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Thursday’s Top Stories: Emily Hand’s family hope she is on release list, firm housing children in care engaged in ‘deceitful’ practices

Here are the most important stories you need to start your day, including Ireland looking to scrap Triple Lock preventing Irish troops from deployment without UN approval

Katie Taylor during her public workout at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in Dublin before her fight against Chantelle Cameron. Photograph: Alan Betson

Family hoping Emily Hand on release list with Gaza hostages set to be freed from Friday

The family of Israeli-Irish national Emily Hand were waiting anxiously on Wednesday night along with relatives of other children held hostage in Gaza to find out if she will be released.

Emily, who turned nine last week, was seized from kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th when 3,000 gunmen from Gaza crossed the border into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and taking almost 240 into captivity.

Under an agreement endorsed by the Israeli cabinet in the early hours of Wednesday, a four-day ceasefire will go into effect on Thursday morning.

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Beavers were recently reintroduced in Ealing, west London to support biodiversity and prevent flooding. Photograph: James Manning/PA Wire
  • Cheap but invasive: Are beavers the key to Ireland’s flooding woes?: If I told you there was a solution to the issues of flooding, drought, water quality, biodiversity loss and even fires that required no major infrastructure, lengthy planning permissions or costly technology, minimal maintenance and was cheap and easy to implement, you would surely want to know more.

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