Ashling Murphy: Murder of young school teacher has 'united the nation in solidarity and revulsion', Irish leader says - Sky News

The murder of primary school teacher Ashling Murphy has "united the nation in solidarity and revulsion", Ireland's prime minister has said.

Ms Murphy, 23, was found dead on Wednesday afternoon after going for a run on the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

Gardai are continuing the hunt for her killer after a man who was being questioned was released from custody, deemed no longer a suspect.

Image: A vigil was held on Friday at Leinster House, Dublin, for Ashling Murphy

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said: "It's very poignant and a very sad moment in our nation's affairs when a young talented musician had her life violently taken a few days ago.

"Our hearts and our minds go out to the Murphy family, to her community, to her family and friends, and to particularly the young pupils who no doubt would have been looking forward to Ashling's presence in the classroom teaching music or sport as well as the broader curriculum."

"I've always been of the view that a national schoolteacher, from the beginning of the state, has been the bedrock upon which our society was built.

"And, in many ways, Ashling Murphy represented and personified the very best of that tradition of national teaching.

"I think it has united the nation in solidarity and revulsion at what has happened."

Mr Martin added: "No stone will be left unturned in terms of bringing this investigation to a completion and to bring the person responsible for this to justice."

Image: Women at a Dublin vigil called for action on gender-based violence

Image: Police in Ireland are continuing their hunt for the person who killed Ms Murphy

Ireland's deputy premier Leo Varadkar said society must face up to an "epidemic of violence against women".

Mr Varadkar added: "Men and boys, I think, in particular have a responsibility to start to have that conversation among ourselves about the kind of factors, the kind of attitudes, that give rise to feelings that engender men to commit acts of violence against women.

"I would hope that by shining a light on gender-based violence might help us to have this discussion in society and to improve things."

Mr Martin promised a national strategy is being developed to tackle sexual, domestic, and gender-based violence in Ireland, which will adopt a "zero-tolerance" approach.

Mourners appeared from nowhere and just kept coming

David Blevins

Senior Ireland correspondent

@skydavidblevins

At 3.45pm, 100 people stood outside the Irish Parliament in Dublin. By 4pm, the number had grown to 1,000. They appeared from nowhere and just kept coming.

At this vigil and others across Ireland, the nation paused to remember the young woman whose life was ended by an act of violence on Wednesday.

A band of traditional musicians had just begun to play when Ireland's prime minister, Taoiseach Micheal Martin joined the silent crowd.

With the hashtag "She was just going for a jog" trending, one woman held a sign poignantly reading: "It doesn't matter what she was doing".

Some held pictures of Ashling Murphy, others lit candles in her memory and hundreds placed flowers at a makeshift shrine on the pavement.

The silence of the vast crowd, spilling into neighbouring streets, spoke louder than any words about the sense of revulsion across Ireland.

Yes, there is fear but it's being overpowered by another growing sentiment - that enough is enough and attitudes must change.

People didn't want to be here, marking the death of another woman, but came to demand it be a watershed moment in the campaign to end violence against women.

Vigils have been held across Ireland in recent days and more are planned, as people express their grief for a young woman described by her family as a "special girl" and a "little angel".

Thousands of people gathered late on Friday afternoon in Tullamore, Dublin, and in the Northern Ireland city of Belfast, as well as a number of other towns.

Ms Murphy's father Raymond told the Irish Independent newspaper: "She was a great worker, with great drive. A marvellous musician.

"She crammed so much into her short life."

Man released after questioning

On Thursday police released a man they had been questioning, saying he is no longer a suspect.

But the man has had his "life ruined", according to his solicitor Donal Farrelly, who represented him during two days of being questioned.

Mr Farrelly criticised those who had tried to identify the man on social media.

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2022-01-14 17:45:17Z
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Australia cancels Novak Djokovic’s visa for a second time - Financial Times

The Australian government has cancelled Novak Djokovic’s visa again, just days before the start of the Australian Open tennis tournament, which the world’s top-ranked men’s player has won nine times.

