IrelandMorning Briefing

Your morning briefing: Hunt for gunman after at least 16 shot dead in US, Irish citizens urged to leave Lebanon

Plan to time-limit housing for Ukrainians criticised, the story of the man whose body lay in Cork house for 20 years, and man on e-scooter killed

A police officer in a patrol car next to the Schememgees bar where a man reportedly opened fire killing and injuring numerous people in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday. Photograph: CJ Gunther/EPA
A police officer in a patrol car next to the Schememgees bar where a man reportedly opened fire killing and injuring numerous people in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday. Photograph: CJ Gunther/EPA

Maine shooting: At least 16 people feared dead in Lewiston as police hunt for gunman

At least 16 people are feared dead and dozens more have been injured following a mass shooting in the US state of Maine.

Hundreds of police fanned out across the state early on Thursday hunting for a man wanted in connection with shootings at a bar and a bowling alley in the town of Lewiston.

Officials said there were multiple casualties but declined to provide figures. US news outlets reported a death toll ranging from 16 to 22, a range of fatalities on par with the number of homicides that normally occur in Maine in any given year, reports Washington Correspondent Martin Wall.

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People look on as rubble left by Israel airstrikes is cleared in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Photograph: Yousef Masoud/The New York Times
People look on as rubble left by Israel airstrikes is cleared in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Photograph: Yousef Masoud/The New York Times

Israel-Hamas conflict

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Relentless Paddy Cosgrave drive could re-envision how a tech event might be run also relished engaging in public disputes. Photograph: Antonio Cotrim/EPA
Relentless Paddy Cosgrave drive could re-envision how a tech event might be run also relished engaging in public disputes. Photograph: Antonio Cotrim/EPA

Tech Analysis

  • Paddy Cosgrave’s undoing exposes Web Summit’s glaring contradictions: The resignation this week of Web Summit chief executive Paddy Cosgrave somehow managed to be both startling and utterly predictable at the same time, not unlike Cosgrave himself.He’s always been an energetic creative dynamo with a contrarian bent. Credit where credit is due: a restless thinker and instigator, he managed to turn a modest idea – staging a few occasional talks in Dublin by some interesting Silicon Valley tech industry insiders – into the global success of the mammoth annual Web Summit and its spin-offs, an extraordinary achievement, writes Karlin Lillington.

The best from Opinion

  • Has Ireland ever been as European as we liked to believe?: The chaos of Brexit brought with it several by-products. Among them, Ireland’s increased fervour for the European Union was perhaps the least surprising. Thanks to sustained attacks leveraged at Leo Varadkar (a naive patsy of Brussels, as a certain wing of the British press might have you believe), it is no wonder that the country embraced its friendlier European colleagues with open arms, writes Finn McRedmond.

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Martyn Turner

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Letters to the Editor

Dublin Airport expansion, at what cost?

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Sir, – The Irish Times leader on Dublin Airport refers to three main parties involved: the DAA, the residents of Finglas and the owners of a nearby piece of land, suited for development, who are apparently seeking €200 million (“A third terminal on the horizon”, October 25th).

However, there are other significant “actors” whose interests should be taken into account when considering expansion of air travel.

Planet Earth is in an advanced stage of irreversible decline because of climate change, caused in no small part by carbon dioxide emissions from air transport.

The populations of almost all countries are severely affected by increasing emissions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa through drought and unpredictable weather patterns leading to severe food shortages.

Non-flying, or unwilling, Irish people must, through their taxes, contribute to the massive subsidies provided to the airline industry by the Government in respect of fuel costs, thus fuelling the “expansion” of the industry. It is long past time where questions of proposed airport expansion can be considered in a meaningful and responsible way in isolation from our responsibilities under, for example, the Paris agreement.

There were probably 100,000 international flights taken by Irish rugby fans alone during the recent series. If I travel by car to Donegal to see a football game, I receive no subsidy on the cost of the fuel, but if I fly to Paris for similar reasons, adding to an already large carbon footprint, I do.

Something doesn’t seem right. If air fares fairly reflected the unsubsidised fuel costs of passengers per flight, then fewer journeys would be taken, resulting in a reduction of emissions and, perhaps, the “need” for expansion at the airport might be obviated.

The vital environmental needs of our planet should not be trumped by the so described “economic imperative for regular, reliable air access to our island”. – Yours, etc,

PAUL O’SHEA, Shankill, Dublin 18.

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