NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

Britain's King Charles was gifted a jar of honey at a foodbank in Newcastle on day two of the royal visit to Northern Ireland Alamy Alamy

IRELAND

• The Taoiseach says he is “appalled” by video footage posted by Israel’s national security minister that shows detained activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.
• Tech giant Meta is to layoff up to 350 staff within its Irish workforce as part of its global plan to reduce headcount and increase the use of automated systems.
• The director general of RTÉ was urged by members of the Oireachtas media committee to intervene if at all possible in the financial situation facing the family of the late presenter Seán Rocks, who passed away aged 64 last year. 
• A young man who maimed his brother in a horrific crash after speeding “like a missile” through a Midlands village has been jailed for two years.
• The Taoiseach said he’s “not clear” on why the Silk Road Café located in the Chester Beatty Library at Dublin Castle has to close for the EU presidency.
• A man who died shortly after he was restrained following an incident outside a pub in Dublin’s Temple Bar at Christmas last year suffered fatal compression of his neck while face down on the ground, an inquest has heard.
• Minister James Browne has defended the government’s controversial rental reforms after new figures showed rents rising at their fastest pace in 25 years.
• An Coimisiún Pleanála has given the planning green light for Ireland’s first medically supervised drug injection facility at Merchant’s Quay in Dublin to become permanent.
• Meath is set to get four new train stations under plans to extend the Dart line to connect Navan and Dublin. 

INTERNATIONAL

Screengrab of video posted on X by Itamar Ben Gvir X X

#SOCCER: Southampton have been expelled from the Championship play-offs and docked four points after admitting to spying on opponents Middlesbrough before their semi-final meeting.

#MIDDLE EAST: Iran’s revolutionary guards warned on Wednesday that the Middle East war will extend beyond the region if the United States and Israel resume attacks on the Islamic Republic.

#RAUL CASTRO: US prosecutors have announced charges against former Cuban president Raul Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes operated by Miami-based exiles as the Trump administration escalated pressure on the socialist government.

PARTING SHOT

Former RTÉ sports journalist Evanne Ní Chuilinn said she was not paid as a presenter, despite doing the job of one for a decade at the national broadcaster.

The Fine Gael senator was addressing RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst at the Oireachtas media committee hearing, which was called amid fresh controversy over payments, transparency and governance.

Ní Chuilinn said there is a “two-tier system” at the national broadcaster, as she took issue with Bakhurst saying RTÉ has “paid a price for transparency”.

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