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

IRELAND

The General Post Office on O'Connell Street illuminated as part of Dublin Winter Lights 2023 Conor McCabe Photography. Conor McCabe Photography.

• Two men were arrested after Gardaí seized a plane and heroin worth €8 million at Weston Airport in Dublin.
• Limerick hurler Kyle Hayes was found guilty of two counts of violent disorder – one inside Icon nightclub and one count outside the nightclub, on 28 October, 2019.
• Justice Minister Helen McEntee is to face a no confidence motion and a committee grilling next week.
• Tánaiste Micheál Martin called on Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald to apologise for tweeting a photo of a man drinking from a can on Parnell Square nearby Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire where a stabbing took place last week.
• Customers of taxi app FreeNow who had discount vouchers revoked will now be entered into an “exclusive new raffle” with a prize fund of €20,000 worth of vouchers.
• Ireland’s first ever satellite has been launched into space. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carryying EIRSAT-1 lifted off from the Vandenbeg Air Force Base in California shortly before 7pm Irish time.
• The Taoiseach said the Irish government has no plans to commit to any additional targets to cut methane emissions at COP28 given that existing domestic targets are already not being met.
• Sinn Féin Louth TD Imelda Munster announced that she will not contest the next general election.
• The European Commission played down a suggestion by an EU official earlier this week that misinformation was spread in Irish during the recent riots in Dublin.

INTERNATIONAL 

Palestinians walk past a destroyed building of Israeli bombing in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#GAZA Fighting resumed in Gaza immediately after the expiry of a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas, with the first fatalities reported minutes later.

#BOMBED Ukrainian media reported that the country’s spy agency bombed two trains on a railway in Siberia that serves as a key route for trade between Russia and China.

#GEORGE SANTOS US lawmakers voted to expel George Santos, the scandal-plagued politician who lied his way into Congress and has been indicted on charges of bankrolling his lavish lifestyle with stolen donor cash.

#NEW ZEALAND Mobile phones will be banned in schools across New Zealand, conservative Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said, as his fledgling government looks to turn around the country’s plummeting literacy rates.

PARTING SHOT

From left to right, actor Woody Harrelson, Shane MacGowan, and musician Paul Simon

Legendary musician Paul Simon paid tribute today to his friend Shane MacGowan after his death yesterday at the age of 65.

Paul Simon spoke to RTÉ’s Liveline over the phone from Manhattan about his relationship with MacGowan, revealing how they met in Dublin after a concert Simon performed at.

Simon had invited him to the concert and afterwards asked if MacGowan would like to meet him.

“I already liked what I heard of him,” said Simon. “It was a very striking day in my life when I met him.”