Truss power
Britain's Liz Truss is battling to retain her grip on power, a day after she lost a second top minister and open arguments and jostling among her lawmakers in parliament highlighted a breakdown of party unity and discipline.
A source in Truss's Downing Street office said on Thursday morning she is meeting with Graham Brady, the head of the 1922 Committee of Conservative lawmakers.
The Guardian's political editor Pippa Crerar said on Twitter that Truss had called the meeting.
Late Late show lineup
Hollywood actor Richard E. Grant will be on this week's Late Late Show to chat about his memoir A Pocketful of Happiness.
Richard lost his wife of 34 years Joan to cancer and describes the sadness and rawness that a terminal illness brings to a family.
It is a love story that spans the early days of their relationship when Richard was a waiter to the highs of being nominated for an Oscar
Sewage treatment
Only half of Ireland’s sewage was treated to EU environmental standards in 2021, below the EU average of 90 per cent, according to the latest Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on urban wastewater treatment.
The report for 2021, released on Thursday, says Ireland has failed to comply with the required standards since 2005.
It will take 20 years of sustained “multibillion-euro investment” by Irish Water to get all plants up to the required standard, the agency says.
There are 32 towns and villages which are “still discharging raw sewage into our environment every day in mid-2022″, and large towns and cities not treating sewage to EU standards.
Living wage increase
The living wage in Ireland has risen to €13.85 per hour, according to a group of researchers, academics and social justice groups known as the Living Wage Technical Group (LWTG).
This is €2.55 higher than the national minimum wage of €11.30 and a 7.4 per cent increase from the 2021/22 living wage rate of €12.90 per hour.
The LWTG said the living wage reflects the price pressures faced by employees in the State and the latest increase was determined by changes in living costs and income taxes.
Last month, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar announced that the Low Pay Commission had set an indicative living wage for 2023 of €13.10 per hour.
Consumer sentiment
Consumer sentiment improved slightly in October as consumers took some comfort from Government measures introduced in the budget to support household spending, a survey showed on Thursday.
The Credit Union Consumer Sentiment index climbed to 46.1 from 42.1 in September, recovering part of a 11.3-point decline from August. The index was previously sponsored by KBC Bank Ireland.
Despite the uptick, only 10 of the previous 320 readings in the near 27-year history of the survey were weaker than October's reading. The index was at 81.9 in January.
Gas price cap
The Taoiseach will meet other EU leaders on Thursday for the second time in a fortnight to try to bring down energy prices, though persistent divisions between them mean the bloc is unlikely for now put a ceiling on what it pays for gas.
The 27 countries are expected to back an alternative price benchmark for liquefied natural gas and joint gas buying, after earlier agreeing to cut consumption and introduce levies on windfall profits in the energy industry.
But they remain as split as they were months ago on whether and how to cap gas prices to stem high inflation and stave off recession, after Russia cut gas flows following its invasion of Ukraine.
Covid study
Covid-19 drove a dramatic increase in the number of women who died from pregnancy or childbirth complications in the US last year – a crisis that has disproportionately affected black and Hispanic women, according to a government report.
The report lays out grim trends across America for expectant mothers and their newborn babies.
It finds that pregnancy-related deaths have spiked nearly 80 per cent since 2018, with Covid-19 being a factor in a quarter of the 1,178 deaths reported last year.
The percentage of pre-term and low birthweight babies also went up last year, after holding steady for years.
