LAST UPDATE | 20 Jan 2024

GOOD MORNING.

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

Towns cry out for services 

1. In today’s lead story, Eoghan Dalton reports that the government has been accused of failing to follow through on promises to provide additional services to some areas that have taken in asylum seekers, including in towns that have received people fleeing war over six years ago.

Roscommon-Galway TD Claire Kerrane and a community group in Co Donegal said the failure to provide services has made it difficult to provide services appropriately, with the pleas for help “falling on deaf ears” as a result.

Israel hits Syria

2. An Israeli strike has hit a residential building in the Syrian capital Damascus today, state media said, as regional tensions soar over the Israel-Hamas war.

“An attack targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood in Damascus, resulting from an Israeli aggression,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported.

Five people have been confirmed dead.

Derelict properties

3. The grants to renovate vacant and derelict properties on Ireland’s offshore islands should increase, according to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien. 

A total 14 applications for the grants were made last year.

The Irish Hotel

4. Amid the furore of the Irish government’s move to house people fleeing war in different towns and villages across the country, it’s often been a local hotel that has become a battleground.

This has been the case in some of the most serious incidents, including the burning of a disused hotel in Roscahill in Co Galway, while this past week has seen some locals in Roscrea in north Tipperary maintain that their final trading hotel should not be used to house asylum seekers.

Eoghan Dalton explores the history and significance of the Irish hotel, from GAA to asylum seekers.

Factory explosion

5. Eight people have been killed in a factory explosion in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, state media reported.

Deadly industrial accidents are common in China, where safety regulations are often poorly enforced.

Debunk

6. A video that appears to show an electric Bus Éireann vehicle being re-charged by a generator has been shared online along with claims that the generator is being run on diesel.

Shane Raymond looks into the video, debunking the claim.

A grand jury has indicted Alec Baldwin on an involuntary manslaughter charge over a fatal shooting during a rehearsal on a film set in New Mexico in 2021.

Special prosecutors brought the case before a grand jury in Santa Fe this week, months after receiving a new analysis of the gun that was used.

Gaza death toll

7. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the death toll since 7 October has risen to 24,927.

The United Nations says the war has displaced roughly 85% of Gaza’s people and warns better aid access is needed urgently as famine and disease loom.

Alec Baldwin

8. A grand jury has indicted Alec Baldwin on an involuntary manslaughter charge over a fatal shooting during a rehearsal on a film set in New Mexico in 2021.

Special prosecutors brought the case before a grand jury in Santa Fe this week, months after receiving a new analysis of the gun that was used.

‘Chemistry’

9. Andrew Scott has spoken of his “chemistry” with fellow Irish actor Paul Mescal, in an appearance on The Late Late Show last night.

The pair were fresh from the Irish premier of their new movie All Of Us Strangers at the Lighthouse Cinema.

The highly-anticipated romantic fantasy film has already received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, and there are hopes for an Oscar nomination  too.