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

IRELAND

Leon Farrell Leon Farrell

• Gardaí have commenced a murder investigation following the violent death of a woman in north Dublin today.
• Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman has issued an apology on behalf of the Government to people who have been impacted by illegal birth registrations.
• A man who attacked his 73-year old next-door neighbour during a burglary while on bail for a series of failed robberies has been sentenced to seven and half years.
• Talks are continuing at Government level on whether a €400 payment for people who take Ukrainian refugees into their home will be rolled out. 
• The Irish Medical Organisation has commenced a ballot of non-consultant hospital doctors for industrial action up to and including strike action.
• A food delivery rider accused of stabbing schoolboy Josh Dunne to death said that he used a knife on the night to defend himself, a witness has told the Central Criminal Court.
• Several pretrial matters in a woman’s High Court action against singer and billionaire businesswoman Rihanna over alleged “malicious falsehoods” in an email and a phone call have been resolved.
• A woman accused of the murder of two-year-old Santina Cawley was shown pictures of the bloodied apartment where the child was found injured and told gardaí that all of the evidence seemed to point to her having committed the crime.
• U2′s lead singer, Bono, is to publish his memoir, titled Surrender, this November.
• Ireland’s competition and consumer protection watchdog has launched a full ‘Phase 2′ competition investigation into Permanent TSB’s planned acquisition of Ulster Bank assets, worth €7.6 billion.
• The government will pay up to 70% of inflation-related construction costs on State projects, Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath has said. 
• Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, is set to resign his role at the end of this month.
• The deputy chair of An Bord Pleanála has temporarily stepped back from his role as two separate probes into his decisions continue.
• The government has announced that a special VAT rate for the hospitality sector is to be extended until early next year.
• A teenage girl has died following a car crash in Donegal earlier this month.

INTERNATIONAL

Dolores Ochoa Dolores Ochoa

#RUSSIA President Vladimir Putin is expected to become more unpredictable and could order martial law in Russia to support his ambitions in Ukraine, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said today.

#ECUADOR At least 44 inmates died on Monday in Ecuador’s latest grisly prison riot, the public prosecutor said, as about 100 other prisoners managed to escape.

#SPAIN Spain’s government has sacked the country’s spy chief as part of a widening scandal over the hacking of the mobile phones of the prime minister and Catalan separatist leaders.

#NORTHERN IRELAND Taoiseach Micheál Martin has urged UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson not to take any “unilateral actions” in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol amid reports that the British government is planning on doing just that. 

#PHILIPPINES The namesake son of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos appears to have been elected president by a landslide in an astonishing reversal of the 1986 “People Power” pro-democracy revolt that ousted his father.

PARTING SHOT

Not sure what to feast your eyes on this week? Check out The Remote: our weekly roundup of the best watchable content coming to a screen near you. 

For lovers of Sally Rooney’s runaway success Normal People, one of the most hotly anticipated shows of the year is coming to our TVs, the author’s debut novel Conversations with Friends, adapted for the small screen.