LAST UPDATE | 17 Oct 2025

GOOD MORNING.

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

Dublin voters

1. The Journal spoke to Dubliners ahead of the presidential election, who called it “daft”, “undemocratic” and unengaging. 

Ukraine war

2. Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Donald Trump at the White House today, seeking US-made Tomahawk missiles even as the US president reaches out to Russia’s Vladimir Putin for a fresh summit.

Screen time 

3. A third of children say they can use screens “whenever they want”, while nearly half acknowledge they spend too much time online.

Organised crime 

4. Two women and a man were arrested as part of an ongoing operation targeting an organised crime group.

USA

5. John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, has been indicted by a federal grand jury, the third foe of the US president to be hit with criminal charges in recent weeks.

Mercury Prize

6. There was disappointment  for Irish acts CMAT and Fontaines DC after Newcastle singer Sam Fender won this year’s Mercury Prize for album of the year.

The Celebrity Traitors 

7. One celebrity was “murdered” and another was banished on last night’s episode of The Celebrity Traitors. 

Radicalisation online 

8. EU Commissioner Michael McGrath has the power to prevent algorithms radicalising young men, writes Tom Barton.

Brian O’Driscoll 

9. Former Irish rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll was a guest speaker at an event hosted by a cyber security firm with links to the Israeli intelligence services. It was disrupted by protesters.