Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really need to know by 9am.
1. #QUEENS VISIT: Queen Elizabeth II will be at the Guinness Storehouse, the war memorial at Islandbridge and Croke Park today. Later at a banquet in Dublin Castle – where she will be joined by David Cameron – she will make her only public speech, in which she is likely to acknowledge past difficulties – but is unlikely to apologise. If you’re planning a trip to Dublin today, make sure to arm yourself with details of the traffic restrictions first.
2. #ARRESTS: Twenty people appeared at special sittings of Cloverhill District court last night following yesterday’s clashes between protesters and gardaí at Store Street. An ‘improvised firearm’ was removed from Blessington street in Dublin. Meanwhile, gardaí expect further attempts to cause disruption today.
3. #OLYMPIC TORCH: The feasibility of the Olympic Torch being taken on a short trip to Dublin during its tour of Britain ahead of the London 2012 games “is still being explored”, according to the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics. Here’s the map of locations confirmed so far.
4. #NCT: Five NCT staff have been suspended by Applus as a result of the investigation into the alleged passing of cars in return for bribes, which was uncovered by Monday night’s Prime Time, the Irish Times reports.
5. #DRUMM: David Drumm got a tax rebate of €12,000, new documents filed as part of his US bankruptcy proceedings show, RTÉ reports.
6. #PREJUDICED: Young people are most likely to be prejudiced – and travellers, drug addicts and alcoholics remain the most “unaccepted people” in Irish society, a new book based on surveys conducted by the ESRI has found. The Irish Times reports that the category that has most improved is that of gay people: 23 years ago just 12.5 per cent of the population said they would welcome a gay person in their family; while this survey found that 62.8 per cent would. The survey also found that there was a serious level of ethnic and racial intolerance among 18-25 year olds.
7. #STRAUSS-KAHN: US Treasury SecretaryTimothy Geithner has given the strongest indication yet that Dominique Strauss-Kahn will have to step down, saying he ‘cannot run’ the IMF. Meanwhile, lawyers have been giving the early indications of what the thrust of their case will be, the Telegraph reports. Defence attorney Benjamin Brafman said the evidence “will not be consistent with a forcible encounter”, while prosecuting attorney Jeffrey Shapiro has said the maid who was the alleged victim suffered “extraordinary” trauma and “her world has been turned upside down”, adding “there is no way in which there is any aspect of this event which could be construed consensual in any manner”.
8. #GREECE: European authorities have admitted for the first time that Greek bondholders may not be repaid in full – as the country’s difficulties have intensified with the uncertainy in the IMF.
9. #SCHWARZENEGGER: The mother of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 14-year-old love child has been named by a US website Radaronline as Mildred Baena. She was his family’s housekeeper – and some observers suggest she bears more than a passing resemblance to the star himself.
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