LAST UPDATE | 13 Aug

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

Dead seals

1. The number of dead seals washing up along Irish coasts more than doubled between 2020 and 2023, The Journal Investigates can reveal.

The highest amount on record – 430 dead seals were reported to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in 2023, figures obtained under Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) reveal.

That’s a jump from 201 reports in 2020, with the significant spike causing concern among experts that more frequent, severe weather – as well as human disturbance – is impacting the protected species in Ireland.

Gaza

2. Irish activists are helping to organise a new international flotilla aiming to deliver aid to Gaza and break Israel’s blockade as the number of civilians killed through violence or starvation continues to rise.

The flotilla is set to launch from Spain on 31 August and stop at Tunisia and other countries on 4 September before sailing towards Gaza, with people from more than 44 countries participating.

Downpatrick

3. A 30-year-old man has been charged with murder and attempted murder following the death of Stephen Brannigan and the serious assault of Father John Murray in Downpatrick on Sunday.

Father John Murray was struck on the head in a brutal attack at St Patrick’s Church in Downpatrick on Sunday. He was approached by a man who asked if he would hear his confession ahead of the morning service, and then attacked as shocked parishioners arrived for mass.

Ukraine war

4. Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un have vowed to strengthen cooperation days ahead of Putin’s summit in Alaska with Donald Trump.

Putin and Kim spoke by phone in a “warm comradely atmosphere” yesterday and confirmed “their will to strengthen cooperation in the future”, state media outlet the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Teachers

5. The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has said that teachers returning home from working abroad in countries like Abu Dhabi outside of the EU shouldn’t have to start back on the first point of the salary scale and should instead be offered wages that reflect their experience.

TUI called for the measure to be brought in as part of a suite of recommended actions it wants to see from the Department of Education after a survey carried out by the union found that just one in four teachers appointed since 2015 landed full time work in their first job.

John Caldwell

6. Two men have been charged by detectives investigating the attempted murder of a senior PSNI officer in Co Tyrone in 2023.

Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was seriously injured after being shot several times at a leisure centre in Omagh in February 2023.

Washington DC

7. 800 National Guard members deployed by US president Donald Trump began arriving in Washington DC yesterday after he ordered federal forces to take over the city’s police department and reduce crime in what he called – without substantiation – a lawless city.

Seán Rooney

8. An appeal was lodged in Lebanon yesterday evening against the leniency of sentences handed down to a number of people involved in the murder of Private Seán Rooney and an attack on his colleagues.

Private Rooney, 24, from Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal, was killed while serving in Lebanon when his UN peacekeeping convoy was attacked on 14 December 2022.

Thunderstorm warning

9. It’s going to be another clammy day as Met Éireann forecasts temperatures reaching as high as 27 degrees, with a thunderstorm warning scheduled for three counties this afternoon.