LAST UPDATE | 12 Apr 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Biden heads south 

1.  US President Joe Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Belfast today before travelling to Co Louth.

Sunak greeted the US president after Air Force One landed at RAF Aldergrove last night ahead of engagements across the week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which largely brought an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1998. 

Geila Ibram vigil

2. A vigil has been held in honour of Geila Ibram, who was killed in Limerick last week.

Geila, a 27-year-old from Romania, was found dead at a residence on the Dock Road.

Wind warning

3. Two status yellow wind warnings are in place for the entire country with strong northwest winds and gusts of up to 110 km/h expected.

Counties Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Galway have been under a Status Yellow warning since midnight. This will remain in place until 3pm today, with “very strong west to northwest winds developing”.

Bird flu death

4. A woman has died from H3N8 bird flu in China, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday – the first known human fatality from the avian influenza strain.

H3N8 is known to have been circulating since 2002 after first emerging in North American waterfowl. It is known to infect horses, dogs and seals.

Galway funeral

5. The funeral of one of the students who died in the single-vehicle crash in Co Galway is to take place this later this week.

The two teenagers who died have been named locally as Lukas Joyce from Annaghdown and Kirsty Bohan from Headford, both aged 14.  

Ukraine war leak

6. The United States has serious concerns about Ukraine’s ability to make significant gains in an upcoming counteroffensive, as well as Kyiv’s capacity to keep defending against Russian strikes, according to a report and documents reviewed by AFP.

The documents are part of a trove of highly sensitive material that has been posted online, sparking a US criminal investigation into a breach the Pentagon says poses a “very serious” risk to national security.

Donedeal survey

7. Prices for secondhand cars are now 77.5% higher than they were at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, according to data from Donedeal.

Figures for the first three months of 2023 showed strong consumer demand as prices grew by 4.6%, in contrast to the previous quarter where price inflation slowed to a 3-year low.

Pipe bombs in Derry

8. Northern Irish police recovered four suspected pipe bombs yesterday from a cemetery in Creggan, Co Derry.

The finding follows a day of unrest in the area, where a number of missiles were thrown at a PSNI Land Rover during an illegal dissident republican march yesterday.

Navalny plea

9. Jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is ill and without treatment has lost eight kilograms (nearly 18 pounds) in just over two weeks, his lawyer said Tuesday.

The 46-year-old was arrested in January 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he recovered from a poison attack the previous year he blamed on the Kremlin.