December 16: Today’s top stories in 60 seconds

Twitter suspends journalists

The Twitter accounts of several journalists who have reported on the social media platform and its new chief executive, Elon Musk, have been suspended or banned. In a series of tweets, Musk wrote that sharing his real-time location on Twitter was forbidden, and accused journalists of sharing information about his location of posting “assassination coordinates”. Tech journalists from CNN, the Washington Post, Mashable and the New York Times have been suspended.

The Guardian

Whatsapp scammers

The number of people being arrested for fraud across Ireland has skyrocketed in the last three years with greater awareness of scams being cited as the reason for the jump. From 2012, only a handful of people were being arrested for fraud in Ireland. However, these numbers began to spike back in 2019.

thejournal.ie

Flags at half-mast

Flags in all military installations are at half-mast, and will remain so until 24-year-old Private Séan Rooney is buried. Originally from Donegal but growing up in Dundalk, Rooney was shot dead while serving with the 121st Infantry Battalion on a UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon this week. Flowers are being laid outside Aiken Barracks in Dundalk in his memory. May he rest in peace.

RTÉ

Illegal dog trafficking

Almost 30 pups have been rescued at Belfast Port in a crackdown against illegal puppy trafficking after discrepancies were found in paperwork. This crackdown is the latest in a significant series of seizures at the North’s ports. The puppies are now in the process of being rehomed ahead of Christmas.

BreakingNews

Ten people killed in apartment fire near Lyon

Ten people, including five children, have been killed following an apartment fire in Vaulx-en-Velin, near the French city of Lyon. Local authorities have said the fire was first reported at 3.12am, and by 3.25am around 170 firefighters and 65 fire trucks were at the site. The fire broke out in the ground floor of a seven-storey 1960s apartment block in the Mas du Taureau neighbourhood, spreading fast to the upper floors, filling stairwells with smoke.

The Guardian