Howard Marks, co-chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Group, has given his opinion on whether markets are experiencing an AI bubble. Photograph: Lam Yik/BloombergIs there an AI bubble? Many commentators have strong views on this question, but not Oaktree’s Howard Marks. His latest memo, Is it a Bubble?, is more circumspect. Lots of people pretend to know what’s coming, but admitting you don’t may be the soundest hedge against all the faux certainty.
[ CRH’s US move pays off with S&P 500 inclusionOpens in new window ]The chairman of the group, S&P Global executive Dennis Lee, may not be a household name. More than a quarter of shares in the average S&P 500 company is now held by such passive investors, according to Goldman Sachs analysts. Securing entry to the S&P 500 was the main goal behind the US listing. Others have gone a step further in the wake of the S&P 500 inclusion announcement. But if CRH cracks $100 billion, it would be the first home-grown Irish company in history to do so.
Photograph: Sam Boal/Collins PhotosThe Department of Finance was worried at the implications of comments by Tánaiste Simon Harris made in August about an EU initiative on defence spending. For the Department of Public Expenditure this represented a significant change in policy. “Having previously engaged with [Department of] Finance and [Department of] Defence on the Safe instrument, our understanding is Safe loans do not function any differently from regular borrowing on the markets,” the Department of Public Expenditure said. It told the Department of Defence it was not its understanding that an expression of interest would be submitted. “We met the Minister [for Finance Paschal Donohoe] and he concluded we should not apply for the Safe loans,” the Department of Finance said.
Photograph: Simon Wohlfahrt/BloombergFormer minister for finance Paschal Donohoe vetoed proposals by the Department of Defence that Ireland should look at borrowing up to €100 million for military equipment under an EU initiative to provide long-term loans. However, the Department of Finance said its minister, Mr Donohoe, had decided Ireland should not apply for loans under the Safe initiative. However, The Irish Times reported in August Mr Harris had sought funding of €3.4 billion for capital defence projects. However, the Department of Public Expenditure did not want capital expenditure on defence to go beyond about €230 million each year. The defence sector will receive about €300 million in capital funding next year under the Minister’s new plan.
Wall Street's main indices dropped on Friday, as a selloff in technology shares dragged global gauges from the brink of record highs. Plunging tech stocks dragged the Nasdaq Composite down by more than 2 per cent after chipmaker Broadcom published disappointing forecasts, fuelling anxieties over tech and artificial intelligence valuations. DUBLINAmid declines in banking stocks across Europe, the Iseq index fell 0.4 per cent on Friday, largely in line with its peers. The blue-chip index was dragged lower by a dramatic reversal of fortunes for precious metal miners. NEW YORKUS stocks extended losses, as a sell-off in technology shares dragged global gauges from the brink of record highs.
General Augusto Pinochet, head of the Chilean military junta, in September 1973, shortly after his coup that killed president Allende. Jara requires a big upset to prevent the far-right from returning to power for the first time since Pinochet stepped down in 1990. After the briefest of honeymoons following his inauguration in March 2022, Boric’s approval rating has struggled to break 30 per cent right throughout his term. “People are frustrated and looking for something outside the traditional left and right. But at this point we are still at the phase of the potential of the extreme right.
Billionaire businessman John Magnier gave evidence in a dispute over land in Co Tipperary that was “entirely false”, a High Court judge has said. However, Mr Justice Barrett disagreed in his ruling in September and said he was satisfied Mr Magnier knew any deal was subject to trustee approval. Mr Magnier notified the defendants on Thursday he is going to appeal the September judgment. Earlier Paul Gallagher SC, for Mr Magnier, rejected an accusation his client was engaged in “warfare” or “bulldozer law” in relation to the dispute. Although the court found against his client, Mr Gallagher said, it was clear Mr Magnier was a “man of honour” who “did deals and abided by them”.
