Letters: Nobel Peace Prize committee must dismiss outright Benjamin Netanyahu's nomination of Donald Trump
I trust that the Nobel Peace Prize committee will fully appreciate the threat to its integrity that this nomination poses and its imperative to preserve the worth and legacy of the 142 peace prize laureates since 1901.
Michael Gannon, St Thomas Square, Kilkenny
Severe lack of compassion amid continued starvation and slaughter in Gaza
While the English and French gorge themselves on foie gras and bottles of pinot noir at the usual extravagant banquets organised and paid for by UK taxpayers, and the Americans and Israelis chomp on Kentucky fried chicken, hamburgers and pints of Coca-Cola, the imprisoned people of Gaza starve and are killed.
Watching and listening to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu making decisions on the future of the people of Gaza without consulting the people themselves is an affront, and one that will never be accepted by the people of that modern-day extermination camp.
Each day as we watch the systematic killing of innocent people looking for food and water or seeking shelter from the elements and Israeli bombs, the world looks on.
How can we in all conscience watch people being killed and starved while we shop online for the newest craze or fill our trolleys with all our weekly needs? Where is our compassion?
Words and statements of outrage have fallen on deaf ears on dictators like Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin, propped up by Trump and other proxies aligned with these warmongers.
What country is strong and brave enough to act decisively and be a saviour to those who have lost the most?
EU countries need to act and formulate a plan whereby food and military intervention is to the fore.
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Christy Galligan, Letterkenny, Co Donegal
Failed leader McDonald is utterly unsuitable for role of Ireland's next president
John O'Brien seeks to promote Sinn Fein's failed leader to run for the Áras (Letters, July 8).
It should be abundantly clear to all by now that Mary Lou McDonald's failed leadership of her party and her lack of appeal to a majority of the Irish electorate, as demonstrated in several general elections, renders her utterly unacceptable as first citizen of this country.
Seamus O'Riain, Limerick
Sinn Féin chief's star has fallen, and she would be doomed in race for Áras
I don't agree with the view of John O'Brien (Letters, July 8) that selecting Mary Lou McDonald to run for the Áras would be a wise move for Sinn Féin. To me, it looks more like a desperate move.
It would seem the party has failed to find a credible candidate and now has to resort to running its leader. The party has fared very poorly in this election in the past.
Nor do I agree that running Ms McDonald for the presidency is the answer to its woes.
If her name were to appear on a ballot paper in November, there would be a lot of people voting proportional representation against her and she would be doomed. The star of Mary Lou has fallen, as far as I can see.
Thomas Garvey, Claremorris, Co Mayo
Dogs make us men better as human beings – and we get more female attention
Like Ian O'Doherty, I believe dogs bring out the best in us – even those of us who, due to travel and work commitments, have never owned one ('Power of pet dogs brings out the best in us and reduces big tough guys to softies', Irish Independent, July 9).
That said, I've had the joy of walking other people's dogs, from the towpaths of San Francisco to the olive groves of southern Spain.
It was in Spain that I realised I had grown far too attached: when a man let his dogs run loose and frightened the two Weimaraners I was walking, I very nearly resorted to violence. And when I later heard – from afar – that they had died, I was genuinely sad. They had become part of me.
In San Francisco, I learnt something else: that walking a dog is what I should have been doing as a teenager.
Women stopped to chat. Cyclists would shout: 'So cute.' I would shout back: 'Me or the dog?'
Dogs, as O'Doherty says, don't just reflect the best in us, they quietly make us better.
Enda Cullen, Tullysaran Road, Armagh
Go back to paper to avoid missed appointments amid 'scam text' confusion
'Teething problems' are being blamed for 'likely scam' texts being flagged by ComReg on genuine messages, including important medical appointments.
There is a straightforward way of dealing with this before it gets out of hand.
Simply ask for any such information to be sent by post, on actual paper, and with a signature at the bottom. And in good time. Back to basics is easier than people think.
Peter Declan O'Halloran, Belturbet, Co Cavan
It's no surprise tourists are staying away from Ireland, given cost of everything
According to recent Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures, there was a 10pc drop in foreign visitors holidaying in Ireland in May compared with the same month last year.
