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

IRELAND

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez signs the visitors' book with Taoiseach Simon Harris in Government Buildings. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

• A man who admitted filming himself carrying out “vile” sex acts on an infant boy, and who then shared the depraved video footage via the “kik” social media platform, was jailed for four years. 
• Taoiseach Simon Harris said that the point at which Ireland and Spain can recognise the State of Palestine is “coming much closer” after meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
• All uniform gardaí will have to carry out 30 minutes of roads policing per shift, under a directive from Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. 
• The Garda Ombudsman was granted access to audio recordings of a court “melee” that broke out during a hearing related to Enoch Burke’s dispute with Wilson’s Hospital School.
• More than 250 employees working for TikTok in Ireland were made redundant.
• The leader of the new party Independent Ireland, Michael Collins TD, voiced support for the chemical castration of rapists and paedophiles and defended the use of guns for self-defence in an interview with Hot Press magazine.
• A large quantity of cannabis jellies and cannabis herb was seized following a search operation in Dublin.
• Jurors at the Stardust inquest retired for the weekend having so far spent eight days considering their verdicts on the causes of death of the 48 victims of the fire.
• A young man avoided a prison term for his role in a €16,000 “smishing” scam.
• A Kerry man charged over the country’s largest-ever crystal meth seizure was denied bail despite his father’s offer to sell the family home and put up €200,000.

INTERNATIONAL

Israeli Border Police stand guard as relatives of hostages held in Gaza and their supporters protest outside of the US Embassy Branch Office calling on President Joe Biden for the immediate release of all captives in Tel Aviv. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#RETALIATION Israel is on alert after its arch-foe Iran threatened reprisals over a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals.

#INVESTIGATION Belgium announced it is probing Russian “interference” in the European Parliament following allegations that lawmakers took money to spread Kremlin propaganda ahead of the June EU elections.

#DUSSELDORF Police detained two teenage girls and a boy in western Germany on suspicions they were planning an Islamist attack, prosecutors say.

#BOLOGNA Divers in northern Italy recovered the last two bodies of workers killed by an explosion that collapsed and flooded several levels of an underground hydroelectric plant, bringing the total number of confirmed dead in the incident to seven.

PARTING SHOT

The help sign written using palm leaves on the island. US Coast Guard US Coast Guard

Three men who were stranded on a small island in the Federated States of Micronesia for over a week were rescued - after spelling out ‘HELP’ on the beach using palm leaves.