LAST UPDATE | 18 Jun 2019

EVERY MORNING TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #ROTUNDA: The director of Ireland’s busiest maternity hospital has warned of an “intolerable patient safety crisis” due to overcrowding and poor infrastructure.

2. #CLIMATE ACTION: The government has ruled out free public transport as an option as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

3. #HOUSING: The Minister for Justice has lost an appeal against a €27,000 vacant site levy being issued by Dublin City Council on a site due to be transferred to the council for use as social housing.

4. #TORIES: Conservative MPs vote in the second round of the party’s leadership contest today as the race to succeed Theresa May continues.

5. #SPICK AND SPAN: The Defence Forces is is planning to spend an estimated €700,000 on a new fleet of Escort of Honour motorbikes.

6. #DODGY SMOKES: Revenue fired a member of its own audit teams for gross misconduct after he was caught ‘red-handed’ selling contraband cigarettes for cash.

7. #CONSPIRACY THEORY: The father of a victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre has won a defamation case against the authors of a book that claimed the shooting never happened.

8. #DEADLY: A graveyard in Lurgan was closed yesterday after police found a suspicious device as they searched the area for drugs.

9. #MAN’S BEST FRIEND: Ever wondered how dogs learned to use their puppy eyes to bend us to their will? Well, a new study has shown how they’ve evolved human-like eyebrow muscles that aren’t present in ancient ancestors like wolves.

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