McGregor charge
An extra motoring charge has been brought against UFC star Conor McGregor in his dangerous driving prosecution in Dublin.
Gardaí pulled over the mixed martial artist driving a high-performance Bentley Continental GT on March 22nd in west Dublin.
He was arrested and initially charged with two counts of dangerous driving in the 2019-reg car at the N4/M50 interchange in Palmerstown and the Lucan Road, being uninsured, having no licence and failing to produce his documents within 10 days.
The fighter returned to Blanchardstown District Court on Thursday for directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Late Late Show
Two Oscar winners will lead the star-studded line-up for this week’s Late Late Show.
Hollywood actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts will chat with Ryan Tubridy in London bout their new romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise and why they wanted to make another movie together.
Ryan will also chat to them about George’s Irish ancestry and Julia’s memories of filming Michael Collins here in Ireland.
Inflation rise
Headline inflation in the Irish economy was close to a four-decade high last month, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Consumer prices in the Republic rose by an average of 8.7 per cent in the 12 months to August, down slightly from the 9.1 per cent increase seen in July.
This means the Irish economy continues to experience the fastest rate of price growth since 1984.
The main drivers of higher living costs were housing, energy, fuel and transport.
CAO offers
Thousands of students will receive college places on Thursday as the first round of CAO offers are released.
More than 84,000 students will be anxiously awaiting offers, which are due to be released from 2pm on the CAO website.
However, universities will be using a lottery system this year to select student for high-point courses due to the volume of students with inflated grades from the 2021 examinations, and a higher number of applicants.
These high-grade courses include medicine, dentistry and finance.
Used car market
The number of new cars licensed in August 2022 rose by 379 vehicles (4 per cent) compared with August 2021.
In the first eight months of 2022, 21 per cent of all new cars licensed for the first time were electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). This is compared with 15 per cent in the same period in 2021.
There was a fall of 16 per cent in the number of used private cars licensed in August 2022 compared with August 2021.
In the first eight months of 2022, 27 per cent of new private cars licensed were diesel, compared with 34 per cent in the same period in 2021.
Charlie Bird support
Former RTÉ broadcaster Charlie Bird has thanked the staff at Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, Dún Laoghaire for comforting him after he broke down crying.
Bird said it is one of the symptoms of motor neurone disease (MND) and singled out the two women who consoled him on Wednesday afternoon.
Taking to Twitter he said: "This is a difficult tweet for me to send, but I want to thank the two ladies who comforted me in Dunnes Stores in Cornelscourt this afternoon.
"I was having one of my awful crying moments, which is a symptom of my MND. The hand of friendship helped me so much. Thanks."
US aid
The US has announced major new military aid worth more than two billion US dollars for Ukraine and other European countries threatened by Russia.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration would provide two billion US dollars in long-term military assistance to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbours, including Nato members and regional security partners “most potentially at risk for future Russian aggression”.
This is on top of a 675 million US package of heavy weaponry, ammunition and armoured vehicles for Ukraine that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin announced earlier on Thursday at a conference in Germany.
