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The 9 at 9 The Monk’s arrest, a new clamping blackspot and pregnant teachers’ vaccine concerns.

LAST UPDATE | 13 Aug 2021

GOOD MORNING.

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

The Monk’s arrest

1. The front page grabbing news this morning is that Spanish police have arrested Gerry “The Monk” Hutch on foot of a European Arrest Warrant in connection with the Regency Hotel shooting. 

Gardaí had sought the warrant as part of their investigation into those who allegedly organised the incident at the Dublin hotel in which David Byrne was murdered in February, 2016. 

Niall O’Connor reports that Hutch was arrested in an operation by Spanish authorities in the Costa del Sol area.

Clamping blackspot

2. Dublin has a new clamping blackspot as traffic patterns changed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Clarendon Street, close to Grafton Street in the city centre, saw the highest number of vehicles clamped during 2020, with 809 found illegally parked over the course of the year.

Stephen McDermott reports that the number of vehicles clamped in Dublin city fell by almost a quarter last year.

Back to school

3. Pregnant teachers and special needs assistants fear going back to school before they’re vaccinated against Covid-19, with some considering taking unpaid sick leave.

In Ireland, pregnant people can’t register to get the Covid-19 vaccine until they are at least 14 weeks’ pregnant.

The HSE recommends waiting until this time as a precaution “to avoid any possible association with a miscarriage”.

UK shooting

4. Six people have died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident in Plymouth, UK.

Two females and two males died at the scene in the Keyham area of the city, along with another male who is believed to be the offender.

Another female was treated at the scene for gunshot wounds and later died in hospital.

Police said it is not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident. It confirmed the incident was not terror-related.

Afghanistan

5. Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban has accelerated as the Islamist movement captured the country’s second largest city, Kandahar, in a significant blow for the government.

Kandahar was once the Taliban’s stronghold, and is a strategically important trade hub.

The Pentagon said earlier that it is to deploy around 3,000 troops to Afghanistan immediately to evacuate US embassy employees securely.

Security analyst Tom Clonan writes in The Journal today that the group’s impending victory in Afghanistan is bad news for humanity.

Homeless charity

6. A Dublin homeless charity has suspended one of its employees and has appointed a senior counsel to examine “serious matters” which the board have been made aware of.

The board of Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) said that in recent days “serious matters have come to the attention of the board”. 

“We immediately initiated an investigation and commenced an independent process which we expect recommendations from shortly,” the charity’s chairperson David Hall said. 

Coronavirus origins

7. China today rejected the World Health Organisation’s calls for a renewed probe into the origins of Covid-19, saying it supported “scientific” over “political” efforts to find out how the virus started.

Pressure is once more mounting on Beijing to consider a fresh probe into the origins of a pandemic which has killed more than four million people and paralysed economies worldwide since it first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Booster jabs

8. The US has authorised an extra dose of Covid vaccine for people with weakened immune systems, as the country struggles to thwart the Delta variant.

Emergency use authorisation for a third injection of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines was granted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulator.

Free Britney

9. Britney Spears’ father is to step down as conservator of her estate, according to legal documents seen by TMZ and other US media, seemingly ending a bitter legal battle with his daughter.

Britney, 39, last month launched a bid to remove him from the controversial guardianship role that she said amounted to “abuse.”

Jamie Spears’ lawyer said at the time he would fight the move, disputing his daughter’s account.

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    Mute Madra
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    Dec 26th 2021, 8:40 AM

    This is awful.

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    Mute limerick birder
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    Dec 26th 2021, 10:40 AM

    Surprise surprise, another one of our bird species is on its way out. Our in government green party say they pride themselves on being all about our planet and its biodiversity, yet it sits on its hands as badly need funding is needed for several projects to save endangered species. The Hen Harrier, Corncrake and Curlew will all go the way of the Corn Bunting. Its sad to think that these birds will disappear from the summer chorus in Ireland due to ignorance.

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    Mute Johannes Baader
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    Dec 26th 2021, 10:25 AM

    So forestry is driving up the numbers of predators….. It is definitely also driving up the numbers of wild deer across the country to insane levels. It also pollutes our rivers and lakes….. why is Coillte still operating this way? MONEY

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    Mute ChronicAnxiety
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    Dec 26th 2021, 9:54 AM

    Presumably the predators associated with the coniferous plantations are pine martins?

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    Mute Tom Molloy
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    Dec 26th 2021, 11:09 AM

    @ChronicAnxiety: Foxes and crows also.

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    Mute Ian Hester
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    Dec 26th 2021, 10:45 AM

    The the cost of building roads for access and removal of harvested stock exceeds any profiteering, so Coillte are just another quango… The construction of roads also fragment the habitat….. Official Ireland is a joke

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    Mute Tom Molloy
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    Dec 26th 2021, 1:40 PM

    @Ian Hester: Those roads are also essential fire breaks that often save habitat from destruction.

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    Mute Colin Keogh
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    Dec 26th 2021, 11:00 AM

    They are ground nesting so rats can be a big problem disturbing nests and eating eggs

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    Mute Shane Nolan
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    Dec 27th 2021, 4:56 PM

    Not surprised, never any urgency to protect our wildlife, generally very poor attuide to our environment and wildlife here. Barely any left at this rate in general. Hope these birds do get support to help maintain population

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    Mute Roy Ferguson
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    Dec 26th 2021, 10:00 AM

    I was thinking the same about the pine martins but aren’t their numbers also very low. Seems like one big mess

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