GOOD MORNING.

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

Taoiseach over the Áras says Martin

1.  Tánaite Micheál Martin has said his “focus is on becoming Taoiseach” in response to questioning on whether he is considering an Áras bid.

There has been speculation in recent weeks that Martin may run for President and he was asked today about any potential presidential aspirations. “I would like to be Taoiseach again,” said Martin, “and I think that’s a legitimate aspiration, that’s my focus.”

11 dead and 30 missing after bridge collapses in China

2. Eleven people have died in northwest China after a bridge collapsed due to torrential rain, local media reports.

Search and rescue operations have begun after 30 people are estimated to be missing. The incident occurred at 12.40am Irish time (8.40pm local time) due to flash floods in the region.

Defence Forces’ journey through Europe

3. Thirty Irish army vehicles are now being used on the frontlines of the Ukrainian war – acting as ambulances and carrying supplies.

It followed a 3,600km journey from Ireland to the Polish border as Commandant Niall Buckley and his team from the Transport Crew delivered the aid to Ukraine – dubbed Operation Carousel.

The Journal’s Niall O’Connor spoke with Buckley this week and he told of the journey of the Irish military equipment across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland to find its way to the city of Rzeszow and to the new owners in the Ukrainian Army.

Fewer bees this summer

4. According to several beekeepers in Ireland, trends in the weather over the last year have contributed to a difficult situation for Ireland’s bee population.

Ken Norton, Secretary of the Federation of Irish Beekeepers Associations, spoke to The Journal about acute factors that have presented challenges for Irish bees in the past year.

Call for action over female genital mutilation

5. A prominent Irish-Somali anti-female genital mutilation (FGM) activist has said care and supports for victims of female genital mutilation in Ireland are not currently adequate.

While visiting Nairobi, Kenya this week, Tánaiste Micheál Martin met with Ifrah Ahmed, who has long campaigned for the eradication of the brutal practice. 

Ahmed who herself is a survivor of FGM and first came to Ireland as an asylum seeker in 2006, said that while she is proud of the support her activism has received in Ireland, enough is not being done for newly-arrived asylum seekers. 

Fallout of global tech outages could last weeks

6. Airlines, banks and other companies impacted by yesterday’s global cyber outage are recovering today, but experts have warned it could take weeks until the world’s technology is back to normal.

Yesterday cyber-security firm CrowdStrike said that the global outage was as a result of an issue in an update to its Falcon antivirus software, designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks.

Industry expert Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, warned that it could even take “weeks” for all computers and systems to be fully restored.

Large gun seizure in Meath

7. Two men in their 30s have been arrested after gardaí seized 18 firearms and around 900 rounds of ammunition during an operation targeting organised crime in Co Louth.

At around 2pm today, the Garda National Drugs & Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB), supported by the Garda Emergency Response Unit, carried out a search of a premises on the outskirts of Ardee, Co. Louth.

Gardaí seized six AR-15 assault rifles and 12 semi-automatic 9mm handguns.

Weinstein retrial

8. A New York judge set a tentative November date for the retrial of disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein on sexual assault charges.

Weinstein, 72, was convicted in New York in 2020 of the rape and sexual assault of actress Jessica Mann and of forcibly performing oral sex on a production assistant.

A New York appeals court overturned his conviction in April in a shock reversal in one of the defining cases of the #MeToo movement. The court ruled that the trial judge had erred by allowing testimony from accusers who Weinstein was not formally charged with assaulting.

‘Vile’ abuse of journalists under investigation

9. The National Union of Journalists has condemned the “vile online abuse” directed at a reporter by the far right, who covered the court appearances of several people charged with public order offences at the Coolock site earmarked for asylum seeker accommodation.

The union said the journalist, who works for Reach Ireland, has been subjected to threats and online abuse and has had to seek Garda assistance.