The Emerald Isle has a new leader. Ireland’s parliament on Tuesday elected Simon Harris as the country’s next taoiseach (prime minister) after Leo Varadkar unexpectedly announced his resignation last month.
Harris, 37, is Ireland’s youngest-ever taoiseach. He ran unopposed to replace Varadkar as leader of the center-right Fine Gael Party, which is in a coalition government with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. Harris served as higher education minister in Varadkar’s government. He was also Ireland’s health minister when it voted to legalize abortion — a move he strongly supported — and at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which boosted his national profile.
What’s on his agenda? Harris faces challenges ranging from a housing crisis to beleaguered health services. He pledged to prioritize housing in a speech on Tuesday.
“Today, I recommit to moving mountains to help build more homes,” Harris said, vowing to “build a new social contract.”
An election looms. The clock is ticking for Harris, given that a general election must be held by March 2025. “Time is short, and there is lots to do,” Harris said Tuesday.
His coalition also faces a challenge from the nationalist, left-wing Sinn Fein Party.
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein’s leader, portrayed Harris as a continuation of the status quo. “Here we go again — pass the parcel with the keys to the taoiseach’s office one more time,” she said.
A recent opinion poll showed Sinn Fein leading Fine Gael, 26% to 21%. Both parties were down a point from the previous poll, which suggests Harris has his work cut out for him.
Is China’s economic model reaching a breaking point? In GZERO’s 2026 Top Risks livestream, Cliff Kupchan, Chairman of Global Macro at Eurasia Group, highlights mounting pressures on the Chinese economy.
2026 is a tipping point year. The biggest source of global instability won’t be China, Russia, Iran, or the ~60 conflicts burning across the planet – the most since World War II. It will be the United States.
While surgeons remain fully in control, technological advances are expanding the use of surgical robots in operating rooms. As adoption accelerates, so do the expectations for patient outcomes and surgical care. Track medical innovation trends with Bank of America Institute.
Europe enters 2026 under mounting strain as it confronts external threats, internal political pressures, and a weakening relationship with the United States. In GZERO’s 2026 Top Risks livestream, Mujtaba Rahman, Managing Director for Europe at Eurasia Group, describes a continent that is “exhausted, fatigued, weak, and vulnerable.”