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

IRELAND

The Lord Mayor of Dublin Emma Blain hosted a training session with Kellie Harrington and a group of teenage girls from across the city at the Mansion House today. Rolling News Rolling News

• Major reforms to the rental sector were announced by government, aimed at “boosting investment” to increase the supply of homes – under the changes, rents for existing tenants in the entire country will be brought under the current Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) system
• A 29-year-old man has been charged with riotous behaviour after being arrested during disorder in Ballymena last night
• A cyclist in his 80s has died after a road collision in Co Kerry this afternoon
• Activists have launched a legal challenge against a decision by gardaí not to investigate Airbnb’s listings in occupied Palestinian territories last year 
• Boat trips to Skellig Micheal are due to begin today after the High Court ordered that the Office of Public Works (OPW) allow boat trips to the island, pending a wider legal battle
• Cabinet agreed to implement an emergency measure to solve the military air traffic control service crisis by offering a payment scheme to the controllers to keep them in service
• The developers of almost 500 delayed social homes have called for an “urgent meeting” with government and all stakeholders involved in the project
• The man who died in a shooting incident at a Carlow shopping centre received guns in a controlled delivery by gardaí, the Garda Commissioner has told a Dáil committee

INTERNATIONAL

Locals commemorate the victims of a deadly shooting at the school in Graz, Austria Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#AUSTRIA: At least ten people were killed, and 11 others injured, in a shooting at a school in the Austrian city of Graz

#LOS ANGELES: Donald Trump ordered active-duty US Marines and 2,000 more National Guard troops into Los Angeles last night, vowing those protesting immigration arrests would be “hit harder” than ever

#MADLEEN: Activist Greta Thunberg has arrived in France after being deported from Israel when she and other activists on a ship trying to bring aid to Gaza were detained

#UKRAINE: Russia carried out “massive” drone attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and port city of Odesa early this morning, killing two people and hitting a maternity hospital

#GAZA: An independent United Nations commission said that Israeli attacks on schools, religious and cultural sites in Gaza amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of seeking to exterminate Palestinians

PARTING SHOT

Ed Sheeran sporting an Irish jersey during a concert in Dublin. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Pop star Ed Sheeran may have been born and bred in Suffolk, but he says his roots – and his culture – are firmly Irish.

The 34-year-old Galway Girl singer opened up on The Louis Theroux Podcast, revealing that his childhood was steeped in Irish culture thanks to his large paternal family and regular trips across the Irish Sea.

“I class my culture as Irish. I think that’s what I grew up with,” Sheeran said.

“We’d spend all of our holidays in Ireland. My first musical experiences were in Ireland, I grew up with trad music in the house. So I identify culturally as Irish, but I was obviously born and raised in Britain.”

Read about Ed’s Irishness here.