LAST UPDATE | 22 Jun 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Missing sub

1. Oxygen on the missing Titanic submersible is expected to run out in hours, with rescue efforts to find the five people onboard in full force overnight.

The vessel, named Titan, lost communication with tour operators on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada.

As of yesterday afternoon it was thought just 20 hours of oxygen remained in the vessel, meaning it would run out at some point this morning.

Security forum

2. The public forum on Ireland’s international security policy will begin today in Cork.

The consultative meetings will take place in University College Cork, Galway’s NUIG tomorrow and two days over next Monday and Tuesday in Dublin Castle.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said that the event will focus on a range of issues, including Ireland’s commitment to the international rules-based order through peacekeeping and crisis management.

Explosion kills 31 

3. At least 31 people were killed when an explosion caused by a gas leak ripped through a restaurant in the northwestern Chinese city of Yinchuan, state media said today.

The blast occurred on the eve of the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, when many in China go out and socialise with friends.

Footage on state broadcaster CCTV showed more than a dozen firefighters working at the site as smoke poured out of a gaping hole in the restaurant’s facade.

Parkwest

4. Residents of the Crescent Apartment Building in Parkwest, Co Dublin have called on the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien to provide them with emergency funding after fire defects worth over €68,000 were found in 2020.

Last year the residents of the apartment building were told during a Zoom meeting, hosted by the board of the Owners’ Management Company, that the total cost will be €15.9 million, and each owner is expected to pay a levy of €68,500 over five years.

Weather

5. Met Éireann have announced that the average temperature for this month could make it the hottest June ever recorded in Ireland, as it launched a climate change awareness campaign yesterday.

The Show Your Stripes campaign, launched on the longest day of the year, aims to highlight the impact of climate change by showing the increasing temperatures the planet faces each year.

Iceland Coolock

6. Staff at an Iceland store in Coolock in Dublin have paused their protest after they arrived at work yesterday to find the shop unexpectedly closed.

Staff at the store today staged a protest yesterday over the store’s closure, which came a day after an interim examiner was appointed to the company. 

announced that the average temperature for this month could make it the hottest June ever recorded in Ireland, as it launched a climate change awareness campaign yesterday.

Newtownabbey murder

7. A man was told yesterday that he must serve a minimum of 22 years in prison for the “brutal, merciless and outrageous” murder of his five-year-old stepdaughter in Northern Ireland.

Nadia Zofia Kalinowska died after she was found with multiple injuries at her family home in Fernagh Drive, Newtownabbey, Belfast in December 2019. 

Andrew Tate

8. Social media personality Andrew Tate was charged him with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women yesterday.

Tate and his brother, Tristan, who is also charged with the offences, arrived at the Romanian court in the capital Bucharest, flanked by six bodyguards.

Prosecutors have also filed charges against two Romanian women in the case.

BusConnects

9. Three new orbital bus routes are set to open this Sunday as part of the latest phase of Transport for Ireland’s (TFI) BusConnects Network Redesign project.

The routes will provide high frequency bus services across parts of Kildare and Dublin. 

The new routes are titled W4, W61 and W62 and will be operated by Go-Ahead Ireland, a private transport company that already has 25 Dublin City bus routes and five commuter routes.