Russia has launched a massive drone attack on Ukraine’s capital this morning, injuring at least six people, Kyiv’s military administration has said.

Poland closed the airspace near two of its southeastern cities, Lublin and Rzeszow, as its air force scrambled jets in response to Russia’s attack on Kyiv.

Drones flew over Kyiv and anti-aircraft fire rang out through the night as the attack started at around 6am local time.

As of 3am local time, all of Ukraine’s territories were under air raid alerts, data from the country’s air force shows.

Some residents have fled to metro stations deep underground for safety as the attack continues.

Poland said it had closed its airspace near the two cities until at least 4am GMT due to “unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security”, flight tracking service Flightradar24 said.

“In connection with the activity of the Russian Federation’s long-range aviation carrying out strikes on the territory of
Ukraine, Polish and allied aircraft have begun operating in our airspace,” the military said in a post on X.

It described the actions as preventive and aimed at securing airspace and protecting citizens.

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“Do ya wanna get rocked?” asks Joe Elliott at the opening of Def Leppard’s 1992 hit Let’s Get Rocked.

A neighbour of the 66-year-old musician’s in south Co Dublin certainly appears to be getting shaken by ongoing works at his Stepaside home.

Christine Wunschel, Elliott’s wife, was last month granted permission by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to install a 4.8m-tall stone sculpture on the grounds of Stepaside House.

However, a neighbour, Louise Harrison, has appealed the decision to the State’s planning authority, An Coimisiún Pleanála. She says her home is across the road from Elliott’s and construction and frequent machinery noise from his garden is “intolerable”.

“As a retired individual, I wear ear muffs in my home (from 7am to 5pm) or vacate my home to escape 5-7 men using machines in that garden six days a week, including bank holidays, so (I) drive to a car park and sit in my car to avoid their noise of between 85-130db ie akin to the noise of an aircraft taking off,” she wrote.

The appellant fears the statue could result in further noise by being converted into a water fountain given there is “a surrounding deep water basin and an outstretched limb on which a water spout could be added”.

The appeal lists Harrison’s views on an extensive history of works carried out around Stepaside House and notes her efforts to communicate with Elliott about same.

“I wrote to the owner in America, appealing for an end to the intrusive noise. His reply in 2015 stated the current project ‘is now nearing completion, so there should be no more loud noise or dust’,” she wrote.

“Ten years later – with about 4 short breaks, noise continues daily – 118.2db of machinery noise is being created as I type.”

Settler of pub rows turns 70 on big week for the Guinnesses

It has been a prolific period for the Guinness name, with the House of Guinness released on Netflix this week, the fourth earl of Iveagh, Arthur Edward (Ned) Guinness, publishing a book on his family’s history, and the latest edition of Guinness World Records coming out.

The first edition of publication once known as the Guinness Book of Records came out 70 years ago and has its roots in Co Wexford – Castlebridge to be precise, with a sign on the way into the village marking the link.

In the early 1950s, Sir Hugh Beaver, then managing director of the Guinness brewery, visited the area’s North Slob as part of a shooting party. He missed a shot at a golden plover and became embroiled in a dispute about which species of game bird was the fastest. In the days before smartphones, such answers were not easily found.

Beaver in 1954 recalled the fastest bird debate and had a light-bulb moment – a Guinness promotion based on the idea of settling pub arguments. He enlisted a pair of London researchers, twins Norris and Ross McWhirter, to compile a book of records and the rest, as they say, is history. The first edition topped the British bestseller list at Christmas in 1955 and tens of millions have sold since.

Ned Guinness’s book, Guinness: A Family Succession, is unlikely to shift similar numbers, but had a well-attended launch at Iveagh House (once owned by his family) on St Stephen’s Green (also once owned by his family) in Dublin on Monday. Former taoisigh Enda Kenny and Bertie Ahern were among those in attendance, as were businessman Denis O’Brien and dancer Michael Flatley.

You think Booker judges get to read only good books? Roddy Doyle has news for you

And then there were six. The Booker Prize shortlist was announced this week with a rags-to-riches journey, a globetrotting romance, a mysterious disappearance, a road trip inspired by a midlife crisis, post-second World War struggles and tumult in the life of an actor all featuring.

There’s no Irish author, but one of our own remains centrally involved in the process. Roddy Doyle, who won the Booker in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, is chairing the judging panel and believes the shortlisted entries are “all brilliantly written and they are all brilliantly human”.

His gig sounds like a nice way to pass some time but, speaking to the (London) Times this week, he indicated it hasn’t all been sunshine and lollipops.

He said the judges had wondered “why we had been asked to read” some of the 153 submitted novels that they whittled down to a long list of 13.

