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

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is welcomed at Farmleigh House in Dublin Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

IRELAND

• During a visit to Dublin today, German chancellor Friedrich Merz denied that the trial of an Irish Palestine protester is a show trial and said the judiciary is independent.
• Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan agreed to make changes to the rollout of the new criminal legal aid payment system following talks with solicitors, butinsisted that the controversial €520 flat-fee model will remain in place. 
• A law student charged in relation to a bomb intercepted in a car in Co Monaghan was granted bail.
• Couples earning a combined €113,000 are unlikely to be able to afford a home in Dublin’s commuter belt, according to a new report. 
• A man who raped the teenage sister of his then-partner was jailed for six years. 
• An Irish author was named alongside 12 other writers on the longlist for the 2026 Booker Prize. 
• A man was jailed for life for murdering a father-of-four at his north Dublin home.
• Enoch Burke was granted permission by the High Court to challenge a decision refusing to reinstate his employment at Wilson’s Hospital School. 

INTERNATIONAL

Firefighters head to conduct rescue operations at AEON Mall in Kumamoto, Japan, following an earthquake Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#USA: There was a flurry of diplomatic activity in Washington DC today, with Ukraine’s Volodomyr Zellenskyy and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in town for talks with Donald Trump as well as the funeral of Republican senator Lindsey Graham. 

#JAPAN: Many people were trapped in a collapsed shopping centre in Japan following a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the country. 

#EUROPE: Firefighters in Spain and France continued to battle wildfires that have led to mass evacuations. 

PARTING SHOT

ALTHOUGH TRANSGENDER PEOPLE account for about 1% of the overall population, this particular community has been subjected to an outsized amount of moral panic in recent years.

Anti-trans sentiment has bled into many areas of public conversation, often echoing the homophobic tropes of the late 20th century. Over the last couple of decades, we’ve seen outdated societal attitudes towards gay, lesbian and bisexual people abandoned, to the point where it’s widely accepted that these misconceptions are wildly inappropriate.

Yet, those same outdated ideas that there’s an innate deviance, predatory nature or underlying mental illness behind being gay or lesbian, have resurfaced and are now being targeted towards trans, intersex and non-binary people.

To complicate things further, there’s a new layer of amplification in the age of social media, which means that unfiltered, unmoderated and factually inaccurate prejudices can spread like wildfire.

You can read Kelly Earley’s full Voices article here.