Israel is recalling its ambassadors from Norway and Ireland following the European countries’ drive to recognise Palestinian statehood, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.
“I have instructed the immediate recall of Israel’s ambassadors to Ireland and Norway for consultations in light of these countries’ decisions to recognise a Palestinian state,” Katz said.
“I’m sending a clear and unequivocal message to Ireland and Norway: Israel will not remain silent in the face of those undermining its sovereignty and endangering its security,” he posted on X.
Shortly before Katz’s announcement, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said his country would formally recognise Palestinian statehood on May 28.
Ireland is expected to announce a similar position soon.
The 2028 European Championship, will be hosted by the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, UEFA has confirmed.
The bid from UK and Ireland became unoppose when Turkey withdrew to focus on a bid with Italy for Euro 2032, which was also confirmed at a meeting in Switzerland.
This means that UEFA EURO 2028 will be hosted by all the entities in the UK namely; England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Wales.
The UK and Ireland focused on Euro 2028, with Uefa’s approval, after they ended a plan to be Europe’s preferred candidate for the 2030 World Cup.
According to the memoradum of Understanding between them, Cardiff’s Principality Stadium hosts the opening match of the 2028 tournament with the final at London’s Wembley.
“For me as a Welshman, I would love for Cardiff to host the opening match,” said former Wales captain Gareth Bale, who attended the presentation in Nyon.
“We have the stadium and infrastructure for it.”
The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales have never hosted a major football tournament.
Matches at Euro 2028 are set to be held at 10 different grounds, including Glasgow’s Hampden Park and Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. Belfast’s Casement Park and Everton’s Bramley-Moore Dock stadium, the former unbuilt while the latter is still under construction, were also included in the bid.
England were one of the 11 countries to host Euro 2020 along with Scotland, as well as being sole hosts of the 1966 World Cup and Euro ’96. England also hosted the record-breaking Women’s European Championship in 2022.
While Italy had only bid for the 2032 tournament, Turkey had initially bid to host both Euro 2028 and 2032.
TikTok has been fined 345 million euros (368 million U.S. dollars) by Irish data protection authorities following an investigation into the handling of user data from minors.
The agency said on Friday that the investigation, which ran from the end of July 2020 to the end of December 2020, focused on some of the video app’s settings as well as the age check during registration.
Posts such as videos by users between the ages of 13 and 17 could be published for all to see, according to a default setting.
The commenting function in the profiles was also accessible to all other users by default.
TikTok said the investigation’s findings primarily refered to settings that were valid three years ago.
“Most of those results are no longer relevant due to measures we put in place before the investigation began.
“These included setting all accounts for users under the age of 16 to private by default,” he said.
In addition to the fine, TikTok was ordered to bring its data processing in line with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within three months.
In May, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission slapped Meta with a record fine of 1.2 billion euros.
TikTok is in the process of moving European users’ data to new data centres in Ireland and Norway.
By the end of 2024, European user data would be transferred and stored at these centres by default.
TikTok is trying to gain trust in Europe with the plan under the name “Project Clover.”
The video app has a difficult political standing in the West because it belongs to the Chinese corporation Bytedance.
The European Commission and several European governments have banned the use of the app on the mobile phones of their employees.
With “Project Clover,” TikTok says it wants to guarantee that access to personal data of European users is strictly regulated and transparent.
Super Falcons forward Toni Payne on Monday said while her team knew that qualification to the Round of 16 would be difficult they however never considered it an impossibility.
Payne was adjudged the Player-of-the-Match in the team’s final Group B match at the ongoing 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brisbane, Australia on Monday.
The Falcons, after a 0-0 draw with Republic of Ireland, qualified for the competition’s knockout phase for the third time.
Payne, while reflecting on the result, said: “We are all ecstatic. Our objective going into this game was to get a point. We had enough opportunity to qualify and we did that today.
“We knew this was always going to be the group of death. We knew it was going to be hard, but we never thought it would be impossible.”
On her outstanding player-of-the-match performance, she attributed her success to teamwork, adding that her team mates worked for each other during the game.
“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. I am playing with such wonderful and hardworking players and when we work for each other we achieve our goals.
“If we play like how we have been playing and improve with each game, I think we can go all the way to the final,” Payne said.
