responsible for falling road traffic prosecutions, says Minister”, News, October 19th).
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There is no data to support her position. An inference can be drawn that there are fewer detections because there are fewer gardaí on the roads to make those detections.
Her bald statement that “speed is still the number one killer” is similarly not supported by any data (I am presuming she meant excessive speed, by the way, she did not specify).
The Road Safety Authority fatality statistics record only date and time, type of road user, their age and the type of road. They do not record speed, vehicle and road condition, consumption of drugs or alcohol or mobile phone use. For pedestrian fatalities, they do not record if there was a footpath, public lighting or if the pedestrian was wearing reflective clothing. Our road traffic fatality statistics, therefore, as they are at present collated, are almost useless and any action based on same is just shooting in the dark. – Yours, etc,
PAUL STACK, Maynooth, Co Kildare.
Video & Podcast Highlights
Review of the day
- The Gone: Is RTÉ taking licence-fee payers for fools by passing this off as Irish drama: With hindsight, the success of Love/Hate was one of the worst things to happen to RTÉ. The show’s popularity – more a result of its surface-level slickness than of the quality of its writing – has convinced the broadcaster that, when it comes to drama, crime is the only game in town.
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