Ireland has delayed choosing its new prime minister after a row over speaking rights sparked angry scenes in the parliament.
The Irish Parliament, called the Dail, had this morning convened to nominate a new prime minister, with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin poised to take on the position.
However, the process was pushed back hours – and eventually adjourned until tomorrow – after a dispute over the new government led to widespread disorder and clashes.
Mr Martin had been due to take on the role of PM, called the taoiseach, after his party made an agreement with another, Fine Gael, and a selection of independents.
Image: Fine Gael leader Simon Harris and Fianna Fail leader, Michael Martin, whose parties are forming a coalition. Pic: Maxwells/PA
However, a disagreement over whether some of the independents would be given opposition speaking time led to today’s proceedings ending without the new Irish PM being officially chosen.
Five of the nine independents are due to given junior minister posts, while the remaining four are seeking to join a technical group – a mechanism designed to give opposition TDs (the Irish equivalent of MPs) speaking time.
This move has been widely rejected by opposition parties including Sinn Fein, Labour and the Social Democrats – who argue the independents supporting the incoming government should not be allowed to join technical groups.
‘An unprecedented day in Irish politics’
What a shambles. An unprecedented day in Irish politics, for all the wrong reasons.
Everyone knew a slightly politically wonky row about speaking rights was brewing.
Nobody thought it would actually sabotage the country getting a new prime minister.
Micheal Martin must now wait until tomorrow – at best – to become taoiseach for the second time.
He must feel slightly jinxed. When he first got the job, it was in pared-back fashion at the height of Covid, with his family prevented from attending.
Covid also kiboshed his first trip to the White House in 2021.
The following year, he made it as far as Washington, before catching Covid himself and scrapping his meeting with Joe Biden.
With his proud family in the public gallery today, his second term got off to the worst possible start – in that, it didn’t start at all.
His new coalition relies on some independent TDs (MPs).
They want speaking rights in the Dail, as if they were part of the opposition – infuriating opposition parties like Sinn Fein and Labour, who see it as having their cake and eating it.
The row has been grumbling on for a few days, but everyone assumed a procedural compromise would be found.
It wasn’t, and questions will be asked of the new government parties as to why they failed to properly pave the way for today’s appointment of a taoiseach.
Micheal Martin has the numbers, the deal, and will be prime minister again.
But it was an incredibly inauspicious first day back at the office for him and his partners – one they must ensure is not repeated.
When the Dail met to nominate a taoiseach at 11am, opposition members repeatedly interrupted proceedings.
Speaker Veronica Murphy suspended the Dail multiple times before it was agreed party whips would meet with the parliament’s clerk to seek a resolution – but the talks failed.
Addressing the chamber at 4.25pm, the government’s chief whip Hildegarde Naughton said the process should proceed and a Fianna Fail TD stood to begin the process of nominating Mr Martin as PM.
However, members of Sein Fein – including its leader Mary Lou McDonald – continued interrupting.
Ms Murphy then adjourned the Dail until 9am on Thursday.
Speaking to the press outside parliament, Mr Martin said: “The most fundamental obligation of the Dail is to elect a taoiseach and, indeed, to elect a government.
“That opportunity was denied today by a premeditated, coordinated and choreographed position by the opposition and particularly by Sinn Fein party.”
“The actions of the opposition, the actions of Sinn Fein today, were wholly disproportionate to the issue at hand, which could have been resolved,” he added.
Donald Trump has said he is ready to move to a second stage of sanctioning Russia, just hours after Moscow launched the largest arial attack of the war so far.
At least four people have been killed, including a mother and a three-month-old baby, with more than 40 others injured, after Russia launched a bombardment of drones overnight.
While on his way to the final of the US Open tennis tournament, the president was asked if he was ready to move to the second stage of punishment for Moscow, to which he replied, “Yes”.
It echoes US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said additional economic pressure by the United States and Europe could prompt Putin to enter peace talks with Ukraine.
“We are prepared to increase pressure on Russia, but we need our European partners to follow us,” Treasury Secretary Scott told NBC News’ Meet the Press.
Sir Keir Starmer said the latest attack shows Vladimir Putin is “not serious about peace” as he joined other allies in condemning Russia’s actions.
The prime minister said the “brutal” and “cowardly” assault on Kyiv – which resulted in a government building catching fire – proved the Russian leader feels he can “act with impunity”.
Russia attacked Kyiv with 805 drones and decoys, officials said, and Ukraine shot down and neutralised 747 drones and four missiles, the country’s air force has said.
The attack caused a fire to break out at a key government building, with the sky above Kyiv covered in smoke.
Appeasement makes ‘no sense’
Polish premier Donald Tusk said the latest military onslaught showed any “attempts to appease” Putin make “no sense”.
“The US and Europe must together force Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire. We have all the instruments,” Mr Tusk said on Saturday.
Meanwhile the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the Kremlin was “mocking diplomacy”.