These findings come as no surprise to me, as I find Ireland is far too expensive.
The prices of things such as accommodation, food and many other items have all risen. Then the Vat rate went back up to 13.5pc in the service industry for bars, restaurants and hotels. I think these price rises have frightened many of our foreign visitors away.
John O'Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
Nature is leaving us high and dry, but will our cups runneth over again soon?
I note drought and hosepipe warnings are arriving thick and fast.
That's before expected temperatures of 30C this weekend, and not a child in the house washed yet. Once again, nature has got the drop on us and we're left high and dry. So is the glass half-full or half-empty?
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Irish Examiner
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Court to decide whether former dictator Assad can be stripped of immunity
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The moment Jerome Powell stood up to Donald Trump
Nobody will ever accuse president Donald Trump of rank sentimentality. Legions of wrestling fans across the United States mourned on Thursday morning the sudden death of Hulk Hogan , the original wrestling star who last July literally gave the shirt off his back to Trump during a memorable, vein-popping cameo at the Republican convention. But as ever, the national news cycle revolving around the president on Thursday was typically furious and strange. In Tallahassee, Florida, the US deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, met Ghislaine Maxwell , the English socialite currently serving 20 years for her sex-trafficking crimes and procuring minors for Jeffrey Epstein . The purpose and details of the meeting, which lasted several hours, remain obscure. Trump took to his social media account to pay brief but heartfelt tribute to 'the Hulkster', whom he described as 'MAGA all the way'. Then, a few hours later, he appeared in a white construction-site hard hat in the company of Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve and of late the subject of choice Trumpian smackdowns, such as 'numbskull', 'moron' and 'very dumb'. The pair made unlikely bedfellows for a photo opportunity that quickly turned surreal. The headgear was occasioned by the tour of the Federal Reserve Building, which is undergoing a complete interior and exterior construction overhaul to the eye-watering tune of $2.7 billion. READ MORE Accompanying them was Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator who has been leading the White House argument that the renovation costs are crazily high and merit investigation. 'One of the reasons we wanted to see it,' Scott explained for the cameras – 'was the expenses overrun'. For some unknown and distracting reason, Scott himself was not wearing a white hard hat. Maybe he forsook that safety precaution in a valiant attempt to keep the costs down. But the moment took a theatrical turn when president Trump, producing with a flourish a sheet of paper from his breast pocket, said: 'So we are taking a look. It looks like it's about 3.1 billion. It went up a little bit.' Powell shook his head at this. 'Or a lot.' Trump continued. 'So, the $2.7 is now $3.1.' At this point, Powell's patience broke. 'I'm not aware of that, Mr president. I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed.' 'It just came out,' president Trump replied, and handed him the paper. Federal Reserve chairs seldom make it to the top because of their charisma or magnetism. Their job demands the opposite. But this was Powell's moment, whether he wished for it or not. He looked perplexed as he read the paper before he saw what he was being presented with. 'It came from the Martin renovation. You just added in a third building, is what that is,' he said, handing his president the paper. 'It's a building that's being built,' Trump said. 'No. It was built five years ago.' The exchange wasn't disrespectful to the office of the presidency on Powell's part, nor withering. But the refusal to buckle made Scott's servility all the more vivid in the moment. It was a startling reminder of how few people in Donald Trump's orbit dare to contradict him. Opinion is split as to whether Powell, who was appointed by Donald Trump in 2017, will go down as a good Federal Reserve boss. He was heavily criticised in some quarters for being overly complacent during the post-pandemic inflationary acceleration. And there may be legitimate argument in Trump's argument that now, with the housing market in the United States dysfunctional, is the time to lower interest rates. But Powell's backbone and his belief that the Federal Reserve must remain independent to political pressure withstood this test. At times, Powell resembled a man sombrely considering the life choices that brought him to this moment: a presidential admonishment with both men dressed in the absurd headgear, like Lego figures brought to life. But he didn't buckle and the bizarre encounter closed with Trump jocularly slapping Powell on the back as he answered a reporter's question of what he would like to see happen. 'Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates. Other than that, what can I tell you?' Friends