IRELAND

Eamonn Farrell Eamonn Farrell

•  TD Paul Murphy has said that landlord TDs should abstain from voting on a bill to reduce rents later this evening.
• Close t0 90 Irish citizens have been evacuated from Sudan as fears mount that the current ceasefire will not hold.
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has ruled out introducing immediate mortgage relief, but has said that the Government will examine the measure as part of Budget 2024.
• A review of Ireland’s abortion legislation has recommended that the required three-day waiting period to access a termination should no longer be mandatory.
• Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill will travel to London next week to attend the coronation of the UK’s King Charles.
• A young farmers representative group has met with the Taoiseach to demand greater support for young people in rural communities.
• Garda investigators have established that a former GSOC officer attended a party celebrating the release of Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch.
• A law graduate has been jailed for raping a student nurse shortly after they engaged in consensual sex. 

THE WORLD

#DONALD TRUMP has been warned by a judge over his ‘entirely inappropriate’ online comments about the trial of a rape lawsuit against him. 

#CHINA is to send a delegation to Ukraine with the aim of finding a “political settlement” to the conflict.

#SPAIN is set for record-breaking April temperatures as farmers are grappling with severe drought. 

PARTING SHOT

Families of Stardust victims describe emotional toll of tragedy at inquest sitting:

The brother of Stardust nightclub victim Jimmy Buckley has spoken of guilt “eating away” at him in the wake of his brother’s death and said that he believes the death by heart attack years later of another brother was also caused by the “horrific night” when fire swept through the Dublin nightclub, claiming the lives of 48 people.

Errol Buckley, whose emotional tribute to his brother Jimmy was read out by Errol’s son Lloyd, told the Coroner’s Court today that Jimmy (23) “was more than a brother to me”.

“After my father died when I was 12, my mother moved back home to Offaly and I, not wanting to leave the only home I knew in Dublin, stayed. Jimmy took on my parents’ role,” said Mr Buckley.