Michael Cousins Acting Managing Editor

Good morning

Leading the news today:

* A bus has been hijacked and set ablaze on a busy NI route this morning. 
In a statement police say that around 6.30am, two masked and armed men boarded the bus and poured fuel over the vehicle before setting it alight.

* Recriminations were flying last night between two senior unionists, after Jim Allister accused Sir Jeffrey Donaldson of making mere “empty threats” over the NI Protocol.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey in turn accused the TUV leader of being happier “hurling grenades” at fellow unionists than in truly finding solutions to the Irish Sea border.

* Two unionist grandees have said that an Irish language act would further alienate loyalists, and may well “re-sectarianise” Northern Ireland.
David McNarry and David Campbell’s joint statement comes amid concerns that the Tory government in Westminster still plans to press ahead with enacting such legislation from London, over the heads of unionists in the Stormont Assembly.

* A DUP MP says Sinn Fein’s language about the possibility of it taking First Minister in the next assembly election only “inflames” the current situation.
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said in the party’s annual conference this weekend that “every big step change in Irish life has been made by ordinary people seizing the day”.

* ‘Tornado’ strength winds have wreaked havoc over the weekend, with farmers left counting the cost after machinery and roofs were extensively damaged.
The mini tornado ripped through the Ballykeel Road area of Kilkeel and beyond at approximately 4am on Sunday morning.

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Michael Cousins Acting managing editor