LAST UPDATE | 5 Apr

GOOD MORNING.

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

Wasted wetlands

1. Noteworthy is reporting this morning that environmental groups are concerned that Bord na Móna’s continued pumping of water from a number of bogs is hampering promised rehabilitation efforts.

The activists say this is also causing damage to wildlife habitats on the bogs and surrounding farmland in the midlands. 

For its Wasted Wetlands investigation, Noteworthy examined the State’s failure to do enough to tackle commercial exploitation of Ireland’s wetlands despite EU commitments to restore them as a key weapon in battling the dual climate and biodiversity crisis.

House fire

2. A man and a woman have died in a house fire in Cork city.

Gardaí and fire services were alerted to the fire on Lower Glanmire Road in Mayfield at around 11.15pm last night. The fire was brought under control by fire services.

The bodies of the man in his 80s and woman in her 70s were recovered from inside the house.

Storm Kathleen

3. A Status Orange wind warning will be in place for five counties tomorrow as Storm Kathleen is set to hit Ireland.

Met Éireann said the storm will bring gale force southerly winds, with some severe and damaging gusts.

This could potentially result in very difficult travel conditions, fallen trees, some power outages, coastal flooding and wave overtopping.

Gaza aid routes

4. Israel has said it it will allow “temporary” aid deliveries into famine-threatened northern Gaza, hours after the United States warned of a sharp shift in its policy over the conflict.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said today his security cabinet has approved a series of “immediate steps”, including the temporary reopening of the Erez crossing for the first time since the Hamas attack on 7 October.

It also said Israel would allow its port in Ashdod to process aid shipments bound for Gaza, as well as permitting an increase in Jordanian aid shipments through another land crossing.

McDonald’s in Israel

5. McDonald’s Corporation has said it will acquire Alonyal, which owns 225 McDonald’s restaurants in Israel, following global boycotts over the conflict in Gaza. 

McDonald’s was targeted with boycotts after the franchised restaurants in Israel offered thousands of free meals to Israeli soldiers.

Investment fraud

6. Investment fraud rocketed by more than 90% last year according to new Garda figures.

A total €25,360,000 was reported stolen in 2023, with almost €60 million stolen from victims in the past four years.

Investment fraud involves criminals posing as investment managers to fool someone into putting money into schemes and projects that do not exist.

Offshore wind

7. The final design of Ireland’s largest offshore wind project, which will be located off the Co Wicklow coast, is set to be revealed later today.

Codling Wind Park will have between 60 and 75 turbines, down from previous estimates of 100, and it is anticipated that the development will generate 1,300 megawatts (MW) of clean electricity, enough to power over one million homes.  

The project, which will be located approximately 13km to 22km off the Co Wicklow coast between Greystones and Wicklow Town, is a joint venture between Fred Olsen Seawind and EDF Renewables. 

Prostate cancer

8. Prostate cancer cases are expected to double worldwide between 2020 and 2040, new analysis suggests.

The data suggests annual prostate cancer cases are projected to rise from 1.4 million in 2020 to 2.9 million in 2040.

Annual deaths from the disease are projected to increase by 85% to almost 700,000 over the same timeframe, mainly among men in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Trump court case

9. A US federal judge has refused to throw out the classified documents prosecution against Donald Trump, turning aside defence arguments that a decades-old law permitted the former president to retain the records after he left office.

Lawyers for Trump, in asking for the case to be tossed out, had cited a 1978 statute known as the Presidential Records Act in arguing that he was permitted to designate records from his time in office as personal and take them with him when he left the White House.