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A man pours petrol over a pile of confiscated drugs and alcohol in Afghanistan Rahmat Gul/AP/Press Association Images
Daily Fix

The Daily Fix: Wednesday

In tonight’s Fix: The latest in the Áras race; sparks fly between RTÉ and TV3; and can we tell what babies are thinking?

EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a roundup of the day’s main news – as well as any bits and pieces you may have missed.

In the race for the Áras…

  • Gay Mitchell has insisted he can still win election to the presidency, despite lagging behind in opinion polls. Mitchell said this morning that he is “innovative” and his electoral experience will work in his favour, adding: “This is down to transfers – I understand how these things work.”
  • Six of the seven candidates met for a head-to-head on the issues affecting children in Ireland earlier today – and you can catch up on what went down here. All seven hopefuls will also appear in a debate on tonight’s RTÉ Prime Time; naturally we’ll be live-blogging all the action as it happens here on TheJournal.ie.
  • She may not be of voting age, but nine-year-old Zena Donnelly knows exactly where her support lies – and she made this video to show it. Get ready to be humming the tune for the rest of the evening.

In the day’s other news…

  • “Significant” job losses are on the way in Galway after Aer Arann pulled winter flights from the county’s airport. Managing director Joe Walsh told TheJournal.ie the move will leave the airport without any scheduled flights, and puts a large number of the facility’s 160 staff at risk.
  • Bosses at TV3 have said they may seek damages against RTÉ, after the Competition Authority said the State broadcaster would change the way it sought advertisers. TV3 said they had suffered “significant damages” thanks to their rivals’ ‘share deal’ system – but RTÉ dismissed the independent station’s statement as “absolutely misleading”.
  • The proposed eviction of Traveller families from the controversial Dale Farm site in England can now legally proceed, after residents lost a High Court appeal against the move. Earlier court hearings had delayed a ruling on the eviction, which will affect the homes of around 400 residents.

Anyone for chocolate? The world’s largest bar was unveiled today at Thornton’s HQ in Derbyshire, England, weighing almost six tonnes. (David Jones/PA Wire/Press Association Images)

  • Got any Anglo Irish Bank stationery? You can put it in the shredder – at least, that’s the message going out to staff at the bank, which is to be officially renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation from Monday. We’ve got a picture of one poster to that effect inside the bank’s offices…
  • A man has been arrested in Poland after a young Irish woman was beaten and raped while attending a conference there. There are reports that the suspect had also attended the event in the town of Konstancin-Jeziorna.
  • The Irish Examiner columnist Steven King has resigned from the paper after allegations that he plagiarised portions of his column from various websites. In a statement, King wrote today: “I have let the Irish Examiner and its readers down and I am very sorry for that.”
  • Remember Joe the Plumber? The ‘average guy’ who became a conservative hero after attacking Obama on the campaign trail in 2008 is now planning to run for election himself – standing up for “working class, conservative values”.
  • The crew of an Italian cargo ship hijacked by pirates off the Somalian coast reached help in an old-fashioned way – by throwing a message in a bottle out of a porthole. The message was intercepted by Nato troops, who boarded the ship and forced the pirates to surrender.
  • And finally, have you ever wondered what babies think? Psychologist Alison Gopnik has some answers in this fascinating TED talk: “They’re like the R&D department of the human species”:

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