The 9 at 9: Sunday

GOOD MORNING.

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

No entry

1. The number of Irish citizens who have been refused entry to Israel by the country’s border enforcement agency has almost doubled since 2023, the year of the 7 October attacks.

Stephen McDermott reports that this year’s rate of refusals is around one in every 73 people so far, with around 1,400 Irish people visiting Israel between January and October this year.

US flights

2. The US air travel schedule should be back to normal by the end of today, Bryan Bedford, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), said on Saturday after airlines cancelled thousands of flights across the US.

Bedford said airlines “will still have delays and cancellations” but promised that the “worst is behind us”.

Weather forecast

3. Frost and icy stretches are forecast to spread overnight nationally, Met Éireann said.

The national forecaster said a dry but cold day will turn colder tonight, with lowest temperatures of -3 to 1 degrees to take hold. 

Space exploration

4. SpaceX’s Starship made a triumphant return to Earth on Saturday, caught in mid-air by giant mechanical arms where its journey began 22 hours earlier.

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It was the grand finale that Elon Musk and his team hoped for — the first-ever capture of a Starship flying back from space.

An old man’s game

5. Why aren’t young people becoming landlords?

As of 2024, fewer than 14% of landlords in Ireland were under 50. Paul O’Donoghue examines the question.

Wellington Monument

6. A man found dead in Dublin’s Phoenix Park on Friday morning was identified by gardaí as an Eastern European male who had been living in Ireland for a “number of years”.

A spokesperson said gardaí continue to investigate “all the circumstances” surrounding the discovery of the man aged in his 40s near the Wellington Monument.

Historic win

7. Wales edged New Zealand 35-28 in the Nations Championship in Cardiff to claim their first victory over the All Blacks since 1953.

Scrum-half Tomos Williams scored one of five Welsh tries in a superb individual performance as the home side ended a 34-match losing run against the three-time Rugby World Cup winners.

Russell Brand

8. A woman revealed her identity to publicly claim she was raped by Russell Brand as a 16-year-old girl as she called for the introduction of a staggered age of consent.

Mia Latter, now 37, alleged she had been mistreated by the jailed comedian when she was a schoolgirl, and he was aged 30. 

Winners and losers

9. Every weekend, our political team casts an eye over the events inside and outside Leinster House that have people talking.

Dublin was the epicentre of international political affairs, for one day at least, this week but there were also plenty of domestic issues to get us through as well.