LAST UPDATE | 11 hrs ago
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. The number of secondary school pupils given an exemption from studying Irish last year was almost double the number granted an exemption before the pandemic.
Figures obtained by The Journal under the Freedom of Information Act show that almost 20,000 pupils received an Irish exemption for the 2023-24 academic year.
2. The government is concerned about the potential environmental risk posed by ships involved in smuggling Russian oil off the Irish coast, this website has learned.
High level meetings have taken place in the Department of Transport and with experts in the Department of Foreign Affairs to find a way to deal with the issue, it’s understood.
3. Irish teenagers compare favourably to their European counterparts when it comes to healthy behaviours, according to an OECD report on 15-year-olds.
A new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows that Irish 15-year-olds smoke less, drink less alcohol, exercise more and have higher rates of HPV vaccination than most of their European peers.
4. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael should merge, Aontú leader Peader Tóibin has said.
“There’s only a cigarette paper between them, there’s only branding between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael,” Tóibín said as part of an in-depth interview. “And practically only branding between Labour and the Social Democrats as well.’
5. 17 people were reportedly killed in clashes yesterday in Syria after security forces sought to arrest an officer under deposed leader Bashar al-Assad who was linked to a notorious prison.
The clashes in Tartus province — a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite minority — erupted after “a number of residents refused to allow their houses to be searched”.
6. Ceremonies have been held across Asia to remember the 220,000 people who were killed two decades ago when a tsunami hit coastlines around the Indian Ocean in one of the world’s worst natural disasters.
A 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia’s western tip on December 26, 2004, generated a series of waves as high as 30 metres that pummelled the coastline of 14 countries from Indonesia to Somalia.
7. Gardaí investigating child sexual abuse need increased capacity to run sting operations against predators online, a leading expert has told The Irish Times.
Retired garda Mick Moran said this would also take sting operations out of the hands of Irish vigilante teams which have sprung up in recent years.
8. Sky News reports that the failure of an undersea cable between Finland and Estonia is being investigated as potential sabotage.
Estlink-2, which runs under the Baltic Sea, stopped working suddenly yesterday.
9. It’s now one year and seven months since Ryan Tubridy stepped down as host of The Late Late Show, with Patrick Kielty later taking the helm. But how much does the former presenter watch the show?
Not at all, it seems. “There’s no badness in it, it’s just because I don’t have the [RTÉ] Player in London,” Tubridy told the Irish Independent.
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