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

IRELAND

Famous Department store Clerys in Dublin reopened to the public this afternoon with an exhibition about its history. Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

• Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe told the Dáil that it was a “clear mistake” on his part to fail to declare donations for hanging election posters in 2016.
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said billionaires in Ireland are all “fur coat and no knickers” prior to leaving for the World Economic Forum in Davos. 
• A status yellow ice warning is currently in place for the whole country this evening, Met Éireann has said.
• The government approved approved a new €2.5 billion remediation scheme for owners of defective apartments, with up to 100,000 apartments expected to be impacted.
• A garda representative leader said standards must not be dropped on recruit fitness levels after Fianna Fáil Justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan suggested the standards were too onerous for candidates.
• Fresh inquests into the Stardust nightclub tragedy are due to begin on 19 April, a pre-inquest hearing heard this afternoon.
• A report recommended screening newborns in Ireland for a rare life-threatening inherited condition in order to allow earlier access to treatment, that could save lives. 
• Bord Gáis Energy, and its parent company Centrica, is set to develop two new power plants as part of a “long-term investment in Ireland”.
• A high court judge refused to grant Enoch Burke an injunction halting disciplinary proceedings against him after the teacher said he will not comply with a previous court order to stay away from the school he is employed at.

INTERNATIONAL

Parts of helicopter are seen in a playground at the scene where a helicopter crashed on civil infrastructure in Brovary, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Daniel Cole / PA Daniel Cole / PA / PA

#UKRAINE A helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb has killed 18 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and three children.

#TECHLAYOFFS Microsoft said it will layoff 10,000 employees in the coming months, as the economic downturn continues to punish US tech giants.

#US A Los Angeles judge declared that adult film star Ron Jeremy is mentally incompetent to stand trial on dozens of rape and sexual assault counts.

#ALASKA A polar bear attacked and killed two people in a remote village in western Alaska, according to state troopers.

#INFLATION The UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was mocked online over his attempt to explain rising inflation with a stack of empty coffee cups.

PARTING SHOT

Federico Gambarini Federico Gambarini

Yesterday, in a small village in western Germany, police made a high-profile detention amid a tense stand-off between authorities and climate activists.

Greta Thunberg was briefly detained and transported by police near an open coal pit mine at a protest against its enlargement.

Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening.

Climate protection is not a crime.#LuetziBleibt #LuetziLebt #KeepItInTheGround #ClimateJustice

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 18, 2023

Our reporter Lauren Boland has a breakdown of the circumstances of the protest and of Thunberg’s short detention.

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