NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Protesters march in the Equality in Education protest march today in Dublin. Justin Farrelly © RollingNews.ie Justin Farrelly © RollingNews.ie

• The funeral of Michael ‘Mike’ Gaine has heard that he was a loving relative, a proud Kerry man “and an even prouder Kenmare man”. 
• The chair of an advocacy group for families affected by an antiepileptic drug that can cause serious birth defects if used during pregnancy is seeking a meeting with the Minister for Health to discuss why an inquiry into the drug has yet to begin. 
• Organisers of the Beyond the Pale music festival have insisted that the event next weekend is not cancelled, despite staff and vendors being informed of otherwise today amid reports that the festival had gone into liquidation.
• The funeral service for Kevin Kelly, who died in a house fire in Casla, Co Galway earlier this week, has heard that he was born fourteen days after his due date and did things his own way from that point on.
• Sinn Féin Dublin city councillors have today tabled an Emergency Motion demanding that the Minister for Housing “immediately provide funding straight to Dublin City Council to deliver homes without any further delays” after The Journal reported that almost 250 social homes in Dublin have been delayed over cost concerns.
• A garda has broken his silence over a seven-year long probe led by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI) that failed to convince a jury he had done wrong.
• A female garda who was suffering in the aftermath of a workplace sexual harassment incident was “significantly failed” by An Garda Síochána after there was an “unreasonable” delay in reviewing and investigating a separate allegation of bullying she made against her supervisor.

INTERNATIONAL

Winner Coco Gauff of the U.S. and ball boys and girls pose with the trophy after the final match of the French Tennis Open against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus at the Roland-Garros stadium in Paris. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#GAZA: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces have killed at least 36 Palestinians today, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution centre.

#UKRAINE: At least five people have been killed after Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles, drones and bombs across Ukraine early this morning. 

#FREEDOM FLOTILLA COALITION: An aid ship carrying twelve activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, has reached the Egyptian coast and is nearing the besieged Palestinian territory, organisers said today. 

PARTING SHOT

THIS COLUMN GETS filed on a Thursday afternoon. A Thursday afternoon, okay?

So when Elon Musk decides to explode his relationship with Donald Trump over the President’s landmark legislation and takes to Twitter to accuse Trump of being “in the Epstein files”, it raises many profoundly troubling questions. 

What does it mean when the world’s richest man implicates the world’s most powerful man in a sex crime investigation? How has the world come to this? Couldn’t you guys have done this on Wednesday?

Carl Kinsella dissects the week’s events in today’s Surrealing in the Years.