LAST UPDATE | 12 Aug 2020

EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #US ELECTION: US President Donald Trump said he is “a little surprised” that his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, selected Kamala Harris as his running mate, saying she was “very disrespectful” to Biden in the past.

2. #APPRENTICES: Minister for Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris has launched a €3,000 financial incentive for employers to take on apprentices before the end of the year.

3. #COVID-19: Australia’s worst-hit state of Victoria appears to be curbing a virus outbreak after a week of tougher restrictions, authorities said today, with new cases falling in recent days even as fatalities topped records.

4. #CO-LIVING: The North Great George’s Street Preservation Society has launched a judicial review in the High Court against An Bord Pleanála over a 130-bed co-living development in Dublin city.

5. #RECESSION: Britain has officially entered into the largest recession on record after figures showed the Covid-19 pandemic sent the economy plunging by 20.4% between April and June, the Office for National Statistics has confirmed.

6. #BACK TO SCHOOL: More than one in four parents (27%) find themselves in debt to cover the costs of going back to school for their children, according to a survey from the Irish League of Credit Unions.

7. #DENTISTS: The World Health Organization has said routine, non-essential dental work should be delayed until Covid-19 transmission rates drop sufficiently, cautioning against procedures that produce aerosol spray from patients’ mouths.

8. #NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand’s looming general election could be delayed, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned today, as the shock re-emergence of the coronavirus sent the country’s largest city Auckland into lockdown and forced nursing homes nationwide to shut their doors.

9. #DINOSAUR: Four bones on the Isle of Wight belong to a new species of dinosaur from the same family as Tyrannosaurus rex, scientists have said.