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

IRELAND

A herd of wild Wicklow Sika deer break cover to find food on a snow covered Wicklow Gap. Eamonn Farrell Eamonn Farrell

• A detective Garda was arrested as part of a corruption investigation focused on the alleged passing of information to an organised crime group.
• Mr Justice Tony Hunt today heard submissions in the case of the teenage boy who was just 14 when he murdered Urantsetseg Tserendorj as she walked home from work two years ago.
• Electric Ireland pay-as-you-go customers are to pay a higher gas price from next week after a “technical error” resulted in an undercharge for nearly five months.
• An internal Garda human resources “process” is underway into serious allegations of bullying against an official in the force.
• Advocacy groups said industrial-type buildings should be utilised for the short-term good to prevent refugees from becoming homeless in response to the impending closure of CityWest.
• The Chief Medical Officer Professor Breda Smyth said Ireland has passed the peak of this year’s “severe” flu season.
• Pressure is continuing to mount on Paschal Donohoe to outline the full details around his election expenses.
• More than an eighth of Ulster Bank and KBC customers are yet to open a new account elsewhere.

INTERNATIONAL

A woman stops to look at Ukrainian flags placed in memory of those killed during the war, near Maidan Square in central Kyiv. Daniel Cole / PA Daniel Cole / PA / PA

#UKRAINE Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said there is “no alternative” but for the West to give Ukraine heavy tanks, as Germany failed to say whether or not it would provide its much sought-after Leopards.

#TECH LAYOFFS Google’s parent company Alphabet plans to cut around 12,000 jobs, which is more than 6% of its global workforce.

#ANDREW TATE A Bucharest court extended the detention of the controversial influencer Andrew Tate by one month, prosecutors said.

#PUGS The Netherlands wants to ban pets such as flat-faced dogs and cats with folded ears, which look sweet but suffer “miserable” health problems, the government said today.

PARTING SHOT

Australian rangers killed a “monster” cane toad that was found in the wilds of a national park today.

The warty brown specimen, which was as long as a human arm and weighed 2.7kg, was spotted after a snake slithering across a track forced wildlife workers to stop as they were driving in Queensland’s Conway National Park, the state government said.

This giant cane toad nicknamed 'Toadzilla' has been found in Australia. Park ranger Kylee Gray spotted the toad during a patrol in Conway National Park in Queensland https://t.co/OuEd9fRqty pic.twitter.com/ILPF03uX0Q

— Reuters (@Reuters) January 20, 2023

“I reached down and grabbed the cane toad and couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was,” ranger Kylee Gray said, describing how she discovered the amphibian last week.

“A cane toad that size will eat anything it can fit into its mouth, and that includes insects, reptiles and small mammals,” she said.

The toad was later taken away and euthanised.

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