LAST UPDATE | 13 Jul 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

National security

1. In our main story this morning, our News Correspondent Niall O’Connor reports that Ireland will request to become an observer on a European defence project that develops strategies to manage the security of undersea cables and pipelines.

The project, which is part of the Permanent Structured Co-operation (Pesco) element of the EU Global Strategy, will aim to provide early warnings about subsea threats and a security framework to facilitate the maintenance of subsea infrastructure. 

RTÉ before committee

2. The new director general of RTÉ will tell the Public Accounts Committee today that the controversy surrounding undisclosed payments made to Ryan Tubridy has “created one of the most shameful and damaging episodes in the organisation’s history”. 

Kevin Bakhurst will face questions from TDs and Senators on the matter for the first time since taking over from former director general Dee Forbes. 

The Twelfth

3. Eleven on-duty ambulance 

staff in Northern Ireland were assaulted over an “unprecedented” six-hour period overnight on 11 July into the early hours of the Twelfth.

The “Eleventh Night” fires are traditionally lit on the eve of the “Twelfth of July” – a day when members of Protestant loyal orders parade to commemorate the Battle of Boyne in 1690. 

Leinster House security

4. Fianna Fáil politicians have raised concerns about security in Leinster House, telling the parliamentary party meeting they are fearful of being attacked.

A number of members recounted their own difficulties with incidences in which they were shouted at and felt harassed leaving and entering the Houses of the Oireachtas. 

Covid employment

5. People living in disadvantaged areas during the Covid-19 pandemic experienced greater disruption to their employment, according to a new report by the ESRI. 

Focusing on recipients of Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), the report examines the economic impacts of the pandemic on those living in disadvantaged areas across the country and the extent to which the proportion and duration of PUP are related to area-level deprivation.

Horse racing 

6. The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board will tell the Oireachtas Agriculture committee today that a “grave financial issue” within the organisation “does not appear” to be related to the misappropriation of funds or personal gain. 

The regulator, which first disclosed the matter to the Public Accounts Committee on 29 June, has engaged the services of auditors Mazars to conduct an independent review of its finances, following a recommendation by Horse Racing Ireland.

Huw Edwards

7. The wife of newsreader Huw Edwards has named him as the BBC presenter facing allegations over payments for sexually explicit images, in a statement issued on his behalf.

Vicky Flind said in a statement that her husband was “suffering from serious mental health issues” and is now “receiving in-patient hospital care where he will stay for the foreseeable future” as she asked for privacy for her family.

The statement comes after days of intense speculation as to the identity of the BBC presenter at the centre of the allegations.

Ukraine attack

8. Ukraine has said it has downed 20 Russian attack drones and two cruise missiles in an overnight attack that killed one and wounded at least four in the capital Kyiv.

The 20 Iran-made Shahed attack drones were destroyed “mainly in the Kyiv region”, Ukraine’s air force said in a statement on Telegram.

Artificial intelligence

9. Elon Musk is finally starting to talk about the artificial intelligence company he founded to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

The startup, xAI, formally launched yesterday and its goal “is to understand the true nature of the universe”. It has not said much more than that.