LAST UPDATE | 5 Jan

GOOD MORNING.

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

Gaza

1. Israel’s Yoav Gallant has said Israeli forces would shift to a scaled-down “new combat approach” in northern Gaza as he outlined his plans for the conflict.

However, said forces would continue to fight Hamas in the south of Gaza “for as long as necessary”.

Christmas Eve assault

2. Gardaí investigating the murder of Tristan Sherry after an alleged shooting on Christmas Eve in a Dublin restaurant have charged a second person.

During an incident at Browne’s Steakhouse in Blanchardstown at around 8pm on 24 December, a man in his 40s suffered gunshot wounds and Tristan Sherry (26) died after being assaulted.

The man in his 40s, understood to be Jason Hennessy Snr, died in hospital yesterday as a result of his injuries.

Oscar Pistorius released

3. South Africa’s ex-Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius has been released from prison on parole almost 11 years after he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius is “now at home” after his release from jail, authorities said, but the 37-year-old is not permitted to speak to media as a condition of his parole.

Reeva Steenkamp’s mother June said in a statement she is the one “serving a life sentence” in her grief.

School shooting

4. A teenage gunman killed one fellow student and wounded five other people before killing himself during a shooting yesterday at a high school in the midwestern US state of Iowa.

Among those injured by the 17-year-old shooter were four other students and a school administrator, said Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

The incident occurred at around 7.30am (1.30pm GMT), before school started.

Epstein files

5. Virginia Giuffre alleged she was sex-trafficked to “two of the world’s most respected politicians” as well as the UK’s Prince Andrew, court documents show.

A US judge ordered hundreds of documents to be unsealed as part of Giuffre’s previously settled civil claim against disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, which was filed in 2015.

In an email exchange with journalist Sharon Churcher in May 2011, Giuffre spoke of her concerns about working with Vanity Fair after former US president Bill Clinton had allegedly “threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles” about paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. 

Work-related deaths

6. There was a 53% increase in work-related deaths in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to figures released by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

The HSA data shows that 43 people lost their lives in work-related incidents last year compared to 28 people in 2022.

Arson attack on former school

7. Gardaí are investigating a suspected arson attack at a former national school in Co Tipperary.

The alarm was raised at 9.20pm last night over the former school on the Rocklow Road in Fethard. Local fire services extinguished the blaze at the school, which has lain empty for a number of years. 

A garda statement said gardaí are “aware of possible misinformation, disinformation and rumour in relation to the use or proposed use” of the derelict building.

US strike in Iraq

8. A US strike in Baghdad has killed a pro-Iran military commander, the Pentagon has said, with Al-Hashed al-Shaabi ex-paramilitaries saying it hit one of their headquarters.

An Iraqi security official said two people were killed and seven wounded in the drone strike, which the government dubbed a “blatant aggression”.

Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder insisted the strike was an act of self-defence against a commander who was actively planning attacks against US personnel.

Glynis Johns

9. Actress Glynis Johns, most known for her role as Mrs Banks in the 1964 film Mary Poppins, has died at the age of 100.

Johns, who won a Tony Award in 1973 for playing Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music on Broadway, starred opposite Dame Julie Andrews in the classic movie where she played Winifred Banks, the suffragette mother of the children in need of a nanny.

Mitch Clem, her manager, said Johns had died “peacefully” yesterday in Los Angeles.