The US Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court – pending a potential one-week delay to the next stage in the process.
Under normal circumstances, the committee's approval would have seen Judge Kavanaugh facing a full vote in the US Senate early next week.
However, before voting to approve him, Senator Jeff Flake asked for this to be delayed to allow for an FBI investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Kavanaugh.
It remains unclear exactly what will happen next – as the committee does not have the authority to delay the vote.
Facebook announces data breach affecting 50 million accounts
Facebook has announced a data breach affecting almost 50 million accounts.
The social media giant said hackers exploited a vulnerability in its ‘view as’ feature – which allows users to see what their profile looks like to other users.
The company said it is “taking this incredibly seriously” and has alerted law enforcement about the problem.
It said it has also “fixed the vulnerability” which allowed hackers to steal Facebook ‘access tokens,’ which they could then use to take over people’s accounts.
Leaving Cert student Rebecca Carter 'over the moon' after results upgraded
Leaving Certificate student Rebecca Carter, who has had her results upgraded, has said she is "over the moon".
The 19-year-old Wexford native took a High Court action against the State Examinations Commission (SEC) because, in spite of getting the necessary points for her preferred course in an exam re-check, the SEC said it would be mid-October before a full appeal could be completed.
That would have meant she would have missed the chance to study veterinary medicine this year.
But the change means she now has enough points to do the course in University College Dublin (UCD).
Recall issued across several supermarkets for unwashed spinach leaves
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) is recalling a range of fresh, unwashed spinach products due to the presence of Listeria monocytogenes.
The recall affects spinach leaves and mixed leaves across several brands sold at Lidl, Aldi, Dunnes Stores, Tesco and Supervalu.
The affected products have a batch code of 260 or 261.
Retailers are advising customers to dispose of the packs.
State spent nearly €16m renting vacant building for Department of Health
It has emerged that the State racked up a bill of nearly €16m renting the Department of Health’s new headquarters in Dublin city centre before anyone moved into it.
The Office of Public Works entered a 25 year lease agreement on the Baggot Street in December 2016 – however the Department of Health only made the move in mid-July.
This afternoon the latest report on public services accounts from the Comptroller and Auditor General said that over €15.8m in rental costs and service charges had been racked up by April.
In a statement, Labour Party Health spokesperson Alan Kelly said serious questions need to be answered about the expenditure.
