Your morning briefing: First-time buyers borrowing surges; US bombs targets in Syria; and staff shortages delay new flood forecasting system

US carries out airstrikes on Iran-linked sites in Syria

The United States has carried out airstrikes on facilities in Syria used by Iran and its allies in the region.

The Pentagon said that the strikes were in response to “a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups” that began on October 17th.

US officials said the airstrikes had hit weapons and ammunition storage facilities, writes Washington Correspondent Martin Wall.

Israel-Hamas conflict

• Israel-Hamas war: UN says aid ‘barely trickling’ into Gaza, as EU calls for ‘humanitarian pause’: Leaders of the 27 EU member states have unanimously called for “humanitarian corridors and pauses” of the shelling in Gaza in the Israeli-Hamas war to allow food, water and medical supplies to reach Palestinians.
• Analysis: EU has rarely looked more divided amid Israel-Hamas war: Croatia’s prime minister Andrej Plenkovic is a man of few words, unusual in itself in a politician. Asked by journalists what his message was for EU leaders as he headed into a pre-summit meeting of European EU leaders on Thursday, Plenkovic was a man of only one word: “unity”, writes Political Editor Pat Leahy.
• Hamas claims 50 Gaza hostages have been killed by Israeli bombing: Hamas has claimed that approximately 50 of the hostages being held in Gaza have been killed as a result of Israeli bombing.
• Israel’s strikes on Gaza are some of the most intense this century: Israel’s 19-day bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip has become one of the most intense of the 21st century, prompting growing global scrutiny of its scale, purpose and cost to human life.

The best from Opinion

• Babies and children being slaughtered in Gaza are nobody’s enemy: His name was Omar Shamallakh. His life on earth lasted two months. In his photograph he is wearing a little-boy-blue babygro. He looks cared for and alert. There is a smile on his face, though it may have been wind. He was nobody’s enemy, writes Justine McCarthy.

Top News Stories

• Why The Irish Times had to apologise to the architect of the ‘fabulous’ Busáras: More than 70 years ago, The Irish Times published an artist’s impression to illustrate the “bulk” of the “new pile” of a “factory-like” bus station that was planned for a site on Dublin’s Store Street. Later that year came an apology.
• Female Garda members targeted by colleagues in ‘offensive’ WhatsApp messages: A Garda investigation is under way to identify members of the force who produced “malicious” and harassing WhatsApp messages about their female colleagues, and which went viral in Garda circles.
• Flood forecasting system delayed due to problems recruiting expert staff: A new state-of-the-art flood forecasting system has been delayed because of difficulties in sourcing expert staff, it has emerged.
• Rent for thousands of State-funded student beds to be provided at ‘below market rates’: Thousands of student beds due to be built by universities with access to State funding and low-interest loans must be provided at “below market rates”, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has said.
• Towns in Mayo and Longford revealed as having the most diverse populations in the State: Towns in Mayo and Longford have been revealed as having the most diverse populations in the Republic, according to Central Statistic Office diversity and ethnicity data released on Thursday.
• Woman who claimed Garda car ran over her foot has award cut by 80%: A woman, who claimed a Garda car crushed and broke three bones in her foot as it drove through hundreds of street revellers, has been told by a judge she was 80 per cent responsible for her injuries.
• Check out today's Most Read stories
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• Ireland’s weather today: Early mist and fog will clear to leave a day of sunshine and showers. The showers will become more widespread during the afternoon. Heavy downpours or thunderstorms are possible with the chance of spot flooding. Highest temperatures of 11 to 14 degrees. Saturday will be another day of sunny spells and showers, some heavy with a chance of thunderstorms and spot flooding.

