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GOOD MORNING

The 9 at 9 Concerns over breadth of people being affected by housing crisis; Man arrested in connection with murder of Eddie Hutch Snr.

LAST UPDATE | Apr 6th 2023, 8:50 AM

GOOD MORNING. 

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

Housing crisis

1. In our main story this morning, David MacRedmond reports that homeless charities have spoken about the breadth of people being affected by the housing crisis, citing a rise in single elderly people as well as people who are in employment.

According to Depaul, single elderly people are at particular risk of becoming homeless after eviction because of the lack of affordable accommodation and access to social housing.

Conspiracies 

2. A new review from University College Cork into methods for reducing conspiracy beliefs has shown that most methods are ineffective.

While holding conspiracy beliefs has been associated with several detrimental social, personal, and health consequences, little research has been dedicated to systematically reviewing the methods that could reduce conspiracy beliefs.

Gardaí

3. A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of Eddie Hutch Snr, a brother of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, who was shot at his home on Poplar Row in Dublin in 2016.

The 59-year-old taxi driver was gunned down three days after the Regency Hotel shooting where David Byrne was killed.

War in Ukraine

4. French and EU leaders will today seek to make Europe’s case for bringing an end to the conflict in Ukraine in a Beijing meeting with Xi Jinping, a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will be greeted late this afternoon by the Chinese president at the Great Hall of the People, the heart of power in the capital.

Brexit

5. Plans for how post-Brexit border checks on goods coming into the UK from the EU will work have been set out by UK ministers.

The British government has published a draft border operating model, designed to bring in the checks the UK is required to make under its Brexit trade agreement with the EU.

Tensions

6. North Korea has threatened unspecified “offensive action” over the expansion of US military exercises with rival South Korea as President Joe Biden’s special representative for North Korea flew to Seoul for talks with allies over the North’s growing nuclear threat.

Animosity heightened in recent weeks as the pace of both the US-South Korean military exercises and the North Korean weapons demonstrations increased in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

Lisa Smith 

7. The UK government has won an appeal against a tribunal’s conclusion that a UK entry ban could not be imposed on Lisa Smith, who was convicted of membership of the so-called Islamic State (IS) terror group.

Smith, 41, an ex-Irish Defence Forces member, was found guilty in May last year of IS membership, but cleared of a separate charge of financing terrorism, after a nine-week trial at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court.

Manhattan

8. A Brooklyn drug dealer has pleaded guilty to providing The Wire actor Michael K Williams with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his death.

Irvin Cartagena’s plea to a charge of conspiring to distribute drugs was entered in Manhattan federal court.

Protests

9. France is bracing for another day of protests and strikes to denounce President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform after talks between the government and unions ended in deadlock.

There have been signs that the two-and-a-half month protest movement is starting to lose some momentum and unions will be hoping for a mass turnout on the 11th day of action since January.