LAST UPDATE | 30 May 2024

GOOD MORNING.

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

1. Children’s Hospital

The completion of the National Children’s Hospital will be further delayed, TDs are set to hear.

The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) will tell the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the hospital will not meet its scheduled completion date of 29 October.

2. Political donations

The source of just 8.37% of donations to Irish political parties between 2019 and 2022 has been revealed to the public.

This places Ireland’s political donations framework as one of the least transparent in the EU, when compared to other member states. 

3. Workplace death

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the workplace fatality of a man at a wastewater treatment plant in north Tipperary.

The man, aged in his 50s, was working as a contractor at the Uisce Éireann site in Roscrea when he died during a workplace incident at around midday.

4. Nikki Haley

Former US presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has been photographed writing “Finish Them” on an Israeli shell as she toured sites near the northern border with Lebanon.

The photograph was posted on X yesterday by Danny Danon, a member of the Israeli parliament and former ambassador to the United Nations, who was accompanying Haley on her visit.

5. Asylum seekers

Another clearance operation is underway at the Grand Canal in Dublin this morning, where asylum seekers had pitched tents.

It’s the third encampment on the banks of the canal where unaccommodated asylum seekers have sought shelter.

6. Harvey Weinstein

Manhattan prosecutors have told a judge that they are evaluating new claims of sexual misconduct made against Harvey Weinstein.

Prosecutors said they could potentially seek a new indictment against the former movie mogul ahead of his scheduled retrial on rape charges later this year.

7. Housing

Mothers living in inadequate housing and poorer quality neighbourhoods have reported more depression, find parenting more stressful, and suffer from greater levels of conflict with their children, a new ESRI report has found.

The report uses data from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study from families of children born in 2008.

The children of the mothers surveyed that suffered from these issues are reported to face greater social and emotional difficulties at the age of nine. 

7. Trump trial

Jurors have started deliberating on whether to convict Donald Trump in the first criminal trial of a former US president.

It’s a decision that could upend the November’s election, in which the Republican seeks to return to power.

The 12-strong New York jury huddled for almost five hours yesterday before the judge sent them home for the night, ready to resume today.

8. SETU

Management of one of the country’s technological universities is meeting with its staff amid outrage at links between a tech company partnered with the college and the Israeli military.

A group of staff at the South East Technological University (SETU) are seeking for the college to sever ties with US open source software firm Red Hat over the work it carries out for the Israeli government and the Israel Defence Forces.