LAST UPDATE | 19 Feb 2024

GOOD MORNING. 

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

Refuges full

1. In our lead story today, Jane Moore reports that over half of domestic violence refuges around the country are full, with the housing crisis leading to women and children staying in crisis accommodation for months on end because they can’t find anywhere else to go. 

Of the 20 specialist domestic violence services that provide refuge accommodation who were contacted by The Journal, 14 said that all of their refuge spaces were currently full. 

Rafah invasion imminent

2. Israel has threatened to invade Gaza’s Rafah by the start of Ramadan if Hamas does not return the remaining hostages by then, despite international pressure to protect Palestinian civilians sheltering in the southern city.

With prospects for truce talks dimmed, the United States and other governments, as well as the United Nations, have issued increasingly urgent appeals to Israel to call off its planned offensive on Rafah.

Bafta win

3. Cillian Murphy has won the leading actor Bafta for the blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer, which scooped 7 awards in total. 

‘Sexist’ care amendment

4. The Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC) has expressed concern about the possible consequences of the proposed care amendment to the Constitution, calling it “sexist” and “ineffective”.

ICJ hearings

5. The UN’s top court will today begin oral hearings on another case involving Israel.

Ireland will make a presentation to the court on Thursday, which it’s understood will argue that Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are contrary to international law.

EU elections

6. Senator Regina Doherty has been selected as the Fine Gael Dublin candidate for the upcoming European elections.

Michael O’Regan

7. The “generous” and “compassionate” Irish Times journalist Michael O’Regan has died, the paper reported.

Strikes

8. A union in Germany has called on ground staff for Lufthansa to strike at seven airports on Tuesday following a similar walkout earlier this month.

The Ver.di union said today that the one-day strike will affect the airports in Frankfurt and Munich, Lufthansa’s two main hubs, as well as Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne-Bonn and Stuttgart.

Alexei Navalny

9. Tánaiste Micheál Martin is among the EU foreign ministers that will meet with Alexei Navalny’s widow today, as Russian courts jailed dozens of people detained at events commemorating the Kremlin critic.

The 47-year-old opposition leader died in an Arctic prison on Friday after spending more than three years behind bars, prompting outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and his supporters.