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

IRELAND

It was a nice day for some jet skiing on Lough Neagh today Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

• An international team of police hackers targeted four organised crime groups in Ireland in a massive global police operation.
• The Government announced plans for two new veterinary schools at Irish universities.
• The chairman of the Office of Public Works (OPW) was invited to an Oireachtas meeting next week by the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil to answer questions on the cost of the Leinster House bike shed.
• Google Ireland said it was contesting South Dublin County Council’s planning refusal for the online giant’s planned new data centre for Grange Castle Business Park in south Dublin.
• The man accused of attempting to kidnap a young child in Dublin was named in court.
• The operator of Dublin Airport has said a proposal by An Bord Pleanála to lift restrictions on night-time flights contains “some significant contradictions”.
• The minister for Health was in ongoing discussions to further expand the free contraception scheme to 16-year-old girls.
• A one-time smuggler’s ship, intercepted by authorities a decade ago, was sunk in the seabed off Co Mayo to create the country’s first artificial reef.
• Cabinet approved a new plan brought forward today by Minister for Health  Stephen Donnelly to bring dozens of children from Gaza to Ireland for medical care. 

INTERNATIONAL

Firefighters stand outside a damaged mobile shop after an explosion in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#LEBANON: At least 14 people were killed and over 450 wounded in another wave of hand-held device explosions in Lebanon today.

#FRANCE: A man who learned to drug and rape his own wife from the Frenchman who admits he recruited scores of strangers to sexually assault his partner, said yesterday that he deserved to be harshly punished.

PARTING SHOT

YESTERDAY’S UNPRECEDENTED PAGER attack in Lebanon sent a brutal and unequivocal message to Hezbollah about Benjamin Netanyahu’s likely military intentions towards its northern neighbour.

Since the October 7th attacks last year, Hezbollah has launched thousands of missile attacks into northern Israel – displacing almost 100,000 Israeli citizens from their homes and settlements.

As Netanyahu’s genocidal operations in Gaza grind into an end-phase, his right-wing government appear to be shifting their attention to their northern front along the border with Lebanon.

In Tom Clonan’s Voices article, he argues that yesterday’s attacks in Lebanon amounted to an act of terrorism.