again? Who knew. But the conversation illustrates the unyielding strangeness of the atmosphere of the political summer in Washington. On Wednesday, House speaker Mike Johnson sent the representatives home for an extra week of recess. Republican senators were unhappy that their colleagues had not stuck around to legislate a little more. The general assumption was that Johnson broke early to avoid a vote, prompted by representative Thomas Massie's discharge petition, to release the Epstein files. Donald Trump presents Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell with what Mr Trump called a list of cost overruns for the Federal Reserve's $2.5 billion headquarters renovation project during a tour with Republican senator Tim Scott in Washington, DC. Photograph:'I've got to believe that there has to be more to it, because that almost seems to suggest if they go away for four or five – or how many weeks they're going to go away – that that problem is going to go away,' senator Thom Tillis, the North Carolina Republican, told reporters on Capitol Hill. 'Do you guys really think you're going to take your eyes off this issue come Labor Day? The answer is 'no'. So, I think it's a false premise assuming if they just walk away and avoid this vote, that it's not going to continue to be an issue.' A Fox News poll issued on Wednesday evening found that just 13 per cent of voters believed that the White House has been fully transparent with information related to the Epstein case, with 60 per cent Republicans in that category. And only 19 per cent stated that they have not been following the story at all. Alternatively, it is on the radar of 80 per cent of respondents. That statistic alone may explain why alternative scandal pushed by the White House this week – with Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, releasing new documents that purport to link former president Barack Obama to what has been presented as a hoax claim of Russian influence during the 2016 election won by Trump – has yet to gain traction. It's the old principle of maximum headroom. There are simply too many lurid plates spinning in the air above the White House for even the most willing Maga loyalists to keep their eyes and minds on. Sean Hannity, whose influential evening show on Fox is pro-Trumpian agit-prop, did his best to stoke enthusiasm on Wednesday night, during an hour in which the Epstein story did not feature at all. RussiaGate, Hannity assured his viewers, is 'a very real scandal surrounding a very real hoax that makes Watergate, frankly, look like a walk in the park'. It was an unfortunate comparison given that Watergate's denouement featured the resignation of a sitting president. But he nudged his viewership towards considering the gravity of this new set of documents released by the White House. 'Trump-Russia collusion was a fantasy, a complete lie, phoney, false conspiracy theory fed to Democrats and perpetuated by the state-run legacy media mob by the most corrupt administration in modern history. 'Now confirmation from the director of national intelligence that nearly a decade ago, the Obama White House reportedly used the full force of your federal government to delegitimatise the results of the 2016 election, malign the then president-elect Donald Trump before he even took office. 'And it was all based on lies cobbled together with an actual Russian disinformation dirty dossier bought and paid for by Donald Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton.' It could be that the idea of a prosecution against Obama is stretching the credulity of even the most devout believers in the Maga doctrine of deep-state conspiracies. Their reluctance to be distracted from the Epstein files is bordering on stubborn. Another Republican senator, Eric Schmitt, had this to say about the staying power of the issue. 'I think people are kind of curious and want more information, whether it's potentially testimony or the release of credible information. A lot of people support that. 'It also probably speaks to a larger issue: People feel like the government has lied to them for so long on certain things. People would like to land on the side of more transparency.' The failure to disclose the content of the Epstein files, as repeatedly promised by key Trump administration officials, represents a breach of that promised transparency to the Maga base. Meanwhile, the questions go on. On Thursday, chief among those was why the department of justice felt the need to send an official as senior as Todd Blanche, who was Donald Trump's personal attorney during his Manhattan 'hush money' trial last year, to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, who is clearly hoping to strike some sort of plea deal. 'The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time,' Blanche wrote in a statement before confirming that another meeting would take place on Friday. It is unlikely that the intrigue and public fascination with the Epstein issue will disappear over the remainder of the summer. The scandal has taken on a momentum of its own. As Hulk Hogan used to ask in more innocent times: 'Whatcha gonna do when Hulk-a-mania runs wild on you?' For Donald Trump, the answer is to pull on a hard hat and explain nothing.
