GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Trump found guilty

1. Donald Trump yesterday became the first former US president to be convicted of felony crimes after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The former president is set to be sentenced on 11 July, but could he actually end up going to jail? 

Lobbying sanctions

2. New lobbying sanctions come into effect tomorrow which will mean that Ministers,  Ministers of State, special advisers and prescribed public servants who don’t comply with the one year “cooling off period” before engaging in lobbying can be fined €25,000, and banned from lobbying for two years. 

Election poll

3. Independent voters’ preferred choice ahead of the European Parliament elections next week, according to a new opinion poll.

The results from the latest poll by The Journal and Ireland Thinks also show that both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have overtaken Sinn Féin.

2FM exodus

4. RTÉ presenters Doireann Garrihy and the 2 Johnnies are to present their final shows at 2FM today.

The three high-profile presenters announced that they would be leaving 2FM earlier this month.

Vape vending machines ban

5. The Health Minister has today commenced sections of the law to ban the sale of tobacco and vaping products by self-service, which will come into effect in September 2025.

Vape vending machines in particular have been linked to younger people smoking and former smokers relapsing, research has found. 

Fatal assault in Dublin

6. Two women in their 40s and a man in his 30s have been arrested in connection to a fatal assault that occurred at an apartment in Dublin in January of this year.

At around 3am on 7 January, a man in his 30s was discovered with serious injuries at an apartment in Lucan.

Inquest 

7. A woman who had stomach cancer had gone for surgery abroad after facing lengthy appointment delays in her care in Ireland, an inquest in Cork today has heard.

Elena Shcherbakova (48), who was originally from Latvia and living in Castletownbere Co Cork, died in the Mercy Hospital in Cork on the 17th of December 2023, after going for surgery abroad in Latvia in the month prior.

National Children’s Hospital

8. Tánaiste Micheál Martin has hit out against BAM, contractors of the National Children’s Hospital, telling the Dáil that the company is likely engaging in a commercial strategy “to try and extract more funding and more money from the Irish people”.

Philip Nolan

9. A high court judge has granted an interim injunction that will temporarily reverse the decision by Science Foundation Ireland to dismiss Philip Nolan as its Director General.

Senior Counsel Padraic Lyons, Nolan’s barrister, told the court that his client was “grievously wronged” by the “astonishing” decision by the SFI board.