LAST UPDATE | 12 Jun 2025

GOOD MORNING.

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

Electric vehicles

1. Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien has conceded that the government won’t hit a target to get one million electric vehicles on the road by 2030.

The target was first set in 2019, but since then it has been revised downward and essentially dropped. In an interview with The Journal, O’Brien confirmed: “We won’t hit one million cars.”

Ballymena

2. Petrol bombs, a hatchet and masonry were among items thrown at police during a third consecutive night of disorder in Ballymena.

Unrest spread to other towns last night, including Larne – where the leisure centre was set on fire by masked vandals who also smashed windows.

Israel

3. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government has survived an opposition bid to dissolve parliament, as members of the Knesset rejected a bill that could have paved the way for snap elections.

Out of the Knesset’s 120 members, 61 voted against the proposal, with 53 in favour.

Tensions

4. The US is reducing the number of its staff at its embassy in Iraq and other bases in its control in the Middle East over security concerns as tensions with Iran have escalated.

Cross-border business

5. Taoiseach Micheál Martin will meet business leaders from north and south of the border at a conference taking place against the backdrop of economic uncertainty driven by US trade and tariff policies.

Cost of living

6. A reduction in the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy that appears on electricity bills of households and small businesses is to be announced this week.

Central Bank

7. The Government has rejected a joint-proposal from the opposition which called on the Central Bank to stop facilitating the sale of Israeli bonds within the EU.

Storm clouds ahead

8. Met Éireann has issued a status yellow rain warning for 20 counties as heavy rainfall is set to hit the country today.

Tributes

9. The surviving original members of the Beach Boys have paid tribute to the “genius” of Brian Wilson after his death aged 82.