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Newly elected Prime Minister Simon Harris leaves the Dail, in Dublin, following the vote by Irish parliamentarians to elect him, making him the youngest taoiseach in Ireland's history.
Who is Ireland’s new prime minister, Simon Harris?
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.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar leaves after speaking to the media at Government Buildings in Dublin, he has announced he is to step down as Taoiseach and as leader of his party, Fine Gael. Picture date: Wednesday March 20, 2024.
Irish PM steps down
Leo Varadkar announced Wednesday that he will step down as Ireland’s Taoiseach, aka prime minister, after leading coalition governments twice – for five of the past seven years. When he came to power in 2017, he was Ireland’s youngest-ever and first openly gay Taoiseach, and the country’s first leader from an Indian background.
Echoing similar sentiments to other young leaders who have stepped down, likeSanna Marin andJacinda Ardern, the former physician cited both personal and political reasons for leaving office.
“One part of leadership is knowing when the time has come to pass on the baton to somebody else,” Varadkar said. “Politicians are human beings, and we have our limitations.”
During his political career, Varadkar pioneered some progressive policies in one of the most socially conservative countries in Europe. As minister of health, he advocated for the legalization of same-sex marriage ahead of the successful 2015 referendum, and while he was PM, Ireland repealed a strict abortion ban in 2018.
But recently, Varadkar’s government suffered an embarrassing defeat in two referendums aimed at modernizing the constitution’s definition of a family and the role of women at home. The largest referendum defeat in the country’s history is being blamed on lackluster, confusing messaging from Varadkar’s “yes” campaign and an energized coalition of dissatisfied “no” voters from across the political spectrum.
Varadkar’s resignation – which will not trigger a general election – will take place once his party chooses his replacement. But a general election must be held before March 2025, and his governing coalition is expected to suffer heavy losses against the nationalist Sinn Fein party.
For Varadkar, saying (a not-so-Irish) goodbye may be easier than facing the public once again.
New Delhi, Mar 10 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the launch of Mahtari Vandan Yojana in Chhattisgarh via video conferencing, on Sunday.
Hard Numbers: India & EFTA sign trade deal, Oppenheimer's Oscars, Biden's big haul, Portuguese polls, Irish vote down constitutional change, New hope for Libya
100 billion: India has signed a trade agreement with the four members of the European Free Trade Association — Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland — aimed at integrating supply chains and opening new opportunities for trade and investment. The deal includes a commitment to invest a whopping $100 billion in India over the next 15 years to create 1 million jobs.
7: The big winner at the Oscars on Sunday was "Oppenheimer," director Christopher Nolan's historic drama about the invention of nuclear weapons, which took home seven prizes, including Best Film. The documentary "20 Days in Mariupol" also won Ukraine its first Oscar.
10 million: The Biden campaign says it raised over $10 million in the 24 hours following the State of the Union, which served as a de facto campaign event. It’s the campaign’s largest one-day haul yet. With a long eight-month campaign ahead, the Biden team has been stockpiling a war chest as Trump fought contested primaries (not to mention legal battles).
79: The Portuguese center-right Democratic Alliance took 79 seats in Sunday's elections, ousting the incumbent socialist party but falling well short of the 115 seats it would need for a majority government. The party's leader, however, swore he would not work with the far-right Chega party, which surged in the polls, to establish a majority.
73.93: On Friday, Irish voters rejected proposed constitutional changes concerning the concept of family and care in a nationwide referendum. The first proposal would have recognized “family” as a couple without regard to their sex, while the second aimed to strip reference to the role of women in the home. Well over half, some 67.7% of Irish voters, opposed the first, while 73.93% said no to the second.
3: Progress in Libya’s long conflict may soon be at hand: On Sunday, three leaders agreed on the need to form a new unified government to supervise the country’s long-delayed elections. Elections were due in December 2021, but fell apart owing to disputes over who was eligible to run.Feminist protestors holding signs on International Women's Day.
