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

IRELAND

White smoke billows from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

• Taoiseach Micheál Martin described his meeting with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Belgium today as “constructive and engaging”.
• Broadcaster Joe Duffy announced his retirement from RTÉ Radio One, after 37 years at the broadcaster and 27 years at the helm of Liveline. 
• Richard Satchwell was “flogging” his wife Tina’s clothes at a car boot sale just weeks after her alleged murder and claimed she had gone to her sister’s home in the UK after contracting a “terrible infection”, witnesses told his trial.
• The BBC concluded its cross-examination of Gerry Adams after seven days in a defamation trial in Dublin.
• Tánaiste Simon Harris said the government needs to do more in relation to the issue of weapons being flown through Ireland’s airspace to Israel.
• Ireland will be taking part in the Eurovision this year, regardless of the outcome of discussions about Israel’s participation, RTÉ’s Director General said.
• Andy Farrell named 15 Irish players in his Lions squad ahead of the tour to Australia. 
• Up to 12 prisoners were set to be transferred from Mountjoy Prison following a string of serious incidents and alleged assaults that took place in one of the wings of the facility.
• The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) annual conference heard today that 12 of their members are assaulted at work every day.
• A former soldier was facing up to three decades behind bars after being convicted of murdering his south Dublin girlfriend at their Spanish holiday hotel.

INTERNATIONAL

The new pontiff Pope Leo XIV appears in St Peter's Square Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#POPE LEO: The cardinals of the Catholic Church elected the first ever pope from the United States in the Vatican today – Pope Leo XIV. 

#TRADE WAR: European Union countermeasures announced today will apply to a broad range products imported from the US which would be worth €95 billion.

#TRADE DEAL: The United States and the United Kingdom signed a trade deal today that will see American agricultural products enter the UK market. 

PARTING SHOT

AS SOMEONE WHO identifies herself as Jewish, half-Israeli and Irish, Ria Czerniak-LeBov has long felt that non-Zionists among the Irish Jewish community have not been represented publicly to any significant degree — not only since 7 October but throughout her whole life.

Here, she explores the various aspects of Irish-Jewish-Israeli identity in a time of war, warning about the dangers of conflating Judaism and Zionism. She says that while she is extremely proud of her Jewish heritage, as an academic, she has informed herself of the complexities and history of the issues in the region. 

She is now critical of Israel and the role of the Netanyahu government as a conduit for Zionism and its brutal war on Gaza’s civilians in the past 19 months. As an Irish Jewish Israeli woman, Ria finds that there is such a pervasive fear of being perceived as anti-Semitic that organisations censor, dilute or avoid any anti-Israel commentary, even by Jewish artists and writers…

You can read Ria’s Voices article here.