GOOD MORNING.

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

Childcare

1. Nearly one in five childcare services providers in Ireland have been given State approval to increase their fees. 

EU defence spending 

2. Member states have signed off on plans to massively boost EU defences at a special summit meeting this evening, backing Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s multi-billion dollar proposals to ‘ReArm Europe’.

Housing

3. A survey conducted by MyHome.ie has found that 46% of respondents want rent pressure zones to be abolished while 84% said they believe the government could do more to help the property sector.

RTÉ Choice Music Prize 

4. Dublin rock band Fontaines DC has won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year 2024 for their album Romance. 

‘Imperialist’ 

5. French President Emmanuel Macron has hit back at Vladimir Putin for likening him to the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte – branding the Russian president an “imperialist” who sought to rewrite history.

Drugs seizure

6. SpaceX launched another Starship rocket yesterday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart, disrupting US air traffic.

Disturbed 

7. There have been calls for promoter MCD and the 3Arena venue to cancel an upcoming concert that will feature a musician who signed an Israeli bomb last year.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred 

8. Violent winds toppled power lines in Australia today as a tropical cyclone inched towards the country’s eastern coast, sparking evacuation orders and leaving 80,000 homes without electricity.

Crossbow killer

9. Kyle Clifford, who murdered his former partner along with her mother and sister, searched for controversial influencer and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate on his phone less than 24 hours before the killings, a UK court has heard.