NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Antigen tests will be made available to Oireachtas members and staff from next week. Sam Boal Sam Boal

• Health officials confirmed a further 4,650 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
• Bertie Ahern said loyalists who are opposed to the Northern Ireland Protocol “haven’t got a clue” how it works.
• The HSE said that some vaccination centres are recording “no show” rates of between 25-50% for Covid-19 vaccine boosters.
• Antigen tests will be made available to Oireachtas members and staff from next week.
• Details of the Covid-19 antigen testing system in primary schools was announced.
• NIAC recommended that people who received a Janssen Covid-19 vaccine should receive a booster jab after three months.
• Garth Brooks will be in Dublin on Monday as two Croke Park concerts were announced for 2022.
• The High Court was told that the Government misinterpreted Philomena Lee’s testimony to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.
• Council planners recommended that plans for a student accommodation scheme in Dun Laoghaire be refused.
• A partial eclipse of the moon will be visible tomorrow morning.

INTERNATIONAL

Migrant children in Veracruz, Mexico. They are among thousands of people walking towards the US border. Yahir Ceballos / dpa/Alamy Live News Yahir Ceballos / dpa/Alamy Live News / dpa/Alamy Live News

#GERMANY: Lawmakers approved new measures to rein in record coronavirus infections after the head of the nation’s disease control agency warned the country could face a “really terrible Christmas”.

#CANADA: Canada is sending the military to help evacuate and support communities hit by “catastrophic” flooding, with the death toll expected to rise after record rainfall on the Pacific coast triggered a state of emergency.

#MALCOLM X: More than half a century after the assassination of Malcolm X, two of his convicted killers were exonerated after decades of doubt about who was responsible for the civil rights leader’s death. 

PARTING SHOT

PA PA

A couple in the UK have been reunited with their cat a decade after he went missing from their canal boat home.

Colin Clayton, 61, and his wife Eva Bellamy, 58, could not believe it when they got the call that their cat Big Ginge had been found.

After getting married in 2011, the couple went on their honeymoon with their pets.

The three cats – Weasel and her offspring Diesel and Big Ginge – were used to living on the canal and regularly hopped on and off the boat.

However, then three-year-old Big Ginge disappeared and was thought lost forever.

Ten years on, the couple received a surprise phone call with the news that Big Ginge had been found in Staffordshire.

“For now we will be keeping him indoors. He seems very content and has shown no interest in venturing out,” Clayton said.

“Big Ginge has had enough stress in his life and we are confident it will all work out.”

With reporting from Press Association