LAST UPDATE | 10 Jul 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

RTÉ

1. The entire RTÉ Executive Board has been stood down and will be replaced with a temporary interim team.

The move was announced in an email to staff from RTÉ’s new director general this morning.

Kevin Bakhurst said yesterday that he was planning “to be in contact with staff first thing in the morning via email, and I’ll be going around meeting people, trying to take questions and explain what we’re trying to do”.

BBC

2. The BBC has suspended a male member of staff following allegations that an unnamed presenter paid a teenager for sexually explicit images.

The Sun reported that the unnamed BBC star has been accused of paying a teenager more than £35,000 in exchange for sexual images.

Neither the individual or the teenager, who was said to be 17 when the payments began, was identified. 

Weather warning

3. A Status Yellow thunderstorm and rainfall warning is due to come into place for more than half the country this morning.

The alert will come into effect in at 8am for all of Leinster, as well as Cavan, Leitrim, Monaghan, Tipperary, and Waterford.

Met Éireann advises that heavy showers and thunderstorms are likely in these counties and warns of spot flooding and difficult driving conditions with poor visibility. 

Data protection

4. Some computers that were sent to a Rehab Group facility were sold on to a third party and not destroyed as instructed by clients, a Noteworthy investigation has identified.

The issue came to light through a 2022 audit commissioned by Rehab Group to review concerns raised by a member of staff at Rehab Recycle Tallaght through a protected disclosure. 

Its operations centre on the recycling of computer hardware and confidential data destruction. A client can give permission for equipment to be reused, with the charity wiping and refurbishing the devices for sale into the second life market. But when a client requests that the equipment is destroyed, it should be shredded and a certificate of destruction issued. 

Back to school

5. The “vast majority” of 13-year-olds smoothly made the transition into secondary school last year, with almost 100% of them agreeing that they had made new friends, irrespective of the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic while they were in primary school.

The Department of Children has published its first Growing Up in Ireland report today, since the Economic and Social Research Institute handed it over in January for them to complete.

It found that the majority of 13 year-olds are healthy and have settled well into secondary school despite “unprecedented disruption” caused by the pandemic.

Putin

6. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that next month’s Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit, which Vladimir Putin has been invited to, will be held in-person despite an arrest warrant on the Russian leader.

As a member of the International Criminal Court, South Africa would be expected to arrest Putin if he sets foot in the country.

There had been rumours in the local media that Pretoria was considering moving the talks to China to avoid being put in the position of having to arrest Putin.

Dublin Airport

7. An air bridge collapsed at Dublin Airport’s Terminal Two yesterday morning, the airport operator confirmed.

A spokesperson for the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) said: “DAA can confirm an incident which resulted in damage to American Airlines aircraft by an air bridge at Dublin Airport.”

An air bridge is the raised corridor that passengers walk through while moving from the gate to the aircraft and vice versa.

Caffeine

8. An energy drink backed by two YouTube stars that earned viral popularity among children is facing scrutiny from lawmakers and health experts in the US over its potentially dangerous levels of caffeine.

A New York senator called on the country’s Food and Drug Administration to investigate Prime, a beverage brand founded by Logan Paul and KSI.

The drink has 200 milligrams of caffeine per 12 ounces, equivalent to about half-a-dozen Coke cans or nearly two Red Bulls.

Fire

9. Fire fighters have extinguished a blaze at an industrial unit on the Kylemore Road in Dublin.

Traffic restrictions had been put in place while Dublin Fire Brigade dealed with the incident but these restrictions have since been lifted.

Residents nearby and downwind of the fire have been advised to close their windows to prevent smoke from affecting them.