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

IRELAND

Antoinette Keegan who had two sisters die in the Stardust Fire with other people associated with the Stardust Disaster meeting in the Garden of Remembrance Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• Government ministers signed off on a plan to try to accelerate the building of new homes and the refurbishment of vacant ones in an update to the Housing for All strategy.
• More than 70 Irish citizens have been safely evacuated from Sudan.
• The three coalition leaders have expressed support for Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins over the controversial sale of council land to his wife in 2008.
• Fresh inquests into the Stardust nightclub tragedy heard how the victims of the fire will be “at the heart” of the process and that their lives must be “vindicated”.
• Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has been told that he has a “lot more to do” to satisfy the DUP over the Windsor Framework and to persuade the party to return to Stormont.
• Fine Gael TD Michael Creed has confirmed he will not be contesting the next general election.
• People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has said that a protest outside his family home is “completely wrong and inappropriate”.
• A former Fianna Fáil councillor has been jailed for five years for sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl who was on a sleepover at his home with several other children almost 20 years ago. 
• The Garda Commissioner has said he will meet the DPP to discuss the acquittal of Gerard Hutch but has warned all organised criminals “my gang is bigger than their gang”.
• Wild Youth, the band representing Ireland in next month’s Eurovision Song Contest, have said in a tweet they are cutting all ties with their former creative director Ian Banham. 

THE WORLD

A man walks by a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#ELECTION: US President Joe Biden formally confirmed his plans to run for re-election in 2024.

#KENYA: The death toll from a suspected Kenyan starvation cult has climbed to 90, as police have said investigators are pausing the search for bodies because the morgues are full.

#RIP: Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as an actor and singer and became an activist and humanitarian, has died at the age of 96.

PARTING SHOT

As mentioned above, US President Joe Biden has confirmed he will be running for re-election. 

Here’s the tweet in which he confirmed that: 

Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their fundamental freedoms. I believe this is ours.

That’s why I’m running for reelection as President of the United States. Join us. Let’s finish the job. https://t.co/V9Mzpw8Sqy pic.twitter.com/Y4NXR6B8ly

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 25, 2023

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