Author Archives: Bodger

This morning.

Dublin Castle, Dublin 2.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly arrives for a cabinet meeting to sign off on the lifting of all covid restrictions from February 28.

Earlier: Freedom

Sam Boal/RollingNews

Last night/This morning.

Via DW:

Vladimir Putin signed a decree ordering Russian troops into eastern Ukraine in a televised speech to the nation. Putin said Russian troops were being sent in to “maintain peace” in eastern Ukraine.

Earlier Monday, he recognized the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) and the “Luhansk People’s Republic” (LPR) in eastern Ukraine as “independent.”

Meanwhile…

The West is preparing a round of fresh sanctions against Russia. At the UN Security Council, the US said it is “nonsense” that Russian forces Putin is sending into Ukraine are “peacekeepers.”

Ukraine latest: Russia faces sanctions after Putin orders in troops (DW)

Getty

Last night.

The leaders of the Government parties Freedom agreed that NPHET’s recommendations to end almost all remaining covid restrictions should be accepted.

Via RTE:

The final decision will be taken by the Cabinet this morning. If agreement is reached, as expected, the changes would take effect from 28 February.

This would mean that mask wearing in schools, retail settings and on public transport would be voluntary from next Monday.

It is likely people would still be advised to continue wearing masks on public transport, but it would not be underpinned by law.

Physical distancing measures in schools, such as pods, would also end next week.

NPHET itself will be wound-up too…

Leaders agree NPHET recommendations to end most restrictions should be accepted (RTE)

RollingNews

Oh.

This afternoon.

Via Cnet:

People who download the app reported seeing error messages when they tried entering a birthdate, e-mail or phone number to create an account. “Something went wrong. Please try again,” the message read.

Others reported they were placed on a waitlist after signing up. “Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist,” read the message….

Trump’s Truth Social Debuts in Apple’s App Store, Hits No. 1 in Top Charts (Cnet)

Earlier…

This afternoon.

Via Washington Times:

The platform was available on Apple’s app store on Monday. But some supporters of the former president who hoped to promptly join the free site and engage with Mr. Trump encountered problems that prevented them from successfully creating profiles and using the platform.

Reporters at The Washington Times, along with reporters from other news media outlets, were unsuccessful in creating accounts. They were faced with error messages at various stages of the sign-up process that blocked them from creating accounts.

Trump social media app debuts, but early glitches prevent some new users (Washington Times)

Earlier: A Limerick A Day

Clamping at St Stephen’s Green in Dublin in 2020

This afternoon.

Via RTÉ News:

Clamping fines in Dublin city are to increase from €80 to €125 next week.

The 56% rise comes into effect on 1 March following a decision by Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan.

Green Party Councillor for Dublin’s North Inner City, Janet Horner, said the increase was needed to discourage car use in the city centre.

The Automobile Association said the rise was coming at a bad time for motorists who are already experiencing a “perfect storm” when it comes to rising costs of running a car.

Name that jammer, anyone?

Clamping fines in Dublin city will increase to €125 (RTE)

This afternoon.

Via RTÉ News:

“It’s not just a replacement of LEDs, we’ll be replacing a number of the columns, underground cables and various other things to bring the lighting infrastructure up to spec,” said Brendan O’Brien, head of technical services.

“Public lighting infrastructure is an important part of the city. The reasons we’ve had to spend this amount of money is to make up on a deficit of spending over the decades.”

“We’ll have lower energy costs… and we’ll also save, roughly speaking, around 2,500 tonnes of CO2 per year.”

He said there will also be less maintenance and an easier way to detect outages.

“We’ll have a computer-controlled system that will allow us to know what lights are out and also have the ability to dim at various times and choose different lights (in various settings),” he said.

*cough*

*cough*

Thousands of Dublin lampposts to switch to LED lightbulbs (RTE)

I love you, man.

This afternoon.

Dublin city centre

Meanwhile…

Proposals to introduce an age limit for the sale or supply of e-scooters look set to be dropped by the Government, amid fears that the measure would be unenforceable.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan is understood to be proposing a number of amendments to the Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2021, which legislates for electric scooters and electric bikes as well as other road safety issues.

E-scooters are currently classed as “mechanically propelled vehicles”, meaning they should not be used in public places without tax, insurance and an appropriate category of driving licence.

The legislation will create a new vehicle category to be known as Powered Personal Transporters (PPTs) which will include e-scooters and similar devices.

Age limit for sale of e-scooters to be scrapped (Irish Times)

Leah Farrell/RollingNews

Above from left: Fatin Al Tamimi, National Chairperson of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and activists Zaid Albarghouthi, from Palestine, and Dubliner Ciara Margolis

This afternoon.

Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

The Irish launch of a new European Citizens’ Initiative to ban trade with illegal settlements.

If an ECI garners one million signatures from EU citizens over 12 months, the European Commission must consider and debate the petition’s demands.

Via Academics for Palestine:

A European coalition of more than 100 civil society organizations, has launched a European Citizens Initiative (ECI) to stop trade with illegal settlements in occupied territories. Academics for Palestine is a partner of the Irish ECI campaign, along with other 20 Ireland-based social and cultural organisations.

Academics for Palestine calls on its supporters and every EU citizen concerned about human rights, social justice and fair trade to sign the petition.

Even though illegal settlements constitute a war crime under international law, the EU allows trade with them. In the case of Israel’s settlements, the UN Security Council has called on states to render them no assistance, and the European Union has repeatedly declared that they constitute a flagrant violation of international law. Nevertheless, the EU continues to trade with them, which has emboldened their ongoing expansion.

Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign chairperson, Ms. Fatin Al Tamimi, said

“Despite the overwhelming support of the Irish people for the Occupied Territories Bill, the Irish government has shamefully refused to enact it. This ECI now gives us a rare and exciting chance to speak directly to the political bureaucrats in Ireland and the EU. We the citizens of Europe can make our collective voice heard to change on this issue. Together we can stop EU trade with, and sustenance for, illegal settlements in occupied territories, including my own country of Palestine”:

Leah Farrell/RollingNews

Anyone?

Any excuse.

Previously: The National Coursing Meeting took place in Clonmel but could this be the last time the event is held? *newstalk, February 7)