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

IRELAND

The late afternoon sun shines on children playing on Skerries Beach in north Dublin today. Sasko Lazarov Sasko Lazarov

• Minister of State Robert Troy said he failed to do his “due diligence” when signing his members’ interests returns.
• A company has applied for planning permission to build a 24-storey structure in Dublin, which would be the city’s tallest building.
• A researcher discovered megalithic art on a stone in Co Limerick that was previously covered by moss.
• Two families from Co Meath and Co Limerick have succeeded in securing rent free accommodation on Inis Meáin for nine months as part of an initiative to expand the number of schoolchildren on the island.
• Over 100 new cost-rental homes were launched today by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, who committed today to delivering a lot more rental units in the coming months. 
• One man has been injured after a number of men entered a business premises and stole a sum of cash in Co Roscommon. 
• A man in his 20s who died following a serious assault in Kildare last Saturday night has been named locally. 
• Gardaí are cracking down on conspiracy theorists who are threatening politicians on social media and investigators are “actively” reviewing the safety of TDs, The Journal has learned.
• The editor of The Irish Times, Paul O’Neill, is to step down from the role later this year.

INTERNATIONAL

Firefighters fight a forest fire near Raunheim. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#UKRAINE Fears have been raised of possible escalation by Russia ahead of Ukraine’s independence day tomorrow.

#LEBANON Another section of silos collapsed at Beirut Port two years after the devastating explosion that shook the city.

#LONDON A man accused of repeatedly stabbing Thomas O’Halloran in the neck, chest and abdomen faces a provisional trial next spring.

#LIVERPOOL A nine-year-old girl has been fatally shot in Liverpool as she stood behind her mother who was trying to stop a gunman entering the family home.

#USA A jury has convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, in a plot prosecutors described as a rallying cry for a US civil war by anti-government extremists.

PARTING SHOT

Finishing touches are being made ahead of the first launch of NASA’s moon rocket scheduled for next week.

It’s arguably the most ambitious such project at the moment – NASA has said the moon could well be a stepping stone to Mars.

First the rocket needs to prove it is capable and that is what they are doing now. In a poignant image on one of NASA’s twitter feed the potential astronauts to go to the moon did a fly by of the rocket today. 

At approx. 9:00 a.m. EDT today, Aug. 23, 2022, our @NASA_Astronauts conducted a flyby to honor the launch of Artemis I and check out their potential future ride!
Seen atop Launch Pad 39B at the agency's Kennedy Space Center are @NASA_SLS and @NASA_Orion on the mobile launcher. pic.twitter.com/lB4REV7UG4

— NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (@NASAGroundSys) August 23, 2022