LAST UPDATE | 20 Apr 2022

GOOD MORNING ALL.

Here’s all the news that you need to know this morning.

1. Ukraine

Ukrainian troops have accused Russian forces of bombing a hospital sheltering some 300 people in the devastated port city of Mariupol.

2. Ukrainian refugees

The Polish city of Przemyśl is now relatively calm, after its population spiked from 60,000 people to 100,000, as citizens fled Ukraine. Our reporter Céimin Burke speaks to the people passing through – some leaving Ukraine, some going back.

3. Kerry CAMHS compensation

A solicitor representing families affected by the failings in the HSE-run South Kerry Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) has welcomed the establishment of a compensation scheme, which was approved by Government last week.

A report into the care of more than 1,300 children who attended South Kerry CAMHS, conducted by a team led by Dr Seán Maskey, was published in January.

It found that 46 children suffered “significant harm” while attending the service, and a review into 240 young people showed the service did not meet the standards which it should have.

4. Ukrainian refugees in Ireland

A one-stop information hub is to be launched next week for Ukrainian students who want to continue their education.

“We cannot allow Putin’s wish of depriving the next generation of Ukrainian leaders an opportunity to finish their education,” Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said.

It comes as the Department of Agriculture revealed that over 600 pets of 485 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland, with 95% of them cats and dogs that are being assessed, microchipped, dewormed and vaccinated against rabies upon arrival.

5. Tributes

A Galway community has been left in shock after young camogie player Kate Moran died after suffering a head injury during a match in the county yesterday.

6. En garde: The French election

French President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen go head-to-head in a crunch TV debate today, with four days left until the presidential election’s decisive second round.

Le Pen has cleared her diary to concentrate on preparing for the debate, hoping to avoid any repeat of the fiasco in 2017, when her ill-prepared performance contributed to her defeat at the hands of the centrist Macron.

7. Children and the pandemic

A new survey of children’s experiences of Covid-19 found that the nation’s youth felt they had missed out on some key growing up milestones but that they got to spend more time with their closest relatives.

The survey was carried out by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) in conjunction with Amárach Research among children aged 9-17.

8. Heart attacks

The Irish Times reports today that calling for help immediately when symptoms of a heart attack begin results in faster treatment and improved outcomes, according to a new report by the National Office of Clinical Audit (Noca).

9. Continue watching?

Netflix shares lost a quarter of their value today after the company revealed its ranks of subscribers shrank in the first quarter of this year. 

Netflix believes that factors hampering its growth include subscribers sharing their accounts with people not living in their home – with 222 million households paying for the service and Netflix being shared with over 100 million further households.