By Sarah Gill
22nd Feb 2024
22nd Feb 2024
Your speedy summary of today's must-read stories.
Air strikes continue in besieged Rafah
Israel launched air strikes today on southern Gaza’s Rafah after threatening to send troops into the city, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from around the territory. Global powers trying to navigate a way to end the conflict have so far come up short, but a US envoy was expected in Israel today to try to secure a truce deal. International concern has spiralled over the high civilian death toll and dire humanitarian crisis in the fighting sparked by Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel.
Political indications that court action needed to breach RTE confidentiality clauses
Political indications suggest that the latest RTÉ legal advice makes it clear that confidentiality clauses covering payments to departing executives cannot be breached without taking court action. There are suggestions that an overall figure for the amount of money paid to executives who left the organisation could now be provided to the Oireachtas Media Committee. Political pressure remains on the broadcaster to provide more details about those payments. RTÉ said yesterday that it had received the “full legal advice” it was awaiting regarding the publication of details of exit packages and had briefed Minister for Media Catherine Martin.
Asylum seeker hostel
A person attempted to get a job at an accommodation centre for asylum seekers in Dublin city in a bid to “cause trouble and enact racial discrimination”, prompting security concerns at the facility. The person in question applied for a job at Dublin City Dorms Accommodation Centre in the north inner city last year but, after carrying out a reference check, staff at the centre discovered the person’s motives and the individual was not offered the position. In an email sent to the International Protection Accommodation Services (Ipas), a member of staff at Dublin City Dorms highlighted a number of security concerns they had and asked Ipas to provide more support.
Kerry crystal meth seizure
Detectives are “trawling” through documents and records seized from a large retail outlet in Kerry which was searched following a record seizure of crystal meth in Cork Port last Friday. Officers from the Kerry Divisional Drugs Unit are looking to identify any suspected illegal transactions, including any previous shipments from South America, linked to the company. They are also examining any suspect exports involving the retail outlet to another country. The investigation team is trying to establish how many times this drug trafficking route has been used and how long it has been operating.
Social media ‘doing infinitely more harm’, says Senator following sustained online abuse
Social media is doing “infinitely more harm”, Labour Senator Annie Hoey has said, confirming she will no longer be engaging with X, formerly Twitter, following sustained abuse and disparaging comments directed at her. Ms Hoey told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland the social media platform is not doing enough to tackle abuse at source, adding that it is not good enough for them to say she could email them if she had a complaint about posts. “I appreciate that these officials cannot respond to every situation, but maybe they could take it further,” Senator Hoey said.
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