Doyle said he signed up to be a judge to “read good books” and began to feel “a bit low” when he would encounter two bad ones in succession. He also said he was sick of small typefaces, likening one entry to “the warning you get on the back of a pack of Panadol in 17 languages”.

“You would be reading for half an hour and realise you are on the same bloody page you were half an hour ago,” he said.

That’s not the end of it: the judges must revisit the shortlisted works for a third time before choosing the winner of the £50,000 prize, which will be revealed on November 10th.

Harris claims triple lock getting ‘No, nay, never’ treatment

It’s a surprise to hear a senior politician quote The Wild Rover in the Dáil, let alone during testy exchanges about the triple lock, neutrality and Ukraine war.

Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris last week faced questions on the issue, with People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy asking where the Government wanted to send Irish troops where it currently could not.

Murphy said “there is a cynical campaign of misinformation” by the Government around removing the triple lock (the guarantee that stops more than 12 Irish soldiers being sent into battle zones without the permission of the Government, the Dáil and the United Nations) and an insistence “there is no need to worry”.

“The Tánaiste may say that we are only ever going to send troops on missions that are called peacekeeping missions,” Murphy said, noting that no country ever said it was “doing something for its own imperialist reasons”.

“Does he know what Putin called his invasion of Ukraine? He said it was a peacekeeping mission.”

Harris said “there is an effort to be a bit mischievous here” on Murphy’s part, but “the idea of Ireland becoming a major military power or engaging in military adventurism” was at “such a remove from the reality”.

“We wish to be a country that can keep itself and its people safe, has a better idea of what goes on in our sea and skies, and plays a role in peacekeeping.”

On the wider debate about the triple lock, he said: “If the Opposition’s approach is to say: ‘No, nay, never – we will not talk to you about it and will just vote you down’, that is grand, but it is not the most constructive way to engage.”

A woman whose partner came to her home with a hammer and assaulted her in front of her five-year-old daughter has been granted a protection order at a Dublin court.

The woman gave evidence at ex parte sittings in Dolphin House on Friday that her partner became irate after she booked flights for herself and her daughter to go abroad.

She said the man came to her house with a hammer.

He then pulled her hair and punched her head, saying afterwards, “I didn’t batter you.” The woman said he told her he was “going to show me how he’d batter someone … he said he’d ‘go to the lowest of the low’ … He called me a s*ut and started punching me around the head.”

She gave evidence that the man became angry after seeing messages on her phone from her daughter’s father. He dragged her into the sittingroom and bent her phone in half, and still has it, she told Judge Furlong.

The judge said he could not issue a barring order because they had never lived together, but he could grant her a protection order.

“There is a gap in the law that doesn’t allow us to give you a barring order, but this is as effective,” said the judge.

“I’m going to give you a protection order. This will protect you everywhere,” he added. The woman indicated she is taking assault charges against the man.

Another woman came to court saying she wanted to protect herself and her children from her husband after he assaulted her teenage daughter.

She said her daughter was doing her homework and told her autistic brother to turn down the television. When her brother did not do so, the teenager commented, “he doesn’t understand anything”. The woman said her husband then started to beat their daughter.

The woman said her husband did not physically assault her but often insulted her and had called her “a b***h” and “useless”. “It’s getting worse and worse,” she said, and asked the judge for a safety order.

The judge said he was granting the safety order and that the case would be listed for December, when she could then apply for a barring order of up to three years’ duration or a safety order for up to five years.

A different woman came to court claiming she caught her husband with another woman in their home. The man had left the home in February. He bought their home while they were married but it was in the husband’s name only.

He recently informed her he wanted to stay in the family home. He attempted to enter the front door, which was locked, and went around the back of the house and scaled the wall. The woman said she quickly packed a bag and went to a hotel. She said her husband had been prone to bouts of verbal and physical abuse to both herself and her daughter.

The judge said he was giving the woman an emergency safety order, saying the man is not to use or threaten violence. The judge told her he was very sorry about the affair with the other woman, but added that it was not relevant in these proceedings. “You’re both entitled to be in the family home,” said the judge.

Another man who was in an intimate relationship with a woman for two weeks but had split up a month ago came to court seeking a protection order.

He said the woman, who had a court order against him, had contacted him on three occasions, which he said were “deliberate provocations designed to lead to my arrest”.

The man said it had an impact on his mental and physical welfare as “she may see me around and call the gardaí”.

The man said he had lost his job and recently started a new one and was seeking a protection order.

“I am going to give you the order,” said the judge. “She’s not to contact you and you’re not to contact her,” he added.

The judge said it was a full order, including contact by electronic means. He told the man he could return to court and get an order for up to five years’ duration.

He said the gardaí should serve it today or as soon as possible.

“They do prioritise these things and hopefully it will be served for you,” the judge added.