Alex Hawke, immigration minister and a close ally of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, said: “Today I exercised my power under section 133C (3) of the Migration Act to cancel the visa held by Mr Novak Djokovic on health and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so.”

Hawke was expected to move to deport Djokovic, who is appealing against the visa cancellation. At a late night court hearing the tennis star was ordered to return to a detention facility on Saturday ahead of his appeal hearing on Sunday.

Djokovic entered the country as an unvaccinated non-resident last week having been granted a medical exemption to play in the Grand Slam event after contracting Covid-19 in December. But the Australian Border Force argued that he had not complied with the country’s strict policies.

After five days of deliberation, Hawke said on Friday: “The Morrison government is firmly committed to protecting Australia’s borders, particularly in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Morrison later said: “Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic, and they rightly expect the result of those sacrifices to be protected. This is what the minister is doing in taking this action today.”

Djokovic, the defending Australian Open champion, is vying to become the most successful men’s player in the sport’s modern era. But the timing of the decision, announced on Friday evening, has given his lawyers little time to file an appeal ahead of the Grand Slam event, which starts on Monday.

If the appeal is successful he would be free to play in the tournament. Djokovic’s lawyers have not commented on the second visa revocation.

The player’s first appeal was expedited so that it was heard within four days of his visa being cancelled. With the schedule for the tournament yet to be published, Djokovic could yet play in the opening round, in which he is set to face fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic.

Simon Jeans, an immigration lawyer, told the ABC that there was still a chance that Djokovic, who has publicly opposed mandatory vaccinations, could prevail in an appeal against the decision despite Hawke using his personal powers to cancel the visa. “There is a risk there is an error of law and they quash this decision,” he said.

Djokovic won his first appeal in the federal court on Monday against the initial decision by the country’s border force to cancel his visa on procedural grounds. Anthony Kelly, the judge who quashed the visa cancellation based on the behaviour of Australian Border Force officials, will probably hear the second appeal as well.

However, documents that the Serbian player filed to win that appeal have drawn greater scrutiny over his actions and the credibility of his vaccination exemption used to enter Australia.

Djokovic admitted on Wednesday that his agent had incorrectly filled out a travel declaration form and that he had attended an interview and photo shoot in Serbia despite testing positive for Covid.

A poll conducted by News Corp of 61,000 people this week revealed that 84 per cent of respondents backed the tennis player’s deportation.

The controversy has nonetheless stoked criticism of Morrison in an election year. His government is already battling to contain a Covid outbreak and ease supply chain problems caused by the pandemic, which have led to empty shelves in supermarkets.

Video: Tennis: the players struggling to break even

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2022-01-14 09:03:17Z
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Ukraine: 'Massive cyber attack' shuts down government websites - Sky News

A "massive cyber attack" has hit a number of government websites in Ukraine, including the website of the foreign ministry, a spokesman has said.

"As a result of a massive cyber attack, the websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a number of other government agencies are temporarily down," the spokesman for the foreign ministry said.

"Our specialists are already working on restoring the work of IT systems, and the cyber police opened an investigation."

The government said the content of the sites had not been changed, and no personal data was leaked.

'We can imagine who is behind it'

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It said in a statement that a number of other government websites had been suspended to prevent the attack from spreading to other resources, but most of those affected were quickly restored.

Asked whether Russia was suspected as being behind the attack, the spokesman said: "It's too early to draw conclusions, but there is a long record of Russian assaults against Ukraine."

More on Ukraine

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The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the attack, saying he "has no evidence who was responsible", but "we can imagine who is behind it".

An emergency EU meeting has been called to respond, he added.

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0:47

'Russia is not threatening anybody'

Were any other websites affected?

Reuters has reported that the websites of the cabinet of ministers, agrarian policy, security and defence council, and ministry of education also appeared to have gone down.

"Due to the global attack on the night of Jan. 13-14, 2022, the official website of the Ministry of Education and Science is temporarily down," the ministry said on Facebook.

On some of the websites, a text in three languages - Ukrainian, Polish and Russian - said all data of Ukrainians uploaded to the network had become public.