On International Women’s Day, Ireland amends sexism in its constitution
Just in time for International Women’s Day, the Republic of Ireland will vote today on whether to change a clause in its constitution that says "the State shall ... endeavor to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labor to the neglect of their duties in the home."
In addition to cutting the antiquated language, the country is considering replacing it with a clause about supporting caregivers of any gender and expanding the definition of family to include unmarried couples and single parents.
Supporters say the proposition is the next step for the traditionally Catholic country after it became the first in the world to vote for same-sex marriage in 2015 and overturned its constitutional ban on abortion in 2018.
Critics argue that a constitutional amendment is no substitute for structural changes needed to value unpaid care work, tackle gender inequality in the labor market, and drive deep societal shifts that lead to more male participation in caregiving and housework.
The referendum is expected to pass, but this is not the first time the holiday has coincided with a groundbreaking moment in a country’s history.
International Women’s Day originated in New York City in 1909, when the socialist and suffragist women’s movements met for a joint demonstration. The struggle of working-class women to form trade unions and the upper-class fight for women’s franchises had rarely intersected before. The movement spread to Europe, where it continued to be celebrated through World War I, even as other social movements fizzled.
The movement sparked the Russian Revolution. On March 8, 1917, Russian feminist Alexandra Kollontai brought the holiday to Czarist Russia by calling for a massive demonstration over peace and bread shortages. The protests spread from factory to factory until they sparked the Russian Revolution and led to the abdication of Czar Nicholas II.
Vladimir Lenin declared that International Women’s Day would forever be celebrated on March 8. The start of the Cold War confined it to Communist countries, and the West largely denounced it until the United Nations recognized it as International Women’s Day in 1975.
First Minister Michelle O'Neill during an interview with PA Media, on the day Ms O’Neill became Northern Ireland's first nationalist First Minister. Saturday February 3, 2024
Northern Ireland names first Sinn Fein leader
After two long years, Northern Ireland once again has a functioning government – and in a historic move, it has named Michelle O’Neill as the first-ever First Minister from Sinn Fein. The party, which served as the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, won a majority of seats in the 2022 election.
The country’s unique “Good Friday Agreement” necessitates that unionists and nationalists share power, but that cooperation collapsed in 2022 over a dispute about post-Brexit trade rules with the EU. O’Neill will share power with Deputy Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, from the Democratic Unionist Party, which had dominated Northern Ireland’s politics for decades.
While the 47-year-old O’Neill favors the unity of the two Irelands, she downplayed that in the days leading to her appointment and pledged to continue “the work of reconciliation between all our people.” O’Neill’s father was imprisoned for IRA membership before transitioning to politics, but O’Neill herself is not an anti-monarchist, notably attending both Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and the coronation of King Charles III last year.
Her government also has more pressing concerns: health care and cost-of-living issues. Nevertheless, O’Neill’s appointment gives hope to those who would like to one day see the two Irelands united.
The dog, Bobi, that broke the record for oldest dog ever at 30 years-old, is pictured at Conqueiros, in Leiria, Portugal, February 4, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Dog title temporarily revoked, Young Irish adults live with parents, Russian air travelers live in fear, Houthi strikes crush cargo
⅔: Ireland is suffering from a serious housing crisis. Rents are so high that some two-thirds of Irish young adults live with their parents, which is nearly 20 points higher than the EU average. Experts blame a failure to invest in social housing and an overreliance on market solutions, which created incentives for developers to build luxury or short-term rental properties rather than lower or middle-income housing.
