LAST UPDATE | 10 Nov 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. In our main story this morning, a look back at the three-week trial that led to Jozef Puska’s conviction for the murder of Ashling Murphy.
Puska, 33, had pleaded not guilty to stabbing the 23-year-old schoolteacher on a canal path in Tullamore on the afternoon of 12 January 2022.
The jury of nine men and three women reached their unanimous verdict yesterday after beginning deliberations on Wednesday.
2. An investigation has been launched following the discovery of two bodies in Co Clare.
Gardaí have said they were alerted to an incident at a home in Killinaboy, Corofin at around 2.30pm yesterday afternoon.
The bodies of a man and a woman, who are understood to be related, were found at the scene.
3. Israel has agreed to daily four-hour pauses in its offensive in northern Gaza that will allow some civilians to flee, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any broader ceasefire as a “surrender” to Hamas.
Aid groups have pleaded for a ceasefire, warning of a humanitarian “catastrophe” in Gaza, where food, water and medicine are in short supply.
Overnight, fierce clashes continued, and local authorities accused Israel of shelling the areas of several hospitals in northern Gaza.
4. In the US, Donald Trump’s lawyers have been thwarted in their bid to put an immediate end to the former US president’s civil fraud trial.
The judge did not rule on the request but indicated that the trial will go on as scheduled on Monday with Donald Trump Jr returning to give evidence as the first defence witness.
5. Staying in the US, a jury has ordered Robert De Niro’s company to pay more than $1.2 million to his former personal assistant after finding his production company engaged in gender discrimination and retaliation.
While the jury found De Niro was not personally liable for the abuse, they ordered his production company, Canal Productions, to make two payments of $632,142 to his long-time personal assistant, Graham Chase Robinson.
6. Back at home, the Public Accounts Committee has refused RTÉ’s request to bring a note, relating to a meeting that took place between Ryan Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly and ex-RTÉ boss Dee Forbes, to the committee in private.
It comes after RTÉ’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst wrote to the committee offering an “extensive and detailed summary” of a note taken during a meeting between Forbes and Kelly under the pretenses that it would not be published or made available to the public.
7. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has not ruled out the possibility of her party forming a government with Fianna Fáil, if Sinn Féin were in a position to do so after the next election.
In an interview with Sky News last night, the TD said that while her preference would be for a government without Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, “I also know that to form a government, the numbers have to add up.”
8. Thousands of Taylor Swift fans queuing up for the singer’s first concert in Argentina saw posters urging them not to vote for populist Javier Milei in next week’s presidential election.
“A Swiftie Doesn’t Vote Milei” read one of the posters, using the term commonly used to describe fans of the 12-time Grammy winner.
9. The FAI is staring down the barrel of a huge cut to its state funding after a vote by the association’s General Assembly decreased the likelihood that Irish football’s governing body will meet government-mandated gender quotas by the end of 2023.
Despite prior warning from the FAI that a failure to reach a 40% quota of female members on its board would wind up costing the association €4.35 million, the assembly at last night’s EGM “voted against the proposed constitutional change to allow two additional female candidates to join the FAI board”, according to an FAI statement.
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