Vladimir Putin reportedly wants control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine – known as the Donbas – as a condition for ending the war.
Russia occupies around 19% of Ukraine, including Crimea and the parts of the Donbas region it seized before the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
But this attack comes after European nations pressed the Russian leader to work to end the war at a virtual meeting of the “coalition of the willing” – a group of countries led by France and Britain seeking to help protect Kyiv in the event of a ceasefire.
Some 26 of Ukraine’s allies pledged to provide security guarantees as part of a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once the fighting ends, Mr Macron has said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to meet Mr Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged US president Donald Trump to put punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.
Image: Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
“The world can force the Kremlin criminals to stop the killings – all that is needed is political will,” he said on Sunday.
A report into the deadly Lisbon Gloria funicular crash has said the cable linking the two carriages snapped.
The carriages of the city’s iconic Gloria funicular had travelled no more than six metres when they “suddenly lost the balancing force of the connecting cable”.
The vehicle’s brake‑guard immediately “activated the pneumatic brake as well as the manual brake”, the Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents and Railway Accidents said.
Image: Flowers for the victims in Lisbon. Pic: AP
Image: Pic: AP
But the measures “had no effect in reducing the vehicle’s speed”, as it accelerated and crashed at around 60kmh (37mph), and the disaster unfolded in less than 50 seconds.
Questions have been asked about the maintenance of the equipment, but the report said that, based on the evidence seen so far, it was up to date.
A scheduled visual inspection had been carried out on the morning of the accident, but the area where the cable broke “is not visible without dismantling.”
The Gloria funicular is a national monument that dates from 1914 and is very popular with tourists visiting the Portuguese capital.
Image: The Gloria funicular connects Lisbon’s Restauradores Square to the Bairro Alto viewpoint
It operates between Restauradores Square in downtown Lisbon and the Bairro Alto neighbourhood.
The journey is just 276m (905ft) and takes just over a minute, but it operates up a steep hill, with two carriages travelling in opposite directions.
How the disaster unfolded
At around 6pm on Wednesday, Cabin No.2, at the bottom of the funicular, “jerked backward sharply”, the report said.
“After moving roughly 10 metres, its movement stopped as it partially left the tracks and its trolley became buried at the lower end of the cable channel.”
Cabin No.1, at the top, “continued descending and accelerated” before derailing and smashing “sideways into the wall of a building on the left side, destroying the wooden box [from which the carriage is constructed]”.
It crashed into a cast‑iron streetlamp and a support pole, causing “significant damage” before hitting “the corner of another building”.
Cable failed at top
Analysis of the wreckage showed the cable connecting the cabins failed where it was attached inside the upper trolley of cabin No.1 at the top.
The cable’s specified useful life is 600 days and at the time of the accident, it had been used for 337 days, leaving another 263 days before needing to be replaced.
The operating company regards this life expectancy as having “a significant safety margin”.
The exact number of people aboard each cabin when it crashed has not been confirmed.
Britons killed in disaster
Kayleigh Smith, 36, and William Nelson, 44, died alongside 14 others in Wednesday’s incident, including another British victim who has not yet been named.
Five Portuguese citizens died when the packed carriage plummeted out of control – four of them workers at a charity on the hill – but most victims were foreigners.
Any remaining residents in Gaza’s largest city should leave for a designated area in the south, Israel’s military has warned.
Israeli forces are carrying out an offensive on suburbs of Gaza City, in the territory’s north, as part of plans to capture it – raising concern over an already-devastating humanitarian crisis.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced pressure to stop the attack and allow more aid in, the military has announced a new humanitarian zone in the south.
Spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Gaza City residents should head to a designated coastal area of Khan Younis.
There, he said they would be able to receive food, medical care and shelter.
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On Thursday, Israel said it has control of around 40% of Gaza City and 75% of the entire territory of Gaza.
Many of the city’s residents had already been displaced earlier in the war, only to return later. Some of them have said they will refuse to move again.
That’s despite the military claiming it is within a few kilometres of the city centre, coming after weeks of heavy strikes.
But the war in Gaza has left Israel increasingly isolated in the diplomatic sphere, with some of its closest allies condemning the campaign that’s devastated the territory.
Just two weeks ago, a famine was declared in Gaza City and surrounding areas by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity.
Image: A resident runs with his belongings in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
There is also concern within Israel, where calls have grown to stop the war and secure the release of the remaining 48 hostages.
Israel believes 20 of those hostages are still alive.
Even as relatives of those hostages lead protests, Mr Netanyahu continues to push for an all-or-nothing deal to release all hostages and defeat Hamas.
On Friday, Donald Trump said Washington is in “very deep” negotiations with Hamas to release the captives.
“We said let them all out, right now let them all out. And much better things will happen for them but if you don’t let them all out, it’s going to be a tough situation, it’s going to be nasty,” he added.
Hamas is “asking for some things that are fine”, he said, without elaborating.