Meta to make cuts
Meta, the company that operates Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, is preparing to dramatically cut its workforce, becoming the latest tech giant to shrink its staff roster in recent weeks after Twitter and Stripe.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the cuts are expected to affect many thousands of employees. The cuts could be announced as soon as Wednesday.
Meta employs thousands of people in Ireland, including 3,000 based in Dublin.
An additional 6,000 people are employed at operations across multiple sites including Meta’s international headquarters in Dublin, Clonee data centre in Co Meath and Reality Labs in Cork.
Blackrock College sex abuse documentary
Former Blackrock College students who were sexually abused on the school campus have spoken out publicly for the first time, in a new documentary to be aired on RTÉ Radio 1 on Monday evening.
Two brothers were repeatedly abused while they attended the school during the 1970s and 1980s at various locations — including the college library and swimming pools.
The perpetrators of the abuse were part of the Holy Ghosts Order, now known as the Spiritans, at the school. The order have since confirmed that 57 people have reported that they were abused on the grounds of Blackrock College.
In all, 233 people have made allegations of abuse against 77 Irish Spiritans in ministries in Ireland and overseas.
Cop27 underway in Egypt
World leaders are attending the latest UN climate talks in Egypt amid geopolitical tensions and pressure over who will pay for the damage caused by global warming.
The Cop27 conference takes place against a backdrop of increasingly devastating extreme weather around the world, as well as an energy and cost-of-living crisis driven by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
As the meeting kicked off in Sharm El-Sheikh there was yet another warning from UN experts that efforts to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees and avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change was “barely within reach”.
Ryanair returns to profit
Ryanair has managed to swing back into the black despite a massive hike in costs over recent months.
The airline said that it carried more than twice the number of passengers compared to a year ago, helping to push up revenue.
This fed further down the balance sheet as pre-tax profit reached €1.4 billion in the first six months of the year, compared to a loss of €100 million just a year earlier.
The company carried a record number of passengers in the second quarter and average ticket prices were around 14 per cent higher than before the pandemic, bosses said.
