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GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
The storm
Most of the country experienced Storm Barra’s severe gusts and lashing rain at some point yesterday.
The storm isn’t quite finished with us yet – with a Status Orange alert still in efffect in Co Donegal.
59,000 homes and businesses are still without power.
Our early reporter Gráinne Ní Aodha has all the latest in this morning’s liveblog.
The schools
Parents in Dublin weren’t delighted with the late late notice of the decision to close schools in the capital last night.
The message was communicated to schools and on to parents at around 10.30pm.
Here are the main details in case you missed anything (or, like me, were asleep) when the news came in last night.
One Fine Gael TD is calling for more detail on how the decision was made.
Climate
There are multiple “critical gaps” between the climate policies that the government has endorsed and the actions that it is taking in practice, according to an independent panel of climate experts.
The Journal’s Lauren Boland reports this morning that the Climate Change Advisory Council is concerned about missed targets and delayed measures inhibiting efforts to fight the climate crisis.
New road
An Bord Pleanála (ABP) has given the green light to the proposed N6 Galway City Ring Road, an 18km road aimed at alleviating traffic congestion in the city.
It follows months of deliberations and an extensive oral hearing, which was held last year.
Olympics
On the international front this morning, Australia is joining the US diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics.
The country will not send officials to February’s Winter Olympics, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said.
Mistletoe and wine?
Slightly closer to home, there’s no let up in the pressure on Boris Johnson over that alleged festive breach of Covid guidelines at Downing Street last December.
A video has emerged of senior aides to the Prime Minister joking about a “fictional” party in December 2020.
Frozen out
A partial outage hit Amazon’s cloud-computing business last night, affecting many of the tech giant’s customers including popular streaming services.
The outage also hit streaming platforms Netflix and Disney+, stock trading app Robinhood and Amazon.com Inc’s e-commerce website.
Some good Covid news
US health officials have said that while the Omicron variant of coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than Delta.
Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci told CNN’s State Of The Union that scientists need more information before drawing conclusion’s about Omicron’s severity.
“Thus far, it does not look like there’s a great degree of severity to it,” Dr Fauci said.
Tributes
Sad news, finally, this morning that Peggy Morrissey, the mother of RTÉ’s Marty Morrissey, died in a road crash yesterday.
Presenter Shay Byrne, who hosts Radio 1′s Rising Time programme, said the show had received “hundreds of texts” from listeners in relation to Peggy’s death and expressing their condolences.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.
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Some improvement from 4 days and stops/hops.
Aptly dubbed the kangaroo flight.
@Eamonn Duggan: although, just because they can fly non stop doesn’t mean they should. 17 hours stuck in a seat is almost too much to bare. I’d still break up the flight by stopping somewhere in Asia. Nice step forward all the same. I’d say in another 10 years it will be half that.
@Peter Cavey: With scram jet technology we should be able to travel from Sydney to London in 2hours. Although we might have to be fit enough to be able to withstand the G-forces involved. Looking forward to the next few years of this hypersonic test flights.
@Peter Cavey: how are they gonna half the time in 10 years ??
@Paul Power: With supersonic craft on a sub-orbital trajectory, akin to an ICBM.
@Eamonn Duggan: It is a big improvement on “4 stops”. However I’m sure you are of the Australian route these days is one of three from Ireland.
1..Dublin – Doha- Australia ( various cities)…. Qatar Airways Daily.
2…Dublin – Abu Dhabi – Australia ( various cities)…. Etihad Airways twice daily.
3…Dublin -Dubai – Australia ( various cities) .. Emirates. Twice daily.
All routes take 16 to 20 hours depending on destinations.
I would suggest also the mid-east airlines are far superior to Australian carrier Qantas in terms of comfort and service.
Brave route, but doubtful if it will last.
That’s a long time to be stuck in recirculated farts. Wouldn’t do it meself but class that it can be done! I’m also wondering how many meals are served. 3/4?
@Gareth Wogan: and tbh all the worthwhile places to see in Oz are on the east coast so….
@Gareth Wogan: lot to see in the west. Just depends what you consider ‘worthwhile’.
@Bilbo Baggins: name 5 good things to do.
@Gareth Wogan: Personally I prefer western Australia. It’s a shame most people tend to travel up and down the east coast.
@Gareth Wogan: I flew the Dubai – Auckland a couple years ago, 17.5hrs. Think we got 4 meals in economy. Surprisingly comfortable and a very modern, up to date entertainment system. Made the journey much easier than I thought.
@darren: I was there few months back. I guess what I want to say is that for all that way to travel it doesn’t really have lots going on. Lots of wine tours and went to rottnest island which is cool but east coast has way more things to do. I should say that I really don’t like Oz anyway. Asia is the spot to go
@Gareth Wogan: I went to WA via Thailand and wish I had stayed longer. WA actually made me want to return to Australia to see the east side ( I went via Japan and again wished I had stayed longer). Although I will agree the east has more to do I liked the west better. Rottnest.. beautiful walk, I did that in 45 degrees which wasn’t the smartest idea! Would love to see more of Asia but I may have to wait for the kids to grow up now.
It’s about the same length of time as waiting in A&E in the hospital (17 hrs). so I could cope with That!
@Gerry Fallon: Very true, the A&E seats are not so comffortable and no food or drink provided.
17 hours is a long time to be stuck on a plane…I hope they show plenty of movies.
@CharlotteFrench.ie: They have are normal long haul flights
Time in the air comfort is down to the plane and the carrier.
787 Dreamliner is the quietest, most comfortable plane I’ve been on to date.
Qantas air cabin crew are quite cheery too.
If travelling for that length of time one would frequently get up and walk around. The 787
has a load of space at the back, larger than any other plane I’ve seen. This feeds in to a happier crew
and good exercise room for a passenger to ward off DVT.
Tesla time to step up your game…
@Karl Doran: Putin has this sorted. Just need to strap yourself to one of his missiles
I’d hate to be stuck on a plane for that length of time
A complete mare. 17 hours in cattle class on Quaintarse. Why would you do it. Insane!!!
@Alex Carroll: The novelty is the same as Concorde, without cconsidering the waiting time in airports.
Give us a break!
It’s not the first time, there were scheduled services before I believe using a B777-200LR (which to this day is still the longest range passenger aircraft excluding military tankers) Not sure which airline but I think it was quantas. They stopped it for a few reasons, as it was discovered that there’s only so long you can put people in economy. Then there was a brief period of business class only flights and in the end the fuel burn just made the whole thing uneconomic.. 787 fuel burn is probably what’s making this viable again.. anyone know if the 787-9 has longer legs than the triple?
Fair play, great to see this and will hopefully get faster in a few years time
It is a big improvement on “4 stops”. However I’m sure you are of the Australian route these days is one of three from Ireland.
1..Dublin – Doha- Australia ( various cities)…. Qatar Airways Daily.
2…Dublin – Abu Dhabi – Australia ( various cities)…. Etihad Airways twice daily.
3…Dublin -Dubai – Australia ( various cities) .. Emirates. Twice daily.
All routes take 16 to 20 hours depending on destinations.
I would suggest also the mid-east airlines are far superior to Australian carrier Qantas in terms of comfort and service.
Brave route, but doubtful if it will last for reasons above
have your say