News from around the World

• Maine gun attacks: Biden urges Republicans to back gun control laws after 18 killed and 13 wounded: US president Joe Biden has again urged his Republican political opponents to back new gun control measures following the latest mass shooting in the country. The governor of Maine Janet Mills said on Thursday that 18 people had been killed and a further 13 were injured when a gunman opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar in the city of Lewiston.
• ‘I thought I was gone’: video captures whale body-slamming windsurfer at Sydney beach: Jason Breen didn’t think his GoPro was turned on to capture what happened while he was windfoiling at a Sydney beach on Wednesday. Luckily it was, otherwise he thinks nobody would have believed him.
• Trump ally Mike Johnson elected speaker of US House of Representatives: Mike Johnson, a loyal ally of Donald Trump, has been elected speaker of the House of Representatives, ending weeks of congressional paralysis and signalling a sharp tack to the right for Republicans in the lower chamber.

The Big Read

• Web Summit faces up to an uncertain future without its founder: This year’s Web Summit may still be a little over two weeks away, yet already it is shaping up to be a very different event from any other. The Lisbon event will be the first without cofounder Paddy Cosgrave at the helm since the first Dublin event in 2009, when 400 people crowded into a room to hear bloggers and journalists discuss the impact of the internet on the media and politics, writes Ciara O’Brien.

Today’s Business

• First-time buyer mortgage drawdowns hit highest levels since Celtic Tiger era: First-time buyers remain the most active cohort within the Irish mortgage market, drawing down €1.9 billion in home loans in the three months to the end of September, the highest third-quarter level since the Celtic Tiger era, the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) has said.
• ECB holds interest rates after 10 successive hikes: The European Central Bank kept its interest rates unchanged on Thursday following a series of 10 consecutive hikes since July last year, amid growing signs that its efforts to fight inflation are having an impact.
• Departing Paddy Power staff with long service say redundancy amounts to ‘just one year’s pay’: Paddy Power workers leaving the chain following betting shop closures say the company is offering redundancy amounting to little more than the legal minimum.

Top Sports news

• ‘If I wanted to manage any team, it’s this team’: Occam’s razor got a mention at Tallaght Stadium ahead of the Nations League tie between the Republic of Ireland and Albania. The simple solution is Eileen Gleeson. As the weeks turn into months, the interim Republic of Ireland manager appears to be inadvertently applying for her dream job.
• Sonia O’Sullivan: Running the Dublin Marathon and the muscle soreness like no other: There’s something about Dublin Marathon week. Runners from across the country, and from overseas, easing back on the miles and their training. All trying to find the perfect taper to deliver them as fresh as possible to the same start line.

Martyn Turner

Friday Movie Quiz

• The Movie Quiz: What Irish film was briefly the highest grossing ever at the domestic box office?: Think you know your movies? Get ready to put your film knowledge to the test in our weekly quiz.

Letters to the Editor

Israel-Hamas conflict

Dream of a left-wing government slipping away and not just because of Sinn Féin slump

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Exhausted, dominated by technology and broke: Sign of the Times survey is all bad news

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Brianna Parkins: What’s infuriating about neurotypicals? Here’s a list

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Many apprentices are now on higher salaries than college graduates. Is snobbery around ‘earn and learn’ options fading?

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Sir, – Given the high cost in terms of the loss of innocent lives in Gaza, Israel must ask itself is the bombardment and siege of Gaza the only solution?

It is not desirable for the inevitable hatred and desire for revenge arising from the heinous October 7th attacks to cloud the logic behind any solution to the current crisis. A simple thought experiment may help in this regard.

Setting aside the absurdities inherent in such thought experiments, imagine that every person in Gaza that is not a threat to Israel, the innocent civilians, are replaced by people that are also not a threat to Israel, that is Israeli citizens. Now if the bombardment and siege of Gaza is killing Israeli citizens in place of Palestinians would they also be unavoidable collateral damage or could there be an alternative solution to Israeli security?

– Yours, etc, VINCENT O’BRIEN, Moorepark, Co Meath.

Video & Podcast Highlights

• In The News Podcast: Why China’s falling birth rate means job losses for Limerick

Review of the day

• Andrea Gilligan might not pose the toughest questions, but she knows how to dodge a bullet: As host of Lunchtime Live (Newstalk, weekdays), Andrea Gilligan isn’t afraid of exploring difficult issues, but when it comes to certain subjects she doesn’t always ask the hard questions.

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