In just three years, Crockett has established herself as one of the most provocative and high-profile faces of the Democratic Party. She filed her intention to run for a Texas Senate seat on the deadline day and has thrown both parties into disarray. Cruz, who holds the other Texas Senate seat, said that although he has not met Crockett, he sees her as “the face of the Democratic Party”. A win in Texas is actually bigger than Texas. We are talking about a seat that will absolutely flip the Senate over to the control of the Democrats.
The duty will be charged by the parcel, so orders of multiple items will not incur the charge multiple times. Photograph: iStockIrish consumers are set to pay €3 charge on online orders valued at less than €150 in a bid to protect European retail businesses, following a vote by European Union (EU) member states. The charge will be placed on small parcels entering the EU – with low-cost platforms like Temu and Shein in line to be hit most – and will be payable from the 1st of July 2026. The measure is designed to bridge the gap until the EU Customs Data Hub is set up in 2028. EU data suggests as many as 12 million small items would have been liable for the charge every day in 2024.
Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Jim O'Callaghan: said an appropriate balance is needed between the rights of individuals and the public interest. (Photo: Sam Boal/Collins PhotosIThe Government’s support for watering down protections for migrants under the European Convention on Human Rights is another step rightwards. It calls for the European Court of Human Rights to take a narrower view of Article 3 of the convention, which governs torture. Germany, France and Spain have not signed the statement despite their governments’ own political difficulties in relation to migration. Few could have predicted the geopolitical turmoil that has led to the current high levels of migration.
A spokesman for construction group Sisk, which was hired to build the first phase of the scheme, said it was 'aware of an incident on our Glass Bottle site in Dublin'. Photograph: Bryan O’BrienThe Health and Safety Authority (HSA) is investigating a “fatal incident” at the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Dublin 4. Gardaí and emergency services were attending the scene of an incident on Friday afternoon at the construction site earmarked for thousands of homes in Ringsend. The HSA said it had begun an investigation into a “fatal incident” at the site. As of September 22nd, there had been 32 fatal workplace injuries in Ireland this year, according to the HSA.
ComReg is set to deploy a new way of combating scam phone calls from international numbers. Photograph: PAPeople are being advised to avoid answering calls on their phone from unknown numbers that use the prefix +44 amid a surge in reports of scams. In the run-up to Christmas, Ireland is experiencing a significant rise in scam calls that appear to be coming from the UK, according to the State’s communication regulator. “It’s a time when there’s more communication with people abroad, so unfortunately, bad actors prey upon people.”ComReg is set to deploy a new means of combating scam phone calls from international numbers. Between February 2023 and October 2025, those measures resulted in the blocking of over 131 million scam calls.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she welcomed the outcome of the engagement between health officials and the pharmacy sector. Photograph: Sam Boal/CollinsChanges to the way medication is dispensed to patients from pharmacies are to be delayed after political backlash over the issue. There are concerns that these changes could create a risk that patients with disabilities or cognitive conditions could consume incorrect doses of their medication. In a statement on Friday afternoon, the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) said it had been “extensively engaging with the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive [HSE] on the implementation of measures under the agreement”. The rules around reimbursement were clarified under the new community agreement, leading to the political backlash.
Gardaí have arrested four men in the Midlands Prison. On Friday morning gardaí investigating the fatal fire carried out searches at three properties in Offaly and Kildare. Gardaí investigating the attack on the prisoner in the Midlands Prison, Portlaoise, Co Laois, arrested four prisoners in the jail on Friday. The arrests were carried out by gardaí from the Serious Crime Unit based in the Laois-Offaly Garda division. “I appeal directly to any person with any information on this violent fatal incident to speak with investigating gardaí.”
This summer Kimberly Prost, a Canadian judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC), arrived at her home in The Hague and, as was her habit, called out “Alexa”. So effectively, they are interfering directly with the independence of a judge,” Prost said. “Basically, my job was to speak to people who wanted to come off the list,” Prost said. “[They believed] there should be a system designed to bring accountability for the gravest crimes: crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide,” she remembered. Al-Hassan ag Abdoul Aziz was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity for overseeing torture, public amputations and floggings.