The Super Falcons progressed as Group B runners-up and will now meet the Group D winners in the Round of 16 on Monday, which could either be England or Denmark.
The Super Falcons of Nigeria on Monday made it through to the second round of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup after playing out a goalless draw with the Republic of Ireland Women’s football team.
Both teams played counter-pressing football but all efforts to score a goal in the encounter didn’t yield much result.
Asisat Oshoala could have given Nigeria the lead in the first half of the encounter but her shot went past the goal post by inches wide.
Ireland had a glorious opportunity too but the shot was saved by goalkeeper, Chiamaka Nnadozie.
Super Falcons finished second in group B behind co-hosts Australia who mauled Canada by 4-0 in the other group B encounter.
Both matches were played simultaneously across two stadia in Australia.
Nigeria will play the leader of Group as any of England, China or Denmark can still top the group.
Super Falcons goalkeeper, Chiamaka Nnadozie has predicted that the last group match against Ireland at the ongoing 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup,will be the toughest game for them.
The West African ladies having gotten four points in two games needs to avoid defeat to make it to the next round of the competition in Australia.
While Ireland are out of the competition after losing two matches, the goalkeeper says the Europeans won’t be a walkover.
“Well, I think this would be the toughest game because Ireland, they’ve lost two games, so our game against them will be their last game. So they would want to come out strong,” she told Channels Television ahead of Monday’s Group B clash.
“They would want to play, play out everything. They would want to get a win before going. And to us, this is a game we really need to qualify [for the next stage]. We either need a draw or a win. So I think we just have to keep the mental cool.
“We don’t need to rush anything. We just have to take our time and do what we know how to do best. And I think we have to work harder, you know, to get a win in this game.”
The Super Falcons went into the tournament with squabbles about bonuses overshadowing their preparations. Ranked lowest in Group B, many fans and pundits did not fancy Nigeria’s chances in the competition.
But with four points from two games – including the win against co-hosts Australia – shooting them up to the zenith of the Group B standings, the goaltender has partly pinned the performances to the unity in the team.
“For the past few months, we’ve been going for international friendlies. Sometimes when you know there is a victory ahead of you, you have to prepare ahead. So, there is one love in the team,” the Paris FC player added.
“The spirit is high, the morale is high. There is unity. We’ve been working on this for so many months, you know, and I think if we are not able to put it through, it means that we’ve not been doing something. So, it shows we’ve been working and this team is a really good team.”
History-making captain Onome Ebi says the Super Falcons are gingered and in a super positive mood ahead of Monday evening’s Group B cracker against the Republic of Ireland at Brisbane’s Lang Park.
The 40-year-old became one of the oldest women to have featured at the FIFA Women’s World Cup when she was introduced into the game against co-hosts Australia at the same venue on Thursday.
She’s also one of the few women, and the only one from the African continent, to have played in six finals, alongside Brazil’s Marta and Canada’s Christine Sinclair.
“We are very positive and looking forward to the match. The mood in camp is great and everyone is in high spirits. The win against Australia has given us the belief and the confidence to face any team. We will play for a win.
“We want Nigerians all over the world to continue to support us and believe in the team. That alone gives us great motivation. We have won one match and drawn one. We want to set the record of not losing any match in the group phase and topping our group.”
When the Falcons reached the knock-out rounds in the USA in 1999, the team lost to hosts USA before defeating North Korea and Denmark to make the quarter-finals. Mercy Akide and Rita Nwadike scored in the 2-1 win over North Korea, while Akide and Nkiru Okosieme scored in the 2-0 win over Denmark.
In 2019, when they reached the Round of 16, the nine-time African champions lost 0-3 to Norway and 0-1 to hosts France, on either side of a 2-0 defeat of South Korea, with Asisat Oshoala scoring after an own goal by the Koreans.
“We know we still have a job to do; we are not deterred. We simply go in there and play for a win,” Ebi added.
The Falcons, top of the pool with four points, take on the ‘Girls in Green” on Monday night starting from 8pm Australia time (11am Nigeria time) with the Irish already eliminated from the tournament.
Co-hosts Australia tackle Canada in the other match of the group that will be played simultaneously. The Canadians are also on four points, with the Matildas on three.
With a win in mind, Nigeria could start with a forward-line of record-breaker Asisat Oshoala, and Uchenna Kanu (who scored the first goal against Australia), with Rasheedat Ajibade and Ifeoma Onumonu operating from the wings.
