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

IRELAND

A mural of US President Joe Biden in Ballina Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

• US President Joe Biden is due to address TDs and Senators as part of his visit to Ireland next week.
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that it was unnecessary for Father Peter McVerry to apologise over his assertion that Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien was overruled on the eviction ban.
• A jury has failed to agree verdicts in a rape trial involving three young men who say they had consensual sex with a teenage girl in a car six years ago.
• A number of refugees were denied re-entry to the Citywest Transit Hub after a routine fire drill.
• The Court of Appeal has ruled that a couple who have sued a Dublin maternity hospital over the death of their new-born child must be given documentation concerning an internal inquiry into the incident.
• Gardaí investigating the violent death of a woman in Limerick yesterday are looking to trace a man seen entering a shop with a bandaged hand before washing his hands in the store.
• The Taoiseach has said Government did not have the exact Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) figures on notices to quit when deciding to lift the eviction ban. 
• The Citizen’s Assembly on biodiversity loss has made 159 recommendations to the State in order to protect biodiversity and expressed disappointment at a perceived failure to adequately fund, implement and enforce existing laws and policies.

INTERNATIONAL

Israeli police detain a Palestinian worshipper at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. PA PA

#JERUSALEM Dozens of Palestinians were wounded by Israeli police inside  Al-Aqsa mosque today, sparking a military exchange of rockets and air strikes in flaring violence as the Jewish Passover coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

#CLEO SMITH An Australian man who kidnapped a four-year-old girl in Western Australia in 2021 and held her captive for 18 days was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison today.

#SCOTLAND Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell has been arrested in a police investigation into the SNP’s finances.

#TRUMP The former US President  offered a full-throated defence of his conduct in his first public remarks since being charged over hush money payments to a porn star, blasting the criminal prosecution as “an insult to our country”.

PARTING SHOT

Warner Bros Warner Bros

Derry Girls actress Nicola Coughlan will star as a diplomat Barbie doll in the upcoming live-action film from director Greta Gerwig.

One Twitter user quipped that it was an incredible coincidence for Coughlan, who plays Clare in the beloved sitcom, to feature as a diplomat in the Barbie film at around the same time as the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Sex Education stars Emma Mackey and Conor Swindells will also appear in the film.