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

IRELAND

Barristers protesting outside the Central Criminal Courts in Dublin today. Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• Four men appeared in court charged in connection with the seizure of 2.2 tonnes of cocaine worth over €150 million aboard a Panamanian-registered ship last week.
• With one week to go until Budget 2024, here’s what we can expect to see in the package next Tuesday.
• The latest Exchequer returns showed that corporation tax declined by over 12% in September. 
• Rank and file gardaí withdrew from voluntary overtime in the first of five Tuesdays earmarked for industrial action.
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar denied that his government is deflecting its responsibility when it comes to dealing with the industrial action taken by gardaí and barristers today.
• The Government approved the new Planning and Development Bill, which it says will be the biggest overhaul of the planning system in a generation.
• Enoch Burke will remain in Mountjoy prison after he again refused to stay away from Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath.
• The Adoption Authority of Ireland has received over 3,800 applications for records in the year since the implementation of the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022.
• An Oireachtas Committee heard that “even a small step” towards legalising assisted dying will lead to a “a radical re-orientation” of how Irish society views the “equality of human lives”.
• RTÉ tumbled to last place in an annual ranking of customer experience. 

INTERNATIONAL

Former US president Donald Trump sits in court for a civil fraud case at a Manhattan courthouse in New York. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#US Donald Trump attended the second day of his civil fraud trial in New York, where the judge indicated he is not embracing the former US president’s view that most claims in the trial are too old for court.

#THAILAND A 14-year-old boy was arrested after a shooting at a packed Bangkok shopping centre that left two people dead and five wounded.

#REVOLVER Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to three federal firearms charges filed after a plea deal collapsed, putting the case on track for a possible trial as the 2024 presidential election looms.

#MURCIA A Spanish court opened a manslaughter probe into a deadly fire that killed 13 people inside a nightclub which had ignored an earlier closure order.

#DIVIDED LOYALTIES Republican Matt Gaetz filed a resolution to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the US House, setting up a likely showdown vote in the days ahead.

PARTING SHOT

The statue of Phil Lynott in Dublin city centre has survived being knocked over by vandals and accidentally bashed by a motorist.

However, it is being damaged by enthusiastic fans wedging plectrums underneath the strings of its bass guitar.

Someone taking a photograph of the statue of Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott in Dublin today. Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

Dublin City Council told The Journal that it has arranged repairs for the statue of the Thin Lizzy frontman, with the work set to be carried out on site.

The council said a “foundry is going to strengthen the welds” will cost €1,875, while a regime of removing the plectrums regularly will be introduced to protect the statue from further damage. 

Plectrums wedged in the bass guitar of the Phil Lynott statue today. Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

The statue, which sits on the corner of Harry Street, off Grafton Street, was designed by Dublin artist Paul Daly and unveiled in 2005. 

He said he didn’t mind the fact that fans were leaving plectrums at the statue, calling it “a nice gesture”.