NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round up of today’s news.

Gardaí attached to Leixlip District conducting checkpoints on the N4 at the Kildare / Meath border.

IRELAND

• Health officials confirmed 35 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland and one further death.
• There is an outbreak of Covid-19 on a ward at Naas General Hospital.
• A man arrested over the death of a man in Tallaght this week was released without charge.
• The Taoiseach said weekly testing of workers at meat plants and residents of direct provision centres is to begin.
• Minister Simon Coveney has condemned violence against protesters in Belarus. 
• A man will face trial over a hit-and-run that led to the death of 54-year-old Jacqueline McGovern last March.
• The HSE said a fix to stop the Covid Tracker app draining phone batteries has been rolled out.
• Expired driving licences will be extended by seven months.
• Fair City will return to TV screens next month. 

Eight sets of twins at Newark Primary school in Port Glasgow ahead of their first day at of school. Source: PA

WORLD

#UNITED STATES: Joe Biden has announced California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate. 

#RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin has claimed Russia has developed the first Covid-19 vaccine and that one of his daughters has been inoculated. 

#NEW ZEALAND: Prime Minister Jacinda Arden has ordered a fresh lockdown in Auckland after the first locally transmitted coronavirus cases in 102 days.

#SCOTLAND: The government confirmed it will withdraw almost 125,000 test results that were downgraded under its calculated grades process. 

 PARTING SHOT

High winds and torrential rain on the New South Wales south coast in Australia have caused these ‘reverse waterfalls‘.