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

IRELAND

Tricia Ashton and Beryl Virgo, members of the 'Tippyn O Bopeth' group from South Wales, who are taking part in Pan Celtic International festival which is running this week in Carlow Picture: Finbarr O'Rourke Picture: Finbarr O'Rourke

• A young woman died after her car entered a river in Tipperary, leaving a local community in shock.
• The number of people in emergency accommodation increased last month to a record 15,418 people, including 4,675 children.
• President Michael D Higgins paid his respects to Pope Francis in St Peter’s Basilica.
• The Freemasons launched an investigation after it emerged that the organisation’s signature Freemasons’ Hall in Dublin was the setting for a music video by an artist on Conor McGregor’s label that included a scene of a simulated assault on a character made up to resemble the British Queen.
• The Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland in Dublin remained closed today – when Muslims normally attend mosques to pray – following an incident last weekend.
• Former Irish international hockey player Catriona Carey and her brother were sent forward for trial accused of breaking company laws.
• A rare mud house that has stood in Co Clare for almost 200 years is set to be removed in order to facilitate improvements to a nearby road, according to Clare County Council.
• Garda Commissioner Drew Harris made a bid to stop two of his senior officers having to give evidence in the libel case taken by Gerry Adams against the BBC. 
• Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin said his colleague David Cullinane did the right thing by apologising for a tweet endorsing the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on the definition of a woman. 
  

  INTERNATIONAL 

A man stands in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#VATICAN: The coffin of Pope Francis was sealed in a private ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica.

#UKRAINE: Russia said it was ready to reach a deal to bring an end to the war in Ukraine as US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

#USA: FBI agents arrested a judge in the US for allegedly obstructing the deportation of an undocumented immigrant, a major escalation in the ongoing conflict between the government and the judiciary over the legality of Donald Trump’s immigration policies. 

#MANGIONE: Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, pleaded not guilty in court today.

#RUSSIA: A senior Russian general was killed when a car exploded not far from Moscow and the Kremlin suggested Ukraine was behind the blast.

PARTING SHOT

IT IS FITTING that the ‘The Climate Pope’ died during Earth Week, a week dedicated to Earth and the environment, a cause that became a rallying cry of his papacy in a world where many global leaders stayed silent.

Imagine a world where all our leaders spoke as clearly as Pope Francis on climate issues.

‘The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,’ he said in a major papal encyclical letter to the Church, which was dedicated to the environment and published on 18 June 2015.

Read Dr Catherine Conlon’s full tribute to Pope Francis here.