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

A man sits in a tractor wheel as vehicles are parked on O'Connell Street in Dublin Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

IRELAND

• Protests against high fuel costs caused major disruption across the country.
• Spanish police detained an Irish man in Spain with alleged links to a well-known Dublin-based organised crime group.
• A retired Garda superintendent was charged with corruption and facilitating a criminal gang.
• Former president Michael D Higgins condemned the “endless rhetoric of militarism“. 
• The president of said dangerous cheap e-bikes and batteries bought from unregulated online sites are creating a serious fire risk and endangering people who buy them.
• Independent butchers warned that the high cost of fuel could end up pushing some out of business. 

INTERNATIONAL

A woman who survived an Israeli airstrike is rescued by a firefighter from a destroyed building in central Beirut, Lebanon Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#LEBANON: Israel killed over 100 people in Lebanon during a massive bombardment today.

#USA: The ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US looked on the verge of collapse.

#MATTHEW PERRY: A drug dealer dubbed the ‘Ketamine Queen’ who sold the drugs that killed Friends star Matthew Perry was jailed for 15 years by a California court today.

PARTING SHOT

‘PHEW’, OR ITS equivalent, must now be the most commonly uttered word on the planet. Although it may be a temporary reprieve, countless millions of us were gripped by a palpable fear about what might happen in Iran on Tuesday night.

Notwithstanding the frequent reassurances from Donald Trump’s allies to the effect that he should be taken seriously, not literally, our worry was entirely justified.

For it was startling in the extreme to read the online pronouncements of the President of the United States, even allowing for the fact that the current office holder conducts himself in a vastly different fashion than his predecessors.

You can read Larry Donnelly’s full Voices article here.