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

IRELAND

Brendan Gleeson pictured ahead of the first preview of Conor McPherson’s The Weir in Dublin tonight. The Weir at 3Olympia Theatre will run from 8 August – 6 September.

• A Fine Gael councillor who recently served as the Mayor of South Dublin is one of the owners of a recruitment company that has charged foreign nurses thousands of euro in “agency fees” to come and work in Irish nursing homes.
• An Indian man who has been living in Ireland for 21-years said he was attacked and robbed while cycling to work near Dublin’s Grand Canal.
• Tánaiste Simon Harris is set to meet with representatives of the Indian community in Ireland next week after a rise in attacks.
• Ryan Tubridy repaid €150,000 to his former employer RTÉ. He received the money for two promotional events that did not take place.
• Ballymaguire Foods recommenced food production today, over two weeks after more than 140 of its ready-made meals and side products were taken off shelves due to the possible presence of listeriosis.
• A headline show by Belfast rap group Kneecap in Vienna next month was cancelled “due to acute safety concerns” following political pressure from Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ).
• A leading provider of data centres in Ireland successfully challenged the decision of South Dublin County Council to refuse it planning permission for two new centres at its campus in west Dublin.
• Ireland’s biggest private residential landlord sold 16 apartments for €6.6 million in the first half of this year, netting €1.6 million over their book value. 
• A Cork councillor described the €2.5 million spent on a housing estate in Cork which is now being partially demolished as a “complete waste of taxpayers’ money”.
• The EU’S Foreign policy chief has written to a Sinn Féin MEP who demanded she retract “deeply inaccurate” remarks about Ireland’s history.
• CCTV cameras have been installed in Dublin’s north inner city to crack down on illegal dumping, but locals aren’t convinced it will stop the ‘disgraceful’ problem.
• The advertising watchdog sided with Aldi in a complaint it lodged against rival Lidl and also upheld several complaints against influencer Julie Haynes.
• Basketball Ireland said the Ireland women’s team will fulfil their fixture against Israel in their upcoming FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2027 Qualifiers.
• Ger Brennan was appointed as the new Dublin senior football manager.

INTERNATIONAL

Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped by parachutes into Gaza City Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#GAZA: Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan to take over Gaza City, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said early this morning.
#GERMANY: Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany will halt the export of military equipment to Israel which could be used in the Gaza Strip in reaction to Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City.
#AUSTRALIA: The country’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with a chicken korma curry, according to accusations aired today after a suppression order lapsed.
#TRUMP: US President Donald Trump demanded that the new boss of US chip maker Intel resign “immediately,” after a Republican Senator raised national security concerns over his links to firms in China.

PARTING SHOT

Four chicks will be released from Killarney National Park this weekend. Alamy Alamy

Up to 150 white-tailed sea eagles have now taken to the skies in Ireland, as the final year of a reintroduction programme, launched almost 20 years ago, kicks to touch.

A total of 26 chicks will be reintroduced to Ireland this year through a programme by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and their Norwegian partners.

Four of them will be released from Killarney National Park this weekend.

The first sea eagles were brought to the park in Co Kerry in 2007, in what was the first phase of the programme to bring back the large bird of prey to Ireland.

The bird was shot out and poisoned in the 19th century and the reintroduction the programme has been a success, despite some instances of poisonings, including three this year.