GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
Ukraine
1. Russia has hit the city of Lviv in western Ukraine with a series of powerful explosions, targeting it with back-to-back airstrikes.
The city that has become a central hub for an around 200,000 people who have fled their hometowns, many of them continuing west to Poland.
Lviv has also become a humanitarian staging ground for Ukraine and it’s feared the attacks could further complicate the process of delivering aid to the rest of the country.
Politics
2. Support for Fine Gael continues to fall, dropping to 19% in the latest political polling.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin remains the most popular party in the Republic of Ireland and support for Fianna Fail sits at 16%.
Support for the Green Party, led by Eamon Ryan, has stayed at 5%.
Inflation
3. As the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine start to shape the global economy, it’s become evident that inflation is likely to be here for longer than previously thought.
Economists believe that the war and inflation could weigh heavily on Irish, European and global economic growth this year.
Post-mortem
4. A post-mortem examination was conducted yesterday on the body of a 27-year-old man who was fatally stabbed in Co Cork.
Gardaí arrested a 42-year-old man following the incident at a house in Carrigaline.
Another man, 75, was injured and attended Cork University Hospital to receive treatment.
Fire
5. Emergency services responded to a fire at a homeless hostel in Dublin city centre yesterday evening.
The accommodation, which is run by charity Depaul on Little Britain Street, has 82 bed spaces for homeless people.
Four fire service trucks, along with the ambulance service and gardaí, were at the scene of the blaze.
Plane crash
6. The deaths of all 132 people aboard the plane that crashed into a mountainside in southern China this week have been confirmed.
The country’s civil aviation authority said that all the passengers and crew members were killed on board after rescue teams searched the slopes for debris and any signs of survivors.
The identity of most of the victims had been determined through DNA.
Climate
7. Both the Arctic and Antarctic recorded major temperature jumps in recent days that are well above what’s expected at this time of year.
While it’s too early to know for certain whether climate change is the cause, scientists say the event was extreme and unexpected.
Clock change
8. The clocks went forward an hour this morning from 1am to 2am, marking the start of brighter evenings.
Sunrise and sunset will be an hour later from today.
Later in the year, the clocks will go back an hour on 30 October.
Oscars
9. The 94th Academy Awards will take place in Los Angeles this evening, with the ceremony beginning at 1am Irish time.
Director Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast”, which secured seven nominations, ensures there’s a strong group of Irish nominees across multiple categories.
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