GOOD MORNING.

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

Iran war

1. US vice president JD Vance laid the blame for major Republican losses in the country’s midterm elections on the Iran war.

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance said.

Fare increases

2. Junior Transport Minister Seán Canney told the Dáil that public transport passenger numbers would grow next year, even though an internal budget scenario projected a decline if planned fare increases happened.

Adult fares on buses and trains nationwide are set to increase by an average of 15% from 1 January.

EPA report

3. Raw sewage is being discharged daily from 11 towns and villages across Ireland.

These towns and villages see raw sewage from a population equivalent of around 15,000 discharged every day because the public sewers serving these areas are not yet connected to wastewater treatment plants.

Friends in five places

4. Garth Brooks announced his return to Ireland for 10 concerts next summer, but Dublin is noticeably absent from the tour schedule.

The US country star will play two nights each in Belfast, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Cork during May and June 2027.

The Vatican

5. Bob Dylan stopped by the Vatican on Wednesday for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, the first ever US pope.

The 85-year-old American singer-songwriter wore a large black zip-up hoodie to the audience – and kept the hood up for the official photographs of the private meeting.

Belfast

6. Chloe Mitchell was the “victim of a sustained assault with weapons whilst alive” before being “mutilated and dismembered in death”, the first day of a murder trial heard.

Antisocial behaviour

7. Anti-social behaviour in adolescence has consequences for well-being, trust in others and educational qualifications in early adulthood, research has found.

Comparing 13-year-olds born a decade apart also shows antisocial behaviour has remained stable for boys but has increased for girls.

Cybersecurity

8. A cybersecurity attack targeted cold stores housing donated blood supplies in France, authorities said Wednesday, the latest in a series of suspected hacks that has raised alarm across Europe.

The HSE confirmed that no blood banks in Ireland were attacked.

Education

9. A scheme to provide free period products to school students is set to be expanded to upper primary, post-primary and special schools.

In September, education minister Hildegarde Naughton announced a new grant scheme to support the provision of free period products to 101 schools in the Deis Plus scheme for the current 2026/2027 school year.