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

IRELAND

Pictured outside Leinster House, a protest by Ethical Farming Ireland and My Lovely Pig Rescue against recently announced trade deal to export live pigs to China. Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

• NPHET advised the Government that Ireland’s Covid-19 situation is “uncertain and precarious” ahead of today’s curtailed easing of coronavirus restrictions.
• Nightclubs will be allowed to reopen as planned this Friday, 22 October – but new advice specifically for the sector is being developed, and has yet to be released.
• The Government has confirmed they are pressing ahead with plans to allow sports stadia return to full capacity from this Friday. Restrictions on the number of people allowed to attend weddings were also removed as part of a curtailed easing of Covid-19 measures.
• A full return to workplaces may not be possible until next spring, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said today.
• Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan endorsed a recommendation for booster Covid-19 vaccines to be offered to people aged 60 and over. 
• The Government is to increase the use of antigen tests, advising that they be used by fully vaccinated people who are deemed to be close contacts of a confirmed Covid-19 case, but who have no symptoms.
• A moment of silence was observed in the Dáil this afternoon in memory of MP David Amess who was stabbed to death while meeting constituents last week.
• Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service defended the decision to prosecute recently deceased Army veteran Dennis Hutchings over a Troubles shooting.
• