Here's What Happened Today: Thursday

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

IRELAND

• The wildfire that has been raging across Slievenamon mountain for the past four days may be extinguished by the weekend, according to Tipperary fire service.
• Former BBC journalist Vincent Kearney was awarded £20,000 in damages from MI5 and the PSNI after the bodies unlawfully obtained his phone data.
• Taoiseach Micheál Martin said an investigation into a Russian-owned plant in Co Limerick has not found definitive evidence the alumina produced there is going to weapons manufacturers in Russia.
• Two gardaí who were hospitalised after becoming unwell while on duty at Edenderry garda station in Co Offaly have been released from hospital.
• The father of Irish activist Daniel Tatlow-Devally said his son and four fellow defendants are being made to “look like Hannibal Lecter” as politicians called on the government to send an independent observer to the group’s trial in Germany.
• Former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson was stripped of his knighthood by Britain’s King Charles following his sex abuse convictions.
• A woman was arrested after the car she was driving was stopped in Co Monaghan on Wednesday. Gardaí who stopped the vehicle had requested assistance from the army bomb squad.
• Peter Thiel’s Dialog is suing Powerscourt Hotel in Co Wicklow over the cancellation of a planned, invite-only conference.
• The PSNI launched a murder investigation after a man died following an assault in north Belfast.
• Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said remuneration for criminal work has improved since he was a barrister, and defended his comments about avoiding it in the past because it ‘doesn’t pay’.
• Residents of a state-owned accommodation centre for International Protection Applicants in Killarney have had to be evacuated due to a pest infestation.
• Members of the prison officers union will be balloted on potential strike action amid an ongoing pay dispute. 

INTERNATIONAL

#MIDDLE EAST: Donald Trump said he will hold Iran responsible for any future attacks by Yemen’s Houthis, which are backed by Iran, after the group shot at two Saudi Arabian ships in the Red Sea.

#SALMAN RUSHDIE: Four years after being stabbed on an amphitheatre stage, Salman Rushdie sat across a courtroom from his convicted attacker and told jurors for a second time about the ambush that nearly killed him.

#ALBANIA: Preliminary work on a vast hotel project linked to the Trump family has already caused irreparable damage to a once pristine stretch of Albania’s coast, scientists and activists have said. 

#HAIR LOSS: The use of weight loss and diabetes jabs has been linked to the increased risk of hair loss, a new study published by the British Medical Journal found.

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PARTING SHOT

Euro banknotes will soon be having a makeover.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has rolled out a series of 10 new designs, which the public can vote on until 21 September.

The designs are based around the themes of “European culture: shared cultural spaces” and “Rivers and birds: resilience in diversity”.

Four of the options include, unusually, vertical banknotes.

The ‘European culture’ theme features the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Ludwig van Beethoven and Marie Curie on the front of the note, with scenes of people reading in a library, or street performers entertaining passersby on the back.

For the birds theme, kingfishers, storks and gannets are the face of the note, with the European Parliament and the Court of Justice of the European Union one of the institutions pictured on the back.

After the votes are in, a decision will be made on which design has been chosen. The notes are expected to enter circulation a few years after the decision.

You can view the full designs here, and vote on your preferred design here.

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