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

IRELAND

Micheál Martin at the launch of the Zero Tolerance strategy and accompanying action plan to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. in the Department of Justice. Sasko Lazarov / Photocallireland Sasko Lazarov / Photocallireland / Photocallireland

• The Defence Forces will be put on standby to address backlogs at Dublin Airport. 
• The Health Minister is to draft precautionary legislation that would allow for masks to again be made mandatory in certain settings. 
• The government has approved a Bill that will allow it to compel schools to provide special classes for children with special educational needs more quickly.
• A second youth has been spared a custodial sentence for a “daunting” incident that led to a teenage girl getting knocked head-first under a Dart train.
• Almost double the number of public hospitals were operating with unsafe levels of bed occupancy in the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2021. 
• A 73-Year-old man has appeared in court in Skibbereen, West Cork, where he was charged in connection with the murder of a woman more than 40 years ago.
• The Government was warned one year ago in a secret report that the Irish Navy was likely to be reduced to just three operational ships due to a fall in critical engineering staff, The Journal has learned.
• Changes to school curriculums to include topics like consent, domestic violence and coercive control are set to be brought in by the Department of Education, as part of a new domestic, sexual and gender-based violence strategy.
• Cabinet has approved legislation for free contraception for women between the ages of 17 and 25, following through on a plan announced in last October’s Budget.

THE WORLD

Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, is sworn in to testify as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#USA Three people are in custody after 46 bodies were found in a lorry trailer containing suspected migrants.

#MAXWELL Ghislaine Maxwell has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a US judge today for helping the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls. 

#UKRAINE At the G7 summit, the leaders agreed to impose new sanctions targeting Moscow’s defence industry, raising tariffs and banning gold imports from the country.

#FRANCE France’s Lower House of parliament has elected Yael Braun-Pivet, from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance, as its new speaker – the first woman to hold the post.

#GERMANY A 101-year-old man has been convicted of 3,518 counts of accessory to murder for serving at the Nazis’ Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the Second World War.

PARTING SHOT

It’s rare we hear of Ireland’s impact on the final frontier but the Government is to seek approval for a treaty which will set some legal ground rules for the State’s burgeoning business with the cosmos. 

While many will scoff and sneer at the Cabinet for casting their eyes to the Milky Way there is a major growth in companies working here to exploit the universe.

The number of companies based in Ireland taking part in space activities has risen from 55 in 2015 to 87 in 2020.

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