GOOD MORNING.

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

Landlord TD’s FactFind

1. Politicians’ ownership of rental accommodation is supposed to be declared on the Dáil’s register of interests, which all TDs are legally required to fill out annually.

As such, figuring out the number of landlords who rent out houses should be easy.

However, it is not actually that straightforward and The Journal has delved into the register to determine the actual figure.

Tax report

2. The Commission on Taxation and Welfare report caused a significant stir when it was published this week.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar was quick to dismiss some of the conclusions in the 547-page report while Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he didn’t agree with the Tánaiste. 

But what does the report actually say?

RTÉ staff safety

3. RTÉ has said it is “in ongoing contact” with gardaí over the safety of its staff, as a video has emerged of a crowd of people confronting one of the national broadcaster’s camera operators and other members of the media.

The video footage shows one man pushing past a television camera and some news photographers outside the Four Courts in Dublin’s city centre.

The man can first be seen shouting at one photographer in particular, but he then goes on to knock an RTÉ camera operator’s phone out of his hand, pushing the camera tripod a number of times.

Ukraine

4. Ninety-nine percent of exhumed bodies had signs of violent death, Ukraine’s regional administration head said of the mass burial site discovered after Kyiv’s forces recaptured the east Ukrainian town of Izyum.

“Among the bodies that were exhumed today, 99% showed signs of violent death,” Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said on social media.

Trump documents probe

5. The US Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to lift a judge’s order that temporarily barred it from reviewing classified documents seized during an FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida home.

The department told the 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals that the judge’s hold was impeding the “government’s efforts to protect the nation’s security” and interfering with its investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago.

It said the hold needed to be lifted immediately so work could resume.

Disturbance at queen’s coffin 

6. A man is in police custody after he moved out of the queue of mourners and approached the queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall, London, last night.

Metropolitan Police said the incident occurred around 10pm, as the live feed from inside the hall cut away for a brief period.

Garda drug testing

7. New rules around drug testing for Gardaí are set to come into effect before the end of the year, according to a new action plan from the Department of Justice on tackling garda corruption.

Earlier this week, Justice Minister Helen McEntee received Government approval to publish the action plan to counter the threat of internal corruption within An Garda Síochána.

While legislation has already been enacted to allow drug testing within the Gardaí, consultations are now ongoing with Garda Associations and Unions on the matter.

Dead birds

8. An uptick in cases of avian flu in wild Irish sea birds is prompting experts to call on the government to ensure that carcasses are disposed of quickly and carefully to prevent the disease from spreading to other animals.

Reports of Avian Influenza A (H5N1), a contagious virus also known as bird flu, have increased in recent weeks, particularly among gannets – a large, white bird known as Ireland’s largest breeding sea bird.

Abortion ban

9. Republican governor Jim Justice has signed into law a ban on abortions at all stages of pregnancy, making West Virginia the second state to enact a law prohibiting the procedure since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in June.

The bill will go into effect immediately, except for the criminal penalties, which will go into effect in 90 days, he said.