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

IRELAND

Kate O'Toole and Isobel Conlon From Loretto College, St Stephens Green review English Paper one after their first exam in the the Leaving Cert 2022. Sam Boal Sam Boal

• Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys said the Government does not have a “magic money tree” to help cut fuel prices further. 
• Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the European Parliament that Ireland “strongly supports” Ukraine’s application to join the bloc.
• British Labour leader Keir Starmer will meet political leaders during a visit to Dublin tomorrow.
• Junior and Leaving Certificate exams got underway at centres around Ireland today, with a total 131,431 students taking part.
• The father of Santina Cawley was given a ten-month suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to assaulting and causing harm to his former partner who was jailed last month for the toddler’s murder. 
• The mother of murdered boxer Kevin Sheehy has launched a High Court action aimed at preventing the transfer of her son’s killer to a prison in the UK.
• The Central Criminal Court heard that a delivery cyclist had “good intentions” when he pursued a bike thief through Dublin, but was met with a “violent and savage” assault that resulted in the death of 16-year-old Josh Dunne.
• Former Sinn Féin TD Violet-Anne Wynne said that despite her salary of €101,193, she and her six children are homeless and living in a holiday home.

INTERNATIONAL

A man walks with his dog near a building destroyed by attacks in Gorenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv. Natacha Pisarenko Natacha Pisarenko

#GERMANY One person was killed and at least a dozen others injured when a man drove a car into a crowd, including teenagers, at a busy shopping district in central Berlin today, police said.

#UKRAINE Russian forces may be close to capturing Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland as the Kremlin claimed it has taken control of 97% of one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas region.

#CLIMATE CRISIS The European Parliament voted against adopting a revision of the EU emissions trading system, rejecting a proposal that had been weakened down from its original ambition.

#BORIS British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised new measures to boost home ownership and defended his record in office as he faced MPs for the first time since being wounded by a revolt by Tories against his leadership.

#NI PROTOCOL The UK’s Northern Ireland minister said his government will soon publish legislation that will override the Protocol to reverse “ridiculously excessive” checks on goods moving within the United Kingdom’s internal market.

PARTING SHOT

Last month saw the deadliest US school attack in a decade, when 19 children and two teachers were shot dead by an 18-year-old in the Texas town of Uvalde.

The shooting once again sparked off a debate about the ease of access to guns in the US – particularly the types of semi-automatic weapons commonly used in these kinds of attacks, which can result in high casualty rates.

But how likely is it that serious reforms will now follow – and why is it so hard to limit access to guns in the US?

In this week’s episode of The Explainer, presenter Michelle Hennessy is joined by Larry Donnelly, law lecturer at NUI Galway and columnist with The Journal, to discuss this topic.
https://soundcloud.com/the-explainer-podcast/why-is-it-so-hard-to-take-action-on-mass-shootings-in-the-us?utm_source=www.thejournal.ie&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fthe-explainer-podcast%252Fwhy-is-it-so-hard-to-take-action-on-mass-shootings-in-the-us