NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

• Officials are planning for Biden to arrive in Belfast on 11 April, and then travel to Dublin the following day.
• An inquest has heard that a woman who suffered a violent death with her two children in their Dublin home three years ago had spoken of her fears that her husband would kill her shortly after she arrived in Ireland.
• All CervicalCheck samples taken in Ireland will be tested in the US, after the only Irish lab that carries out this work had its accreditation suspended. 
• Former military officer and sitting TD Cathal Berry has said that a culture of automatically taking offence at criticism has stymied efforts to deal with toxicity within the Defence Forces.
• In the last four weeks the community of Dungarvan in Co Waterford has found itself in the grip of swirling rumours about a spate of attacks allegedly being carried out by ‘migrant’ men in the area.
• The Taoiseach has criticised the notion that transgender people pose a threat to others, saying that they are “no more a threat than any other group in society”. 
• The Ceann Comhairle threatened to suspend the Dáil today amid shouting, as Pearse Doherty and Micheál Martin had a tense exchange on the eviction ban.
• A loyalist drug feud in Northern Ireland has led to attacks on homes where young children live in Co Down. 

THE WORLD 

 #THE EU PARLIAMENT has condemned the violation of same-sex parents’ rights by Italy’s new ultraconservative government. 

#Olivia Pratt-Korbel: A man has been found guilty of fatally shooting nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel as he chased a convicted drug dealer into her home in Liverpool.

#AMERICAN JOURNALIST Evan Gershkovich has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of spying for Washington. 

#OSCAR PISTORIUS is expected to attend a parole hearing ten years after killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

PARTING SHOT

People Before Profit is to bring a Bill to the Dáil after Easter to ban private jets in Irish air space after it was revealed in new research there were 6,671 private flights in Ireland in 2022.

Sinn Féin is also calling for the introduction of a private jet tax.

The Greenpeace report found that the most used airport for private aviation is Dublin Airport with 3,445 departing flights in 2022.

The most frequently used route for private aviation in all years was the route between Dublin and London.