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

IRELAND

Sisters Philomenia and Emmanuelle, Megan O’Malley from Wexford and Ciara Julia Ryan from Rathdowney, at the Electric Picnic Press Recce day Alf Harvey Alf Harvey

• A woman appeared in court charged with the murder of a man whose body was found floating in waters off the Sliabh Liag cliffs in Co Donegal in July.
• An Irish holidaymaker was found dead at his hotel room in the San Antonio resort on Ibiza.
• Two garda members were assaulted when responding to a public order incident in Co Louth overnight. 
• Finance Minister Michael McGrath said that he will be examining the tax treatment of landlords as well as the tax credit for renters in the upcoming Budget.  
• RTÉ plans to introduce an organisation-wide “conflict of interests” form to allow workers to raise concerns about any potential conflict they are concerned about with line management. 
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was told to prepare himself for “anachronistic upper-class mannerisms” as well as “controversial traditionalist views” ahead of an online meeting with the UK politician Jacob Rees-Mogg.
• Fifteen noise measuring systems have been installed around Dublin Airport, following controversy over noise levels for local residents. 
• The Irish operation of Elon Musk’s social media giant, X, formerly Twitter has incurred redundancy costs of €12.7 million at its Dublin base since Musk’s acquisition last year. 
• A mural dedicated to murdered journalist Lyra McKee in the US state of Florida has been repainted after being defaced with a Swastika and anti-LQBTQ graffiti. 
• Two children who were at the centre of a parental court fight have left England and returned to Ireland after a judge concluded that their mother had plotted to “abduct” them in breach of their father’s custody rights. 

INTERNATIONAL

Firefighters at a wildfire near the Greek town of Alexandroupolis. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#FLORIDA Hurricane Idalia barreled towards the west coast of Florida today, triggering mass evacuation orders and flood alerts as authorities warned the storm could strengthen to “extremely dangerous” levels before landfall.

#AUSTRALIA A neurosurgeon investigating a woman’s mystery symptoms in an Australian hospital said she plucked a wriggling worm from the patient’s brain.

#FRANCE One of the main unions representing French air traffic controllers is calling for strike action on 15 September, during the Rugby World Cup. 

#WAGNER A private burial was held for Yevgeny Prigozhin, ending a tumultuous journey from St Petersburg street thug to Kremlin-financed mercenary leader, following a suspicious plane crash.

#UK Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary slammed the UK’s National Air Traffic Service (NATS) for the “unacceptable” disruption caused over the past two days following a technical fault.

#GREECE A forest blaze in Greece is “the largest wildfire ever recorded in the EU” and the bloc is mobilising nearly half its firefighting air wing to tackle it, a European Commission spokesman has said.

PARTING SHOT

A supermoon rising behind the lighthouse at Ballycotton, Co. Cork in 2021 Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

A full moon appearing above Ireland this week will be the rare combination of a supermoon and a blue moon for the first time in 14 years, Astronomy Ireland has announced.

The group has encouraged the public to watch the skies tonight, Wednesday and Thursday for the rare celestial event.

When a full moon happens around the time that the moon is closest to Earth, it is called a supermoon.

There are usually three supermoons every year but this week will see a supermoon occur during a blue moon, when a second full moon occurs during one calendar month.

This hasn’t happened since 2009, and won’t happen again until 2037.

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