LAST UPDATE | 20 Jun 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Mediterranean Tragedy 

1. Today is World Refugee Day and in our main story this morning, David Mac Redmond speaks to NGOs and MEPs who are critical of the EU’s migration policy in the wake of the sinking of a fishing boat off the Greek coast in which hundreds are feared to have died. 

‘A force for good’ 

2. Irish general Ger Buckley who manages both the State’s military engagement with the European Union and Nato in Brussels said he believes that international defence relationships are “a force for good”, Niall O’Connor reports in out other Morning Lead.

Problem drugs

3. Cocaine is now Ireland’s most common problem drug among those seeking treatment, a new report from the Health Research Board (HRB) has found. 

The 2022 Drug Treatment Demand report found a 259% increase in the number of problem drug cases involving cocaine in the last seven years. 

Domestic abuse

4. Women’s Aid reports that they received a record number of domestic abuse reports last year, with the organisation warning that the system to support victims and survivors is under strain.

The group says that specialist frontline services to support victims and survivors are “creaking at the seams”. 

OceanGate rescue mission

5. The search for a missing tourist submarine that was on a mission to visit the wreck of the Titanic continues in a race against time to find the submersible vessel before its oxygen supply runs out. 

Ukraine drone attacks

6. Ukraine was bombarded with attack drones overnight, according to local officials. Kyiv appears to have been the main target but most of the drones were shot down over the city.

Partygate

7. Yesterday, British MPs voted overwhelmingly voted to back a damning report that found Boris Johnson lied to the UK Parliament over partygate, as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stayed away from proceedings.

Mediterranean sinking

8. The number of confirmed victims from one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean has risen to 81 after three more bodies were found off southern Greece.

This comes as more survivors claimed the battered trawler had been under tow by another vessel before it sank with hundreds aboard.

Yellow status thunderstorm warning

9. Met Éireann has issued a status yellow thunderstorm warning for the entire country as high temperatures persist. 

The national forecaster has also said there is a possibility of hail and localised flooding.