LONDON (AP) — Ireland's President Michael Higgins dissolved Parliament Friday, clearing the way for a Nov. 29 election that will determine who controls government.
Prime Minister Simon Harris, who had until March to call an election, had announced the date Wednesday.
A historic coalition government led by Harris' center-right Fine Gael party and its center-left rival Fianna Fail has been in power since the 2020 race ended in a virtual dead heat.
“We did not agree on every issue but we did always work hard and together for the good of the Irish people,” Harris said. “The time is now right to ask the Irish people to give a new mandate.”
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, which arose from opposing sides of Ireland’s 1920s civil war, shared a broadly centrist outlook and had alternated holding power to govern Ireland over the decades. The two set aside their differences in 2020 to work together, bringing the Green Party along as a junior partner.
Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin served as premier for the first half of the term and was replaced by Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar in December 2022.
Harris took over when Varadkar stepped down earlier this year.
The left-wing nationalist Sinn Fein party had won the largest share of votes in the election but was shut out of government because it couldn't assemble enough support to govern. Sinn Fein has been shunned by centrist parties because of its historic links to the nationalist militants of the Irish Republican Army and decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein said it was fielding more candidates in its effort to lead the government.
“After a century of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, it is time to make that change, to give Sinn Fein the chance to lead and the chance to deliver,” said party President Mary-Lou McDonald. “In Sinn Fein you will get a government that will move heaven and earth to make housing affordable, to bring home ownership back into the reach of working people and to restore hope for a generation.”
Ireland, which has a population of 5.2 million, has faced many of the same challenges of other countries since its last election: the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruptions due to the war in Ukraine and a surge of migrants from overseas.
Martin said the next five years would be challenging for the Irish economy, noting the impact from global conflicts and a potential change in U.S. trade policy change.
“The greatest threat to the Irish economy is external, and we need experience and we need leadership that has already demonstrated its capacity to weather significant events and shocks to lead us through the next challenging five years,” Martin said.
Harris said the coalition had protected people during coronavirus, supported Ukraine in its war and weathered the cost-of-living crisis.
Housing, immigration and childcare are some of the main issues for voters, he said.
He said he was pleased the government had set aside money to weather any future trade shocks.
“We used to be ridiculed for this,” Harris said. "This is exactly why we have the buffer that is there, is a trans-Atlantic shock or indeed any other shock to our economy, my children will never have to experience the austerity that our generation did.”
Ireland in 2010 faced national bankruptcy over the cost of saving its failing banks. It adopted an austerity program as one of the conditions for an international bailout but rebounded strongly after exiting the bailout in 2013.
FILE - Prime Minister of Ireland Michael Martin arrives at John Hume's funeral Mass at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Aug. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File)
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris makes a statement outside Government Buildings ahead of the Dail being formally dissolved for the General Election scheduled for next Nov. 29, in Dublin Friday Nov. 8, 2024. (Gareth Chaney/PA Wire/PA via AP)
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris makes a statement outside Government Buildings ahead of the Dail being formally dissolved for the General Election scheduled for next Nov. 29, in Dublin Friday Nov. 8, 2024. (Gareth Chaney/PA Wire/PA via AP)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The person inside the Tesla Cybertruck that burst into flames outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel suffered a gunshot to the head before the explosion, officials said Thursday.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man who's been identified as Matthew Livelsberger. Officials believe the shot was self-inflicted.
Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He had served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said.
He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the statement.
The FBI said Thursday in a post on X that it was “conducting law enforcement activity” at a home in Colorado Springs related to Wednesday's explosion but provided no other details.
The explosion of the truck, packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack. The FBI said Thursday that they believe Jabbar acted alone, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others.
Both Livelsberger and Jabbar spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple Army special operations units. However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty.
Chris Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, said Thursday that officials have found ‘no definitive link’ between the New Orleans attack and the truck explosion in Las Vegas.
Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries when the Tesla truck exploded. Video showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that “we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself."
"All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk wrote.
Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas early Wednesday. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.
Authorities know who rented the truck with the Turo app in Colorado, Kevin McMahill, the elected sheriff of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, said Wednesday. He did not release the person’s ID, however.
Copp, Richer and Long contributed from Washington.
Investigators enter a townhouse in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)
Investigators stand outside a townhouse complex in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
