NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

The government Lear 45 Jet RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

• The Journal reported that an international consultancy has advised government that the most viable short term solution to the ailing government jet service is to rent private jets.
• Facebook’s parent company Meta urged people to report any suspicious rental listings on Facebook Marketplace, as Gardaí probe alleged incidences of fraud on the site
• A man appeared in court charged in relation to a shooting incident in Dundalk yesterday which left a man with serious injuries.
• Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that now is not the “appropriate” time for a border poll
• College lecturers said they are facing a “groundhog day” of administrative work due to the delayed start of incoming first-year students
• The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said plans to replace the sick pay scheme for healthcare workers who contracted long Covid do not go far enough.

WORLD

#UKRAINE: Russia claimed it has captured the strategic Ukrainian city of Lysychansk and the entire frontline Lugansk region, but Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied this.

#TEXAS: The Uvalde schools district’s police chief stepped down from his position on the city council just weeks after being sworn in, after that allegations he erred in his response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School

#AUSTRALIA: Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes in Sydney today as torrential rain battered the country’s largest city and floodwaters inundated its outskirts

#SHIREEN ABU AKLEH: Israel said it was to conduct a ballistics test on the bullet that killed the Al Jazeera journalist, a day after the Palestinian Authority handed the bullet to US experts.

Rescuers remove the rubble and search for people during a response effort to a Russian missile attack on a recreation centre in Odesa Alamy Alamy

PARTING SHOT

The publication of two sets of data relating to homes and homelessness from the CSO last week led to a renewed focus on the efforts being made to solve the housing crisis.

Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan said that there are 16 empty homes for every homeless person in Ireland.

But the CSO’s definition of a ‘vacant’ home is not straightforward.

So is O’Callaghan correct? Our FactCheck unit found out.