Ireland on Tuesday announced that workers above 66 years would be given a higher state pension the longer they stay at work.
The country was sidestepping a recommendation by a government-appointed commission to gradually increase the retirement age to 68 to help fund the ageing population.
Under the proposed flexible model agreed by ministers, people will have the option from 2024 to continue working up until the age of 70 in return for a higher pension for each additional year they work.
The state pension currently stands at 253 euros per week for those who retire at 66, and will increase to 315 euros for anyone who stays in the workforce until the age of 70.
Social insurance rates will gradually be increased over time to pay for the measures, the government said.
Similar to other countries, Ireland raised the retirement age to 66 in 2014 but it deferred plans to raise it to 67 in 2021 and again to 68 in 2028 after the pension age became a major issue at the 2020 election.
The coalition instead appointed a Commission on Pensions, whose recommendations included gradually increasing the pension age so it reached 67 in 2031 and 68 in 2038 to help deal with what will become a major fiscal sustainability challenge.
Ireland has a young demographic profile compared to its EU counterparts but the old-age dependency ratio was set to rise sharply in the next two decades so that by 2050 there will be just over two people of working age for every person over 65, compared with almost four currently.
The finance department has estimated that by 2030 age-related expenditure was expected to cost an additional 3.3 per cent of gross national income when compared to 2019 costs.
Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Fein, the largest opposition party that has a huge opinion poll lead ahead of elections in 2025, called the proposals “a Trojan horse.’’
A Nigerian-born Irish politician, Rotimi Adebari, who was a former Mayor of Portlaoise, Ireland, is among 50 prominent people, whose panel decorates train stations, in Ireland.
This was revealed in a publication by Turtle Bunbury, an Irish author, historian, podcaster, publisher and public speaker.
Nigerian-born Irish politician, Rotimi Adebari
Bunbury partnered Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail to produce 50 history panels installed across train stations in Ireland with each panel telling a brief history of past events and people connected with each vicinity.
In his reaction, Adebari said: “Great to see the history panel at Portlaoise train station. I am humbled and feel honoured to be included among people that history describes as “Legends”!!!
“Good job Turtle Bunbury Histories and Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail with the Past Tracks initiative ?
“I remain appreciative to the people of Portlaoise for making the history of electing me into Portlaoise Town Council in 2004, and to my colleagues in the council, for pushing the boundaries and elected me the Mayor of the town in 2007, I say; go raibh maith agat!!! ?”
He is a convert from Islam to Christianity, he fled Nigeria in 2000, and made a claim for asylum on the grounds of religious persecution.
His application was rejected because of a lack of evidence that he had personally suffered persecution, but he gained residency because his third child, another boy, was born in Ireland.
Nigerian-born Irish politician, Rotimi Adebari, lifted as he won Loais County Councilor
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Adebari and his family settled in County Laois. Adebari completed his master’s degree in intercultural studies at Dublin City University and set up a firm called Optimum Point Consultancy.
In 2004, he was elected as a town councilor in local elections. In June 2007 he was elected as mayor of Portlaoise Town Council (9 members), with support from Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and an Independent councillor.
In the 2009 local elections, he was re-elected to the town council and also to Laois County Council for the Portlaoise electoral area.
Adebari ran as an independent candidate in the 2011 general election for the Laois–Offaly constituency, though failed to get elected.
In that election, he received 628 1st preference votes (0.85%). Then, In 2014, Adebari lost his position as a Loais County Councilor.
Ireland’s Prime Minister, Taoiseach Micheal Martin, has tested positive for COVID-19.
It means the prime minister will be unable to meet U.S. President, Joe Biden, later on Thursday as part of the traditional shamrock ceremony.
Martin had been due to speak at the 30th anniversary of the Ireland Funds Gala dinner on Wednesday evening but had to leave that gathering.
Martin’s speech was instead given by Irish Ambassador to the U.S., Daniel Mulhall.
“I know you will all join with me in wishing the Taoiseach a speedy recovery,” he told the audience in Washington.
It remains unclear how the White House St Patrick’s Day celebrations will now be handled.
It also casts doubt on whether Martin can return to Ireland for a
national day of remembrance on Sunday to commemorate those who died during the COVID-19 pandemic.
