By Sarah Gill
26th Oct 2023
26th Oct 2023
Your speedy summary of today's must-read stories.
Maine shooting
At least 22 people have been killed and dozens of others injured in shootings at a bar and bowling alley in the US city of Lewiston, Maine. While some reported at least 16 dead, Lewiston city councillor Robert McCarthy told CNN that law enforcement had “confirmed 22 dead, many, many more injured”. Maine public safety official Mike Sauschuck said he was not prepared to give a death toll, calling it “a very fluid situation.”
EU leaders to call for pause to allow aid into Gaza
According to the final draft of a text to be approved at a summit in Brussels, European Union leaders will call for the establishment of “humanitarian corridors and pauses” to get urgently-needed aid into Gaza. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is in Brussels for the two-day summit of EU leaders which is set to be dominated by the conflict in the Middle East. “The European Council expresses its gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and calls for continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses,” the text says.
Out-of-hours GP patients
Doctors have warned that patients who do not have a family doctor and are relying on out-of-hours GP services are at risk of their treatment not being safely monitored. Some out-of-hours services are struggling so much with increased demand they may no longer be able to accept patients who have no GP. The National Association of GP Co-ops has written to the HSE warning that 10% of the population does not have a GP. “We cannot see how we can any longer accommodate the increasing numbers of patients who have been unable to register with a member GP,” they said.
Sewage in Irish waterways
Raw sewage from the equivalent of 54,000 people in 26 towns and villages is still discharged into the environment every day in Ireland. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Uisce Éireann, formerly Irish Water, has not managed to tackle pollution in some of the most significantly impacted rivers, estuaries, lakes, and coastal waters. Wastewater treatment in 15 large urban areas, including Dublin, did not meet EU environmental standards, while 26 towns and villages discharge raw sewage every day as they are not connected to treatment plants.