"Ukrainian! All your personal data was uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore it," the message reads.

"All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future."

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4:26

Russia and the West: What's going on?

Why would Russia be suspected?

Russia has repeatedly been accused of cyber attacks against Ukraine, including far more serious cyber assaults such as targeting critical national infrastructure such as power.

Cyber attacks against websites are a much less sophisticated and less harmful form of attack.

Russian cyber attacks previously accompanied military support to separatists in the east of the country following Moscow's annexation of Crimea.

Western officials have been concerned about possible new cyber attacks as tensions mount over the potential for a new Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The targeting of Ukrainian government websites comes at the end of a week of international diplomacy over Ukraine between Russia, the US, and NATO allies that ended without agreement and with both sides signalling worse hostilities could follow.

Russia said dialogue was continuing but was hitting a dead end as it tried to persuade the West to bar Ukraine from joining NATO and roll back decades of alliance expansion in Europe - demands that the US has called "non-starters".

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2022-01-14 08:37:30Z
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Novak Djokovic news LIVE: Serb 'will be kicked out' of Australia as PM teases bad news - Express

Martina Navratilova, the 18-time singles Grand Slam winner, has told Novak Djokovic he should fly back home to Serbia voluntarily.

She told Sunrise: "The best thing for Novak to do I think would be just say 'you know what, there are too many mistakes, this is not OK and the right thing to do is just to go home.

"It's just the right thing to do, but I don't think he will do that because he wants that 21st title.

"Your personal beliefs have to be trumped by what is good for the greater good for those around you and your peers.

"If I were in the same situation and I didn't want the vaccine, worried what it may do to my body, everyone else is doing it because it is the right thing to do and the country demands it.

"He had a choice not to get vaccinated and he had a choice not to play and he had a choice once he tested positive not to go out."

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2022-01-13 10:56:00Z
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Top Republican slams Biden voting speech as unpresidential - BBC News

Reuters

Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell has denounced US President Joe Biden's voting rights speech as "incoherent" and "profoundly unpresidential".

"I have known, liked, and personally respected Joe Biden for many years," Mr McConnell said on the Senate floor.

"I did not recognise the man at the podium yesterday."

The remarks come one day after Mr Biden delivered a fiery speech in Atlanta calling for an overhaul of the US election system.

The president said he supported changes that would allow his party's proposed overhaul of the election system to be passed without the support of opposition Republicans.

Currently, a majority of 60% is needed to pass most legislation in the Senate.

Mr Biden said the push to pass the legislation was a "battle for the soul of America", adding that the 60-vote rule - known as the filibuster - had rendered the Senate "a shell of its former self".

• Biden pushes overhaul of US election laws
• Is this now Joe Biden's biggest headache?

The upper chamber of Congress is currently split 50-50 between the two parties, therefore Mr Biden's sweeping election bills are almost certain not to pass unless there is a change to that rule.

But misgivings from two senators in his party are hampering his plans, and no Republicans have backed them.

'Pure demagoguery'

In his speech, Mr Biden compared those that oppose election reform to believers in racial segregation and rebels in the US Civil War. He cast his supporters as civil rights leaders and abolitionists.

Addressing his colleagues in Washington on Wednesday, the Kentucky Republican senator slammed Mr Biden's comments as a "rant" that was "incoherent, incorrect, and beneath his office".

"Unfortunately, President Biden has rejected the better angels of our nature. So it is the Senate's responsibility to protect the country," Mr McConnell said.

He described Mr Biden's speech as evidence the filibuster must be preserved.

"You could not invent a better advertisement for the legislative filibuster than what we've just seen; a president abandoning rational persuasion for pure, pure, demagoguery," Mr McConnell said.

"A president shouting that 52 senators and millions of Americans are racist unless he gets whatever he wants is proving exactly why the framers built the Senate to check his power."

Even Biden ally and Democratic Illinois Senator Dick Durbin conceded that the president's tone may have been overheated.

The Senate majority whip told CNN: "Perhaps the president went a little too far in his rhetoric."

Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama threw his weight behind Mr Biden's calls to scrap the filibuster.

"And every American who cares about the survival of our most cherished institutions should support the president's call as well," he said in an op-ed for USA Today.

Senate Democrats plan to vote on the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act by Monday.

If they fail to pass, as expected, the Senate will begin to consider changing filibuster rules.

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2022-01-13 03:23:57Z
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Djokovic now in trouble in THREE countries: Concerns star broke Spain's rules when visiting - Daily Mail

Novak Djokovic is now accused of breaking SPAIN'S Covid rules when visiting Marbella last month - with the Serb already facing questions in Australia and Serbia

• Djokovic admitted to attending events in Belgrade while infected with the virus 
• Star is also under fire for posing maskless when he presented awards to players
• He now faces scrutiny over whether trip to Spain met their entry requirements

By James Franey and Inderdeep Bains for the Daily Mail

Published: 23:50 GMT, 12 January 2022 | Updated: 01:45 GMT, 13 January 2022

Novak Djokovic was facing questions over travels to Australia, Spain and his homeland last night after he admitted breaking Serbia’s Covid-19 isolation rules.

Along with the visa situation swamping tennis’s world number one in Australia, where he still faces the threat of deportation, Djokovic yesterday admitted to attending events in Belgrade while infected with the virus.

And the Daily Mail can reveal there are concerns he may have broken Spain’s emergency travel regulations when visiting Marbella last month.

The 20-time Grand Slam winner, 34, yesterday took to Instagram to confess he attended an interview with a French sports newspaper after testing positive for Covid.

LEFT: A photo uploaded to Twitter shows Djokovic with handball player Petar Djordjic in Belgrade. RIGHT: Novak Djokovic is pictured playing on court in Marbella on January 4

He said: ‘I felt obliged to go ahead and conduct the L’Equipe interview as I didn’t want to let the journalist down.’

He added that attending the engagement was an ‘error of judgment’ and he should have rescheduled.

But the star is also under fire for posing maskless when he presented awards to some of Serbia’s top young tennis talent on December 17.

Djokovic faces further scrutiny after it emerged last night his trip to Spain may have fallen foul of the country’s entry requirements.

JANUARY 5, AUSTRALIA: Novak Djokovic stands at a booth of the Australian Border Force at the airport in Melbourne on January 5 after arriving from Spain, via Dubai

Spanish diplomatic sources confirmed he failed to seek approval before leaving Belgrade after Christmas. The government last night ordered an investigation.

The revelations will pile pressure on Djokovic, who could still be kicked out of Australia over his lack of Covid vaccine and false travel declaration.

He told authorities he had not travelled in the 14 days before his arrival on January 6, despite several social media posts showing he had been in Spain.

Djokovic’s PR team declined to comment, citing the case’s ‘sensitivity and complexity’.

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2022-01-12 23:50:21Z
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Prince Andrew: Trial looms for the Duke of York as judge's ruling puts any hope of reputation rebuild on ice - Sky News

Davos, January 2015, and in front of a room of businesspeople at the World Economic Forum, Prince Andrew for the first time had to publicly deny the sex abuse allegations made against him.

And yet since then, for seven years, the claims have continued to haunt him and the rest of the Royal Family, fuelled by the determination of his accuser Virginia Giuffre and the huge international interest in this case.

There is no doubt the decision by the judge to allow this civil case to proceed, ramping up the possibility of a trial later this year, will come as an enormous blow to the Duke of York.

For the rest of the Royal Family, who have tried to distance themselves from the scandal, it will remain a deeply damaging distraction in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee year.

The legal toing and froing continues, with Prince Andrew's team now under pressure to disclose deeply personal information about him - and the duke expected to tell his side of events.

Of course, he may be able to appeal, he could settle the case out of court, or he may win at trial.

But one thing is guaranteed: this ruling means the spotlight firmly remains on Prince Andrew, and any attempt at rebuilding his reputation remains on ice.

Read more:
What has Prince Andrew been accused of?
Who's who in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal?

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2022-01-12 14:32:05Z
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