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

Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O’Neill in the Great Hall at Parliament Buildings next to a portrait of Martin McGuinness at Stormont, before a sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly where where she is expected to be named Northern Ireland’s first nationalist first minister. PA PA

IRELAND

• Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill formally accepted a nomination to the role of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, becoming the first nationalist to ever hold the position, as the Northern Ireland Executive returned after almost two years. 
• A new report detailed how a man with a health condition collapsed in a court holding cell and later died minutes after asking a prison officer for his medication which had been stored in a locker.
• President Michael D Higgins decried Israel’s strikes in southern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled from further north, calling the prospect of more violence a ‘moment of global crisis’. 
• Concerns were raised that children with Coeliac Disease, of which there are thousands in Ireland, are not being “catered for” by the state’s School Meals Programme.
• New research showed how vulture funds now own more student accommodation in Dublin than DCU, UCD and Trinity College combined, with 7,538 beds compared to 5,602.
• It was revealed that gardaí and Tusla have been contacted by a local authority over concerns raised about the housing of three convicted sex offenders in a homeless hostel in the south of the country, two of whom have been deemed by the courts to be at a high risk of reoffending.

WORLD

Berlin witnessed a monumental gathering on February 3, 2024, as approximately 150,000 demonstrators formed a symbolic firewall against right-wing extremism in front of the Bundestag under the banner WeAreTheFirewall. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#GERMANY At least 150,000 people gathered in front of the German national parliament on this afternoon to protest against the far right, the latest in a string of large weekend demonstrations across Germany.

#PARIS: Three people were injured in a knife attack at the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris. A suspect was arrested.

#SYRIA: Syria pushed back against US attacks on its soil, saying US occupation of Syrian territory “cannot continue”, after the US military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria it said were used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds force.

PARTING SHOT

Our reporter Nicky Ryan spent a week in the ground in south-east Turkey, visiting regions hit by the earthquakes last year. He has rounded up some of the devastation and resilience that he saw:

I spent the past week on the ground in south-east Turkey, visiting regions hit by the earthquakes last year.

The ongoing impact of the disaster is staggering. Thousands still homeless. Cities still in ruins.

It's something the rest of the world might not fully grasp (1/8) pic.twitter.com/M7OqtZMZMr

— Nicky Ryan (@NickyRyan_) February 3, 2024