LAST UPDATE | 4 Jun 2021
GOOD MORNING, HAPPY Friday. Here’s all the news that you need to know about as you start your day.
1. In our main story today, Niall O’Connor speaks to Irish troops returning from UN peacekeeping duty in South Lebanon about their experiences as Palestinian groups traded shots with Israeli armed forces.
The 117 Defence Forces personnel were on duty in the war-torn region when the hostilities broke out.
The troops took shelter in bunkers at their base near the town of At Tiri, known as Going into Groundhog, as rockets were fired from Palestinian groups and Israel responded with artillery.
2. In our next top story, an expert tells The Journal the legal approach of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes appears to have been heavily impacted by the lasting impact of the Ryan Commission into child abuse.
Máiréad Enright, a human rights lawyer, said that the threat of legal action from religious orders appears to have heavily influenced the approach of the commissioners in the more recent inquiry.
Indeed Professor Mary Daly, one of three commissioners involved, yesterday told an online event that “looming” legal threats impacted the commission’s work.
3. Our team over on The Good Information Project have been examining Ireland’s relationship with China in recent weeks.
This morning they take a look at how China, one year on, still has a ban on Irish beef following the discovery of an atypical BSE case in the national herd.
The team reports that beef farmers, however, are not unduly worried about the China ban right now, but it could be a different story if the UK does a trade deal with Australia.
4. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is in London to attend the first meeting of the G7 countries since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ministers from the US, Japan, France, Canada, Germany and Italy will attend the two-day meeting at Lancaster House in London, ahead of the leaders’ summit in Cornwall next weekend.
At the meeting, Ministers are to consider coordinated approaches to the key economic challenges facing economies emerging from the Covid-19 crisis.
5. Back in Ireland, new DUP leader Edwin Poots spoke to reporters in Dublin yesterday evening, and said “north-south relations are bad”, but he blames the last Taoiseach.
Poots made the comments on his way into his first meeting in his new role with Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
In a statement issued after the meeting, the Taoiseach said the two party leaders had “an open exchange of views across a number of issues”.
6. Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly are to meet with public health officials and local representatives in Limerick amid a spike of cases in the region.
At Wednesday’s NPHET media briefing, Dr Mai Mannix, Director of Public Health at the HSE Mid-West provided a summary on the Covid-19 situation in the Limerick area.
She outlined that there were 740 cases of Covid-19 recorded in Limerick between 16 and 31 May, with more than 65 in Clare and more than 30 in north Tipperary.
7. Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich, who was arrested after his plane was forced to land in Minsk, has appeared on state television in an interview that rights campaigners say was conducted under duress.
Looking uncomfortable in the video, Protasevich — the co-founder and former editor of opposition Telegram channel Nexta which coordinated anti-government demonstrations — confessed to calling for protests last year and praised Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko.
8. Over in the US, Former Vice President Mike Pence has given his most extensive comments to date on the events of 6 January, when angry Trump supporters broke into the Capitol building.
Pence said he is not sure he and ex-president Donald Trump will ever see “eye to eye” over what happened in the deadly riot.
But he added he would “always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years”.
9. Finally, in Australia, a dozen news organisations have been fined for breaching court orders that banned reporting on Cardinal George Pell’s 2018 conviction on child sex abuse charges, which was later overturned.
The news outlets were found guilty of 21 counts of contempt of court for ignoring the gag order in the case of Pell, a top Vatican official who was convicted of abusing two choirboys but later cleared on appeal after spending a year in prison.
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