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

IRELAND

Minister for Rural and Community Development, Dara Calleary, and Managing Director of SuperValu, Luke Hanlon, with volunteers Yaryna and Evan to launch 2026 SuperValu TidyTowns competition

• Tánaiste Simon Harris is expected to announce a time-bound cut to excise duty tomorrow to help people with the rising cost of petrol and diesel. 
• A man who falsely claimed he was livestreaming a video game session when his pregnant partner Natalie McNally was killed was today convicted of her murder.
• Gardaí are seeking to question a number of men and women in connection with a savage attack on a young mother in Co Tipperary. 
• A couple whose illegally built Co Meath home was recently demolished appeared before a judge over contempt of court proceedings taken by Meath County Council. 
• Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne said she is “deeply committed” to Drogheda United despite being removed as co-chairperson of the League of Ireland club.
• Changes that will seek to make it easier, faster and more transparent to switch mortgages take effect tomorrow.
• Gardaí deployed recently-acquired anti-drone equipment for the first time during the recent Keir Starmer visit to Cork, The Journal learned.
• A man who set fire to a pub owned by Conor McGregor and later stabbed a garda on a Dublin street while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ told detectives he was inspired by the founder of Isis.
• Waterford City and County Council has begun inspecting balconies in an apartment block after a serious incident in which two young children were hospitalised after falling from a balcony last Friday.
• The Law Reform Commission called for a new compensation scheme for victims of violent crime that would broaden the definition of violence to include victims of harassment, stalking and domestic violence offences.
• Barry Keoghan said the “abuse” he is subjected to online about his appearance has become so bad that he no longer wants to go outside.
• Michael Lyster was described as a “broadcasting legend” who brought joy to “so many people” following his death at the age of 71.
• A priest from Co Galway has moved one step closer to sainthood.

INTERNATIONAL

An Air Canada jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport after colliding with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle after landing in New York. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#MIDDLE EAST: Donald Trump postponed possible US strikes on Iranian power plants for five more days following “very good and productive” discussions.

#NEW YORK: A plane carrying dozens of people collided with a fire truck late Sunday on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport, killing the pilot and co-pilot and forcing a halt to flights.

#CLIMATE CHANGE: The amount of heat trapped by the Earth reached record levels in 2025, with the consequences of such warming feared to last for thousands of years, the UN warned.

#LONDON: UK police are investigating an antisemitic hate crime after an apparent arson attack on four ambulances belonging to the Jewish Community Ambulance service in London.

#FRANCE: Leftists retained control of France’s three largest cities while the far right failed to take any major urban centres in Sunday’s municipal elections, closely watched for an indication of next year’s presidential race.

PARTING SHOT

Chappell Roan said in a post online that I do not hate children – that is crazy Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Irish singer Catherine Harding said a security guard “berated” her and her daughter after an encounter with singer Chappell Roan.

Harding’s husband, former Chelsea footballer Jorginho, said the incident made his 11-year-old daughter cry and left her “extremely shaken and cried a lot” after the interaction and accused the singer of not appreciating her supporters, adding: “Without your fans, you would be nothing.”

In an Instagram post yesterday, Harding said her daughter did not have her phone or approach Roan after spotting her while having breakfast at the same hotel, but smiled as she walked past her table.

She added that a security guard spoke in an “aggressive tone” and approached them to “berate and scold” while they were eating breakfast.

“Even if she did send him or she didn’t send him, I don’t know, for me it felt like it really overstepped a boundary,” Harding said.

Chappell Roan later said neither Harding nor her daughter had approached her and that the security guard was not part of her personal detail.

Roan, 28, who was lying down in bed as she spoke in the video, continued: “I do not hate people who are fans of my music. I do not hate children – that is crazy.

“I’m sorry to the mother and child that someone was assuming something, that you would do something, and that… if you felt uncomfortable, that makes me really sad. You did not deserve that.”