HELLO.

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

Rat scam

1. Gardaí in Dublin carried out additional patrols in the areas of the Raheny district of the city over the weekend after receiving reports of an apparent scam involving people door-to-door and a rat dead.

Officers are urging households in the area to be on the lookout for suspicious callers. The suspected crooks attempted to carry out the scam at a number of addresses in the region, it is believed.

In one case, the attempted scam took place for two days last week in an established area in the northern suburbs of Dublin.

The threatened species

2. The European Commission has claimed that Ireland is not managing its network of protected natural sites in accordance with EU law in proceedings brought before the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Last year, the European Commission launched infringement proceedings against Ireland for failing to fulfill its obligations under EU environmental law to designate 217 ‘Sites of Community Interest’ (SCIs) as zones conservation specials (ZSC) within a strict six-year period.

In the documents which have just been published, the Commission states that Ireland “has generally and consistently failed to comply with [the Habitats Directive] by establishing conservation measures.

RTE resignation

3. The CEO of a production company resigned from RTÉ’s board of directors barely two months after taking office.

Larry Bass said he handed in his resignation to Arts and Culture Minister Catherine Martin after attending his first RTÉ board meeting last Thursday.

“In the interest of my business and that of RTÉ, I decided to resign. I tendered my resignation to the minister, ”Bass said.

Where is wally

4. Wally the walrus, who has traveled all over Europe, is reportedly returning home to the Arctic after being sighted in Iceland on Sunday.

The arctic walrus was spotted basking on rocks on Valentia Island in March, before being sighted off the coasts of several other European countries, including England, France and Spain during several months.

The most recent sighting was around Courtmacsherry and Clonakilty Bay in West Cork about 22 days ago.

Canadian Elections

5. The Liberal Party of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will win the most seats in the country’s election.

Trudeau bet on an early election in an effort to win a majority of seats in Parliament, but it was not clear if he would.

The 49-year-old channeled the star power of his father, liberal icon and late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, when he first won the election in 2015 and now appears to have led his party to first place in the election. two elections since.

russian mercenaries

6. The French Defense Minister warned Mali that the hiring of paramilitaries from the Russian private security company Wagner would isolate the country internationally, during a visit to the Sahel state.

Florence Parly told reporters yesterday that if Mali recruited the cabinet, at a time when international partners fighting jihadism in the Sahel “had never been so numerous, such a choice would be that of isolation”.

Parly’s meeting with his Malian counterpart, Colonel Sadio Camara, follows an earlier warning to Bamako from its former colonial power last week, after reports that the military-dominated Malian government was on the verge of demise. ‘hire 1,000 Wagner paramilitaries.

Build to rent

7. An Bord Pleanála has given the green light for a € 590 million apartment rental program for a site in Charlestown and St Margaret’s Road in north Dublin.

The granting of permission to the Puddenhill Property Ltd program south of Charlestown Shopping Center is one of two Dublin-based Strategic Housing Development (SHD) programs to be granted a building permit on Monday.

Taoiseach visits New York

8. Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited the 9/11 memorial site in New York last night.

The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan, as well as against the Pentagon and on board United Airlines Flight 93, left 2,977 dead, including six Irish citizens.

After meeting with New York Governor Kathy Hochul yesterday, the Taoiseach toured the north and south basins of the site, where the names of each victim are inscribed.

AstraZeneca construction

9. AstraZeneca has announced its intention to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Blanchardstown, Dublin, creating up to 100 jobs.

At a cost of over 300 million euros, the biopharmaceutical company behind the Covid-19 vaccine will establish a new generation active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing facility for small molecules on the Alexion campus in College Park.

The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group said the new plant “will transform the development and commercialization of new drugs” and create around 100 highly skilled jobs in science and engineering.