LAST UPDATE | 14 Mar 2025

GOOD MORNING.

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

Ireland-US trade

1. Donald Trump’s focus on US-Ireland’s trade deficit is part of a wider battle for the US president, but how hurt could Ireland get?

In our main story this morning, Paul O’Donoghue breaks down our trade relations with the US in the wake of Micheál Martin’s visit to the White House.

Burkes ejected

2. Staying in Washington, family members of Enoch Burke were forcibly removed from a St Patrick’s Day event in Washington DC after disrupting speeches at an evening gala.

During the struggle to remove them, Enoch Burke’s mother Martina, two of his siblings and a security guard were all knocked to the floor as they tripped over a curtain dividing the room. Our Political Correspondent Jane Matthews was in the room.

Ukraine ceasefire

3. The UK foreign secretary David Lammy has said it would be “wrong” for Vladimir Putin to place conditions on a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, calling a pause in fighting a “first step” to allow talks to start on “a full settlement” to end the war.

Talks between the US and Ukraine produced the idea of a 30-day truce, with the US president sending envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow to discuss the plans with the Kremlin today.

Resettlement of Palestinians

4.US and Israeli officials have contacted a number of African nations seeking cooperation from them in their plan to remove Palestinians from Gaza and develop the land, the Associated Press reports.

Officials from both countries said the US and Israeli governments have contacted authorities in Somalia, the breakaway territory of Somaliland and Sudan, asking that they assist with the plan.

Training day in the Wicklow mountains

5. Irish soldiers have discovered – on the back of a study of the artillery war in Ukraine – that they have just ninety seconds after firing their big guns to avoid being targeted by returning fire.

The Journal spent the day yesterday with the Artillery Corps as they trained four trainee gun teams in “quick action” tactics on how to avoid that incoming fire.

Lucy Letby case

5. Staff at the hospital where killer nurse Lucy Letby worked could face gross negligence manslaughter charges according to UK police.

Cheshire Constabulary said suspects had been identified and notified in connection to the probe into baby deaths between 2012 and 2016.

Sentencing for children

6. The Supreme Court has ruled that life sentences for children convicted of murder should only be imposed in cases where the intentions and actions of the child “resembled those of an adult”.

The landmark ruling said that a life sentence is not mandatory in the case of child killers, and it should only be used in “exceptional cases”.

Ireland Funds

8. That Ireland Funds gala that the Burkes gatecrashed has its own intriguing history.

The $1,000 a plate dinner is one of the Taoiseach’s final events stateside before heading home, and usually has a few hiccups and random Irish celebs included somewhere.

Champions League

9. Bruno Fernandes led Manchester United into the Europa League quarter-finals with a hat-trick to beat Real Sociedad 4-1 at Old Trafford on Thursday and 5-2 on aggregate.

Diogo Dalot rounded off the scoring in one of Ruben Amorim’s best nights since taking charge of the Red Devils.