LAST UPDATE | 24 Jun 2022

GOOD MORNING.

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

Ukraine

1. EU leaders granted “candidate status” to Ukraine in its bid to join the bloc, as tensions deepened over Russian gas supplies and Moscow’s forces closed in on key cities.

By-election Woes

2. The chairman of the UK Conservative Party resigned after it suffered two by-election defeats, saying in a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson that “someone must take responsibility”.

Property Crisis

3. Asking prices rose substantially in the second quarter of this year, with the median asking price for a house in Dublin increasing to €403,000, according to a new report.

Drugs

4, A man arrested in relation to a €2 million drug seizure is to appear in court this morning.

Gun Control

5. US senators advanced a bipartisan bill late last night addressing the epidemic of gun violence convulsing the country, approving a narrow package of new firearms restrictions and billions of dollars in mental health and school security funding.

Trans Rights

6. In our Voices section this morning, Aoife Martin writes in the wake of the Liveline controversy that trans rights are at the forefront of the so-called ‘culture wars’.

Afghanistan

7. Rescuers continue to battle against the clock and heavy rain to reach cut-off areas in eastern Afghanistan after a powerful earthquake killed at least 1,000 people and left thousands more homeless.

Vaccines

8. Covid vaccines prevented nearly 20 million deaths in the first year after they were introduced, according to the first large modelling study on the topic released today.

Weather

9. The morning will be cloudy with rain mainly in the west and southwest. There will be heavy and possibly thundery downpours at times, giving a risk of spot flooding. Southeast winds will freshen and become westerly, strongest near coasts. Highest afternoon temperatures of 14 to 19 degrees, warmest in the northeast, but turning noticeably cooler in the southwest through the late afternoon.

Full forecast here.