October 25 Today’s top stories in 60 seconds

Pubs will be able to serve until 12:30am every night under new rules
Pubs will be able to serve until 12:30am every night of the week under a major reform of licensing laws. The new legislation will also clear the way for nightclubs to stay open until 6am, but last orders will be required to be taken at 5am. Justice Minister Helen McEntee will bring a memo to Cabinet this morning seeking to modernise the country’s antiquated licensing laws. Under existing legislation, pubs have to stop serving at 11.30pm between Monday and Thursday, with this extending to 12:30am on Friday and Saturday, while final orders are at 11pm on Sunday. This will now be standardised across all seven days of the week with pubs permitted to open from 10:30am to 12:30am every day. In a move aimed at bringing Ireland in line with other European countries, nightclubs will have the option to remain open until 6am – with the requirement that alcohol cannot be served after 5am, with dancing able to continue until closing time. Opening hours for late bars will remain at 2:30am and a new late-bar permit will be required to keep serving later than regular pubs.
Independent.ie

Rishi Sunak to become the next UK prime minister after months of turbulence
Rishi Sunak will become Britain’s first prime minister of colour on Tuesday after he won the race to lead the Conservative Party, tasked with steering a deeply divided country through an economic downturn set to leave millions of people poorer. One of the wealthiest politicians in Westminster, Sunak, 42, will become the country’s youngest leader in modern times – and its third in less than two months – as he takes over during one of the most turbulent eras in British political history. He replaces Liz Truss, who only lasted 44 days before she said she would resign, needing to restore stability to a country reeling from years of political and economic turmoil and seeking to lead a party that has fractured along ideological lines.
Reuters

Partial eclipse of the sun to be visibile across Ireland this morning
A partial eclipse of the sun will be visible across Ireland this morning and astronomers are urging people to be careful not to injure their eyesight if trying to view it. Astronomy Ireland is running an Eclipse Watch at its headquarters in Blanchardstown, west Dublin, this morning for the last eclipse of the sun visible from Ireland until 2024. Telescopes with special filters fitted to the front of them will allow a safe and close-up view of the eclipse from 10.06am until 11.40am. The experts said that the maximum eclipse is at 10.52am. Solar eclipses occur whenever the moon passes between the sun and earth, which casts its shadow down on the planet.
The Journal

Results from Electric Picnic drug-testing scheme to be published
The results of a pilot drug-testing programme at this year’s Electric Picnic music festival are set to be published this morning. The scheme involved festivalgoers anonymously surrendering drugs into special bins. The substances were then analysed. The Health Service Executive’s clinical lead of addiction services Professor Eamon Keenan said 46 samples were submitted and analysed in real-time at the event. Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said the drugs were shown to be mainly MDMA, or ecstasy tablets and powders of high strength.
RTÉ

Eamon Ryan defends retrofitting scheme despite only 89 completed applications
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has insisted his failing retrofitting scheme is still working, despite just 89 applications being completed. Mr Ryan and his officials set a target of 500,000 home upgrades to a BER rating of B2 at least by 2030, or 62,500 a year, but so far only 681 homes have been approved. Despite being way off target, Mr Ryan said: “This points to a strong pipeline of works for the coming months under the scheme”.
The Irish Examiner

St Louis: Three dead, seven injured after school shooting
At least three people, including the suspect, have died and seven others are injured after a shooting at a high school in St Louis, Missouri. The gunman entered Central Visual & Performing Arts High School shortly after 9am local time (1pm GMT) on Monday. The doors of the school building were locked and it was not immediately clear how the suspect entered. Witnesses say lives were saved after the gunman’s weapon jammed mid-attack. The suspect, identified by police as a 19-year-old former student, exchanged gunfire with police and later succumbed to his injuries. His motive for the attack at the school of about 400 students is unclear. A teenage girl was pronounced dead inside the school, while one woman died in hospital, police told local media. The seven injured – three girls and four boys – all had non-life-threatening injuries, according to local media. The gunman was found to be carrying hundreds of bullets that were sorted into nearly a dozen high-capacity magazines, the city’s police commissioner Michael Sack later said, adding: “This could have been much worse.”
BBC

Harvey Weinstein’s new trial begins in LA with multiple women to testify
As Harvey Weinstein faces a new trial on multiple rape and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles, a prosecutor alleged a series of graphic rapes in hotel rooms across the city, and a group of women who were left terrified by Weinstein’s power within Hollywood. Opening statements began on Monday, with prosecutors in Los Angeles saying that eight women would testify about Weinstein’s alleged crimes, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and actor who is now married to the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. Siebel Newsom alleges that Weinstein raped her during what she thought would be a business meeting in 2005, when she was a young actor trying to build her career. Today, Weinstein, 70, is serving a 23-year sentence after being convicted of sex crimes in New York in February 2020. Since 2017, nearly 100 women have publicly accused Weinstein of sexual violence and inappropriate sexual behaviour during encounters going back to the 1970s, revelations that fueled an international reckoning with the lack of criminal or social consequences for powerful men who sexually abuse women. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to the new charges and has said all of his sexual encounters with women were consensual.
The Guardian

Today’s forecast
Scattered showers in the west and south this morning spreading northwards. Becoming mostly cloudy with persistent and locally heavy rain spreading from the south later in the afternoon and evening. Highest temperatures of 13°C to 17°C with moderate to fresh southeasterly winds developing. Windy tonight with rain clearing to showers early on, some turning heavy or thundery at times. Mild with lowest temperatures of 10°C to 13°C, with fresh to strong and gusty southerly winds.
Met Éireann