LAST UPDATE | 15 Aug 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. In our lead story today, Eimer McAuley reports that Dublin Zoo has been ordered to install shelters in its outdoor African Savanna enclosure.
It has also been given three months to review a “pest problem” at the same enclosure following a routine inspection last year.
2. The number of deaths caused by the Maui wildfires now stands at 99, a figure that is likely to increase as search crews comb neighbourhoods where flames moved as fast as a mile a minute.
The blazes that consumed most of the historic town of Lahaina are already the deadliest in the US in more than a century with the cause under investigation.
3. Former US president Donald Trump been indicted on charges of racketeering and a string of election crimes after a sprawling, two-year probe into his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden in the US state of Georgia.
The case – relying on laws typically used to bring down mobsters – is the fourth targeting the 77-year-old Republican this year and could lead to a watershed moment, the first televised trial of a former president in US history.
4. 2023 is highly likely to be the warmest year of modern records, according to analysis by a climate data organisation.
Berkeley Earth, a non-profit organisation in the US that records and analyses data on global temperatures and air pollution, has released its analysis for July – the hottest month on record.
5. The government has received draft terms of reference for the UK’s independent statuatory inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bombing.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said that once there is “further clarity on the nature of the UK inquiry”, Cabinet will consider the next steps in this jurisdiction.
6. Gardaí have launched an investigation following the discovery of a body of a woman in Co Limerick last night.
The body of the woman, aged in her early 50s, was discovered at a home in Templegreen in Newcastle West at around 5.10pm.
7. The European Union has told the UK it is not willing to negotiate a returns agreement for migrants arriving via unauthorised routes, according to reports.
If correct, it would mean Britain is unlikely to be able to return refugees arriving via small boats across the Channel back to France in the near future.
8. Three people have been killed in the city of Lutsk after air strikes hit western Ukraine overnight, local officials said early on Tuesday.
Lutsk, which had a pre-war population of over 200,000, is less than 100 kilometres from Ukraine’s border with Poland.
9. Israeli troops have two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, in the first deadly raid in the Jericho area for months.
The health ministry said Qusay Omar Suleiman al-Walaji, 16, and Mohammed Ribhi Njoom, 25, were shot in the chest by Israeli forces “during an attack on Jericho at dawn today”.
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