LAST UPDATE | 4 Apr 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Refugee accommodation

1. In our main story this morning, Christina Finn reports that large hoteliers ending refugee accommodation contracts with the State will result in the loss of 1,300 beds between now and the end of May 2023, Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman has said.

The ramping up of the tourist season and an increase in international protection applicants arriving in Ireland means the system is to face additional pressures.

Money matters

2. A survey conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found that most consumers are missing out on chances to save money when it comes to financial products and services by not shopping around for the best deal.

The survey, which was commissioned by the Department of Finance, consulted almost 3,000 consumers from across the country and found that the majority do not shop around for the best value offer or consider switching once they’ve signed up.

New York

3. Donald Trump will make an unprecedented appearance before a New York judge today to answer criminal charges that threaten to throw the 2024 White House race into turmoil.

Trump is the first sitting or former American president to be criminally indicted – a historic development that has propelled the United States into uncharted political waters.

Train crash

4. At least one person has died and 30 were injured when a high-speed passenger train slammed into heavy construction equipment and derailed near The Hague early this morning.

The accident took place around 3.30am (2.30am Irish time) close to the village of Voorschoten, about eight kilometres north of The Hague.

TikTok

5. Australia has said it will ban TikTok on government devices, joining a growing list of Western nations cracking down on the Chinese-owned app due to national security fears.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the decision followed advice from the country’s intelligence agencies and would begin “as soon as practicable”.

Alliance

6. Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO today, in a historic strategic shift provoked by Moscow’s war on Ukraine, which doubles the US-led alliance’s border with Russia.

Last year, the Kremlin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine upended Europe’s security landscape and prompted Finland – and its neighbour Sweden – to drop decades of non-alignment.

Twitter storm

7. Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin had a “very positive” conversation with a Garda representative after he was criticised over sharing an image which depicted gardaí edited into a famine-era eviction scene.

Ó Broin, his party’s spokesperson for housing, shared the tweet with the caption “no words needed”, shortly after a protest in Dublin over the expiration of the eviction ban at midnight on Friday.

Ukraine war

8. Russia has tried to defend itself against a barrage of criticism over its presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of April, insisting it will not “abuse” the position.

“We do not abuse the prerogatives of the presidency,” said the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia.

Bankruptcy

9. Richard Branson’s satellite launch company Virgin Orbit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US after failing to secure rescue funding.

It comes after a Virgin Orbit rocket failed to complete the first satellite launch from UK soil in January.