LAST UPDATE | 30 Mar 2025

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news you need to know to start your day.

Myanmar earthquake

1. Residents scrambled desperately through collapsed buildings on Sunday searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay, two days after a massive earthquake killed more than 1,600 people in Myanmar and at least 17 in neighbouring Thailand.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

2. Women across Ireland have described feeling lied to, let down and emotionally and financially drained as a result of a confusing and chaotic system of providing healthcare for menopause.

In this morning’s lead story, The Journal’s Jane Moore asked our readers to tell us how the delayed HRT scheme and supply shortages has affected them. Here’s what they said.

GAA Palestine 

3. GAA is thriving in Palestine, and the founder of the country’s gaelic games association says he was inspired to act as a way of extending a cultural hand of friendship from a nation “very in touch” with oppression.

Stephen Redmond, who lives in London, embarked on a trip to the West Bank with a specific goal in mind, one month into Israel’s ferocious bombardment of the Gaza Strip at the end of 2023.

Body armour

4. The Irish Defence Forces is to get a €16.5 million contract for modern body armour, the Tánaiste has announced. 

The contract with Belgian company Seyntex NV which will supply 6,105 body “armour systems” and a possibility of 2,000 more units if required. 

Social welfare changes

5. New rules will kick in tomorrow which will see a boost to Jobseeker payments for those that lose their jobs. 

Major changes to the social welfare system, which will link payments to the applicants’ work history, will commence on 31 March. The plan will see unemployed people who have been working for the previous five years or more get a benefit of 60% of their salary to a maximum payment per week of €450 for the first three months of being unemployed. 

Yemen

6. US President Donald Trump has made his clearest commitment not to fire anyone over the embarrassing leak of his administration’s plans for an airstrike against the Houthis in Yemen.

“I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Saturday.

Diversity

7. France’s trade ministry condemned “unacceptable” US interference after the American embassy in Paris sent several French firms letters warning against using the diversity programmes known as “DEI”, a frequent Donald Trump target.

Mother’s Day

8. Activist groups Mothers Against Genocide will host a vigil and overnight encampment outside Leinster House today, highlighting the impact of displacement and violence on women and children in Gaza.

The vigil, which will take place at 7pm on Kildare Street, will play host to dozens of pro-Palestine activist groups, Palestinian speakers and and musicians.

Conor McGregor

9. A survey has seen 134 members of the Oireachtas – which is made up of 174 TDs in the Dáil and 60 senators in the Seanad (234 members total) – say that they will not be nominating McGregor for the presidency.