LAST UPDATE | 12 Apr 2024

GOOD MORNING. 

Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.

Layoffs

1. In our lead story today, Diarmuid Pepper reports that more than 250 employees working for TikTok in Ireland will be made redundant later today.

In February, TikTok said the job losses were the result of a “redesign of our Training and Quality team that will enable us to further enhance our quality assurance processes”.

Bus crash

2. A bus ran off a highway in northeastern Brazil and overturned yesterday, killing at least nine people and injuring over 20 more, authorities said.

Agenda

3. The recognition of Palestine is to be the key focus in the meeting between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Taoiseach Simon Harris today in Dublin. 

Middle East 

4. Israel is on alert after its arch-foe Iran threatened reprisals over a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals.

In the running

5. Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri has announced he will run in June’s European Parliament elections in the Dublin constituency.

Running as an independent candidate in the Dublin constituency, Al-Qadri’s campaign will focus on affordable housing, immigration, helping small businesses and peace-building in Gaza and Ukraine.  

Road crash

6. Two men are in a critical condition in hospital following a serious collision on the M9 at Kilkenny yesterday evening.

OJ Simpson

7. The death of OJ Simpson is “no great loss”, according to the father of a man the former NFL star and actor was acquitted of killing.

Hospitalised

8. Two members of the Defence Forces have been injured during a routine parachute display team training exercise. 

Arrests

9. Police have detained two teenage girls and a boy in western Germany on suspicions they were planning an Islamist attack, AFP reports.