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

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

IRELAND

• There are currently 3,544 vacant council-owned homes across the state, while close to 100,000 people remain on housing waiting lists.
• Minister for Education Norma Foley has pushed back against suggestions that there should be a “Dublin allowance” for teachers working in the capital.
• Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said that cuts to the USC are under consideration in Budget 2024
• 215,000 people have become eligible for free GP care today.
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has stood by comments that he believes there will be a united Ireland in his lifetime.
• Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said that Sinn Féin winning big in the next election is not a sure thing, and that a huge incompatibility between the two parties could rule out any potential coalitions with the party and Fianna Fáil.
• Thousands of local authority staff have begun industrial action, which will see them refuse to respond to queries from politicians, FÓRSA has said.
• Residents blocked the road leading to the Castletown House estate in Celbridge, Co Kildare, as anger grows over the owners’ decision to close public access.
• Politicians in Galway have called for extra Garda presence in the city, after four people were hospitalised in a fight which saw two people hit by a car.

Dozens of people, journalists, and neighbours take pictures as firefighters remove the body of a man in the Moroccan village of Amizmiz, one of the worst hit by the earthquake. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

INTERNATIONAL

• #BORDEAUX French prosecutors have opened an investigation into the case of an Irish woman who said that she was raped while in the city of Bordeaux for Ireland’s Rugby World Cup match against Romania on Saturday.
• #MOROCCO The death toll of the earthquake which struck Morocco over the weekend has risen to 2,600. The Irish government has pledged €2 million of aid to the country.
• #MANHUNT Daniel Khalife, the terror suspect who escaped from HMP Wandsworth last Wednesday, has been remanded in custody.
• #ESPIONAGE The UK parliamentary researcher who has been arrested under suspicion of being a Chinese spy, has said that he is completely innocent.
• #9/11 Memorial services were held across the US today, to mark the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 World Trade Centre attacks.

Ballygunner GAA Ken Sutton / INPHO Ken Sutton / INPHO / INPHO

PARTING SHOT

Ballygunner GAA made history over the weekend, winning a tenth consecutive Waterford senior hurling championship.

The final marked their 55th consecutive win, no small feat.

The win is a new record, both in Waterford, and in any of the other established hurling counties.