LAST UPDATE | 19 Jul 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s everything you need to know as you start your day.
1. European countries have been hit over the last week by the Cerberus heatwave, which has brought oppressively high temperatures in the 30s and 40s.
In our main story this morning, Lauren Boland spoke to nine people from Ireland who are living abroad or on holiday in countries where the temperatures have soared over the last week.
Some found the heat more bearable than others but all have adopted various strategies to try to cope with the heat, from staying indoors and abstaining from cooking hot food to cooling clothes down in a freezer and planning to move to a cooler country.
2. Criminal Legal Aid can be withdrawn or cut from applicants as part of a ream of reforms published today by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Minister of State for Law Reform James Browne.
The move aims to increase oversight of the scheme and reduce the amount paid by the government in cases where individuals are able to contribute to their own legal costs.
3. A man has been charged with murder after an Irishman was killed at his home in west London over the weekend.
James ‘JJ’ Donnelly (45), who was a native of Childers Park in Thurles, Co Tipperary, was found dead at his home in Station Road in Hayes, Hillingdon, London after the Met Police were called to the property at around 10am on Saturday, 15 July.
4. North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, Yonhap news agency has reported, hours after an American nuclear-armed submarine made its first South Korean port call in decades.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said they were fired early Wednesday from the Sunan area in Pyongyang, and flew some 550 kilometres before splashing into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
5. A man has been charged over the fatal assault of a teenager in Swords, north Dublin earlier this year.
The incident happened on Brookdale Avenue at around 7pm on 23 February.
6. Russia launched strikes on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, the local governor said early today, the second consecutive night of attacks on the area since Moscow pulled out of a grain export deal.
On Tuesday, a Russian strike damaged facilities at the port city of Odesa after Moscow pulled out of an agreement facilitating the safe shipment of grain from Ukraine.
7. Former US president Donald Trump joked about his legal challenge while campaigning in Iowa on Tuesday, hours after announcing he had been told he was the target of another investigation.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said he had received a letter on Sunday, informing him he was the target of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, as well as events leading up to the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
8. A property search warrant has been served by police in Las Vegas in connection with the 1996 shooting of US rapper Tupac Shakur.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the warrant had been served on Monday as part of the “ongoing” homicide investigation.
9. Gardaí are investigating following an attack on the family home of a councillor in which a rock was thrown through a window with a note telling him to “stop supporting” refugees.
The Irish Times yesterday reported that the rock was thrown through the front window of Independent councillor for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Hugh Lewis’ family home in Ballybrack at around 11.30pm on Monday.
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