LAST UPDATE | 17 Nov 2023

GOOD MORNING. 

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

Gaza

1. A lack of fuel in the Gaza Strip shut down all internet and phone networks yesterday, the main Palestinian telecom provider said, effectively cutting off the besieged territory from the outside world.

In a signal that Israel’s ground invasion could soon expand to the south, Palestinians in parts of southern Gaza said they received evacuation notices yesterday.

Jozef Puska

2. Jozef Puska is set to face sentencing today for the murder of 23-year-old Ashling Murphy.

Puska, 33, of Lynally Grove in Mucklagh, Tullamore, was found guilty last week of murdering Ms Murphy while she was exercising on a canal path in Tullamore on 12 January 2022.

He had pleaded not guilty to her murder before the Central Criminal Court, where a jury of nine men and three women heard the case.

Glyphosate 

3. Ireland voted in favour of a 10-year renewal of the EU licence for glyphosate, one of the world’s most widely used weedkillers.

The Department of Agriculture told The Journal it supported the renewal based on “exceptionally detailed scientific assessments” by two EU scientific agencies “which did not identify any critical areas of concern”.

Glyphosate, better known by the brand Roundup, has been associated with adverse impacts on the environment and on human health. 

Ukraine

4. Ukraine’s marine corp has said that their forces had carried out a series of attacks on the Russian-occupied east bank of the Dnipro river near the southern city of Kherson.

The waterway is the de facto frontline in the south of the country, but Russia conceded for the first time this week that Ukrainian forces had claimed back some territory on the opposing bank.

Cannabis

5. A Bill that proposes to legalise the personal use of cannabis is set to progress to second stage in the Dáil in January next year. 

Introduced by People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, the Bill passed first stage in the Dáil unopposed in November 2022. 

Speaking to The Journal, the Dublin Mid-West TD said People Before Profit plans to use its private members’ time in the Dáil on January 31 to progress the Bill to second stage. 

The Guardian

6. The Guardian has removed from its website a 21-year-old message written by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, after it was shared several million times on social media.

Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” began being shared on TikTok on Tuesday, sparking a fierce debate about US backing for Israel in its current war against Hamas.

Australia

7. Australian authorities have charged a bouncy castle operator over a 2021 disaster in which six children were killed after strong winds lifted one of the inflatable play structures into the air.

The company, Taz-Zorb, has been charged with breaching health and safety legislation where the tragedy occurred.

Strong winds blew a large inflatable castle into the air at an end-of-term school party in December 2021, killing six children aged between 11 and 12.

Sean “Diddy” Combs

8. Sean “Diddy” Combs was accused in a lawsuit yesterday of subjecting R&B singer Cassie to a years-long relationship that included beatings and rape.

Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, alleged in the suit filed against the producer and music mogul in New York federal court, that Combs brought her into his “ostentatious, fast-paced and drug-fuelled lifestyle” not long after she met him and signed to his label when she was 19 and he was 37 in 2005.

Courts

9. A 46-year-old woman who pleaded guilty to stealing more than €45,000 from an elderly woman with dementia for whom she was acting as a carer has been jailed for two and a half years.

Catherine Gregg of The Cottage, Ballinaclashet, Belgooly, Co Cork previously pleaded guilty to 17 different theft charges. Gregg left just 80 cent in a bank account of the injured party who is now in a care home.