GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know about as you start your day.

Live events

1. In our lead story today, 69% of people believe outdoor music events should be allowed to go ahead this year, according to new polling carried out for The Journal by Red C Research.

Órla Ryan reports that 29% of people disagree because of Covid-19 and 2% don’t know.

In a survey of 1,000 adults, younger people were more likely to agree that events should be permitted to take place.

The fight for Kabul

2. In major international news, the Taliban is moving closer to a total takeover of Afganistan’s cities.

As the insurgents move closer to the capital of Kabul, the US and other countries are evacuating their embassies.

The Tabliban has already captured much of northern, western and southern Afghanistan.

Lebanon

3. In the middle East, a warehouse where fuel was being illegally stored has exploded in northern Lebanon.

The blast killed 20 people and injured dozens more.

The country is currently facing a crisis-level shortage of fuel and the army had seized the warehouse before the explosion.

Earthquake

4. Across the Atlantic, rescuers are searching for survivors after a powerful earthquake in Haiti.

The 7.2 magnitude quake struck yesterday and has killed at least 304 people.

Its epicentre yesterday morning was about 160 kilmotres from the capital Port-au-Prince.

Coronavirus

5. Back in Ireland, 2,047 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed yesterday afternoon.

It’s the first time since January that the daily case load has surpassed 2,000.

229 patients with Covid-19 were in hospital, including 43 in ICU.

Vaccinations

6. On the topic of Covid-19, cases among people who are fully vaccinated may have caused concern in recent days – but suggestions that it means vaccines don’t work are incorrect.

Think about it like seatbelts – “Around a quarter of people who die on our roads were not wearing a seatbelt, according to the Road Safety Authority.”

“That means in 75% of deaths on our roads, the person who died was wearing a seatbelt. This doesn’t mean that seatbelts don’t work, that they’re not worth wearing.”

Dublin v Mayo

7. They did it – Mayo claimed victory over Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final last night.

With a final score of 0-17 to 0-14, Mayo defeated Dublin for the first time since 2012.

Trains

8. If you were trying to travel between Dublin and Mayo, you might consider taking a train – but what does Ireland’s rail network look like?

What happened to our past railways and what’s in the future for our trains?

We take a look at these questions in the latest episode of The Explainer podcast as part of The Good Information Project’s cycle on public transport.

Paralympics

9. Irish Paralympian Patrick Flanagan’s wheelchair has been damaged while travelling to London on his was to the Tokyo games.

The swimmer, 23, said the chair was “completely broken” with dents and scrapes and damage to the wheels when it was returned to him at Heathrow airport yesterday.

“This is not something that can happen to wheelchair users. It’s unacceptable. Both airlines and baggage handlers need to pay more attention to chairs,” Flanagn tweeted.

An older chair is being flown out to him today as a replacement.