GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. A new supercomputer based in Iceland should enable Met Éireann to deliver more accurate forecasts at a higher frequency from the spring of 2024, according to the agency’s head forecaster in an interview with The Journal.
Met Éireann, along with meteorological agencies in three other countries, is almost ready to start operating a supercomputer acquired in 2021 after months of testing and preparing the machine to create highly up-to-date weather predictions.
2. The EU has failed to agree on a €50 billion aid package for Ukraine, even after deciding to open accession negotiations with the war-torn country.
The aid was vetoed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban yesterday, delivering another tough blow to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he failed this week to persuade US politicians to approve an additional $61 billion, mainly to buy weapons from the US.
3. A total of fourteen people are due before the Courts of Criminal Justice and Swords District Court today for 23 separate charges relating to shoplifting.
The group of 13 males and one female were arrested as part of Operation Táirge, a criminal investigation by gardaí targeting commercial premises inside Dublin’s North inner-city.
4. Guyana and Venezuela have promised not to use threats or force against each other, but talks held yesterday failed to reach an agreement in a bitter dispute over a vast border region rich with oil and minerals.
A joint commission composed of the foreign ministers of both countries and other officials will address the problem with a report expected within three months.
5. Presenter Ryan Tubridy was paid over €25,000 by public broadcaster RTÉ while he was off air earlier this year following revelations about secret payments made to him by the national broadcaster, that meant his pay exceeded his publicly reported salary.
Documents provided to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee show that Tubridy had negotiated a radio contract with RTÉ securing his pay after his time at the helm of the Late Late Show ended.
6. At least eleven Iranian police officers were killed in a jihadist-claimed attack on a police station in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, an official told state television on Friday.
“In the terrorist attack on the police headquarters in the town of Rask, 11 policemen were killed, and others were wounded,” said Alireza Marhamati, deputy governor of the province.
A number of assailants were also killed in a shootout that ensued with the security forces, the television channel reported.
7. A British schoolboy who was believed to have been abducted by his mother six years ago has been found in France.
Alex Batty, who is now 17, went missing in 2017 after going on a family holiday to Spain.
Detectives believed Alex was abducted by his mother Melanie Batty to live an “alternative” lifestyle abroad.
8. A person has died while another is in a critical condition after a migrant boat sank in the English Channel, the French national coastguard has said.
The coastguard was alerted to a boat with more than 60 passengers thought to be migrants on board in difficulty around 8km off the northern French coast yesterday night.
A rescue ship arrived in under 30 minutes and found one of the boat’s tubes was deflated and people in the water, the agency said.
9. The Israeli army has said it recovered and returned the body of French-Israeli hostage Elya Toledano, who was kidnapped and taken to Gaza by militants during Hamas’s 7 October attacks.
Toledano, 28, was among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during the Hamas attacks on Israel, which were the deadliest in the country’s history.
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