EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #ADIOS: Officials from the Troika are beginning their twelfth and final review visit to Ireland today, two months before the country is due to exit the EU/IMF bailout programme. The focus of today’s discussions will be on whether Ireland will need a post-bailout emergency credit line.
2. #SPYING: US President Barack Obama is considering a review of US spying operations as pressure increases on America to explains its covert surveillance programmes. A report in the Guardian says that at least 35 world leaders have been monitored by the National Security Agency in recent years.
3. #ABUSE CHARGES: A former chauffeur at the BBC has been found dead at his home, hours after he failed to appear in court on child sex abuse charges. David Smith had been the first person charged under the investigation into Jimmy Savile and others as part of Operation Yewtree.
4. #STORMS: At least twelve people – including an Irish man living in England – have died as a fierce storm with winds of up to 160kph has battered parts of northern Europe.
5. #ABUSE: A report commissioned by a group of Catholic priests says the Murphy Commission which investigated the handling of child sexual abuse allegations in Dublin was flawed and too focused on ‘naming and shaming’ individual priests, the Irish Times reports.
6. #COPYRIGHT: Ireland should set up a copyright council to provide the framework for fair use of online content, according to a report proposed to Government today by three copyright experts.
7. #INVESTIGATION: Two people have been arrested in France after an underfed and dehydrated baby girl was found living in the boot of a car, AFP reports. The child’s mother – one of the two people arrested – said she had hidden the baby’s existence from everyone.
8. #WITNESS PROTECTION: The cost of the State’s witness protection programme has almost doubled to €1.2 million in a year, The Herald reports – the highest amount since the scheme was introduced in 1998.
9. #AWKWARD: A Celtic Tiger-era bridge across the Liffey has been unable to open to shipping for three years due to “lack of funding” – and the loss of the key needed to open the centre of the bridge. A spokesperson said that the Seán O’Casey footbridge should be able to open in the coming months.
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