LAST UPDATE | 28 Apr 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
Cyber security
1. In our main story this morning, Stephen McDermott reports that TikTok sought to brief Irish Government ministers on privacy and security issues just weeks before public servants were advised not to install the app on official devices.
Correspondence seen by The Journal reveals that the company wrote to three different ministers in February as part of efforts to reassure the Government about “policies and processes to protect [its] users and their data”.
Mortgages
2. The number of mortgages drawn down in the first three months of this year has decreased by over 30% when compared with the last three months of 2022, according to two reports published today by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
A total of 10,908 new mortgages to the value of €2,868 million were drawn down by borrowers during the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 10.1% in volume and 14.1% in value on the corresponding first quarter of 2022.
GSOC
3. Gardaí have released without charge a man who was arrested yesterday in connection with a probe relating to a party where Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch was present.
The probe was launched last week after allegations that a senior GSOC investigator attended the party on the night Hutch was cleared by the Special Criminal Court of taking part in the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in 2016
Ukraine
4. At least five people have been killed after Russian missile strikes hit several Ukrainian cities overnight, including the capital Kyiv.
While Russia regularly bombed Ukrainian cities and infrastructure last winter, the massive strikes had tailed off in recent months. Kyiv had not been targeted by missiles in more than 50 days.
Washington
5. In the US, former vice president Mike Pence has given evidence in private to a federal grand jury investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to a source.
His testimony is likely to give prosecutors a key first-person account about certain conversations and events in the weeks preceding the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Aughnacloy
6. Police in Northern Ireland are appealing for information after three died in a road traffic collision in Co Tyrone yesterday.
Emergency services were alerted to the incident at around 7.15am in the Tullyvay Road area of the A5, close to Aughnacloy.
Climate change
7. An unusually early heatwave in drought-hit Spain is set to peak today with temperatures expected to break April records in the south of the country.
Since Monday, Spain has been enveloped by a mass of warm, dry air from North Africa that has driven up temperatures to “levels normally seen in summer and exceptionally high for this time of year,” said Spain’s state weather agency AEMET.
Finbar Cafferkey
8. A Co Mayo man has been killed in Ukraine.
It’s understood that Finbar Cafferkey, aged in his 40s and from Achill Island, was involved in fighting Russian forces in the eastern part of the country.
Boosters
9. The HSE has announced its spring Covid-19 booster vaccine programme for people aged 70 years and older, residents of long-term care facilities for older adults and people aged 5 years and older with a weak immune system.
Eligible members of the public can get a Covid-19 booster from a participating GP or pharmacy or at a Community Vaccination Centre (CVC).
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