8: Russia’s commercial airline industry is hitting some serious turbulence. In the first eight days of December, according to a new report, Russian civilian airliners suffered at least eight separate serious mechanical failures. The rash of incidents is part of a wider problem: Western sanctions preventing the delivery of parts and service to Western-made aircraft in Russia are causing Russia’s commercial fleets to fall apart,
65: Houthi airstrikes on commercial ships navigating the Red Sea have caused cargo volumes through that waterway to fall 65% from normal levels. On Tuesday, even after two rounds of US-led airstrikes on Houthi targets, a Houthi missile struck a Greek-owned ship off the Yemeni coast. The Houthis say they’ll stop when there’s a cease-fire in Gaza, a call echoed by Qatar’s prime minister on Tuesday at Davos. (See our explainer on why Qatar is a small country with big influence these days.)Ukrainians visit a monument to Holodomor victims during a commemoration ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the famine of 1932-33, against a backdrop of Russian drones attacking Kyiv.
Hard Numbers: Russian drones, Malagasy election, Ireland's clashes, China's illnesses, breakaway iceberg
75: Russia launched its biggest-ever drone attack on Kyiv on Saturday, firing 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones at the Ukrainian capital, and all but one were shot down. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, noting that it came on the commemoration of the 1932-1933 Holodomor famine, engineered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, which killed several million Ukrainians.
58.9: Madagascar’s incumbent President Andry Rajoelina is poised for a new term in office after garnering 58.9% of the vote in last week’s elections. Only 46% of voters cast a ballot after 10 of 12 rival parties refused to campaign and called for a boycott. They now refuse to recognize the results, which have to be formally validated by the country’s constitutional court.
34: Thirty-four people have been arrested in Dublin, Ireland, following clashes between right-wing protesters and police that saw widespread looting and rioting. The violence erupted after a man, who was falsely described as a foreign national, was taken into custody following last Thursday's stabbing of three schoolchildren outside a primary school.
13,000: Videos of Chinese hospitals overflowing with parents and children have circulated on social media. Beijing Children’s Hospital was admitting 7,000 patients daily as of late last week, and the largest pediatric hospital in Tianjin broke a record on Saturday, receiving more than 13,000 children. China told the World Health Organization the surge is due to the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions and an increase in COVID-19, influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae, and respiratory syncytial virus, not a novel virus.
1,500: One of the world’s largest icebergs is drifting beyond Antarctic waters after being grounded for more than three decades, according to the British Antarctic Survey. The iceberg is three times as large as New York City and over twice as big as Greater London, measuring around 1,500 square miles.Leo Varadkar, Ana Brnabić, Edgars Rinkēvičs, Xavier Bettel
Current world leaders who are openly LGBTQ+
As of June 2023, it's still rare for a head of government to be openly LGBTQ+. Here are the four leaders currently in office or elected to the top job.
Edgars Rinkēvičs
Edgars Rinkēvičs.
NATO
Country: Latvia
Position: President-elect
Edgars Rinkēvičs was the first government official to come out in Latvia, tweeting in 2014, "I proudly announce I am gay ... Good luck all of you." When he takes office in July, he will be the first openly gay president in the Baltic nations.
Xavier Bettel
Xavier Bettel
Country: Luxembourg
Position: Prime Minister
Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg's PM since 2013, has said, “Being gay is not a choice, but not accepting it is a choice. Homophobia is a choice, and we have to fight against it!” He married his civil partner in 2015, becoming the first serving leader in the European Union to wed someone of the same sex.
Leo Varadkar
Leo Varadkar
Country: Ireland
Position: Taoiseach (Prime Minister)
Leo Varadkar took office in June 2017, two years after he came out as gay prior to Ireland's referendum legalizing same-sex marriage. He is the first openly gay Irish PM. “I feel privileged to be gay in Ireland. We should not forget that only 30 of the 190 countries in the world have marriage equality. In 70 countries, it’s still criminalized,” says Varadkhar.
Ana Brnabić
Ana Brnabić
Country: Serbia
Position: Prime Minister
When Ana Brnabić took office in June 2017, she became not only Serbia's first gay prime minister but also its first female PM. “Serbia is changing and changing fast, and if you will, I am part of that change, but I do not want to be branded ‘Serbia’s gay PM’. The message we need to send is about competence, professionalism, and trustworthiness,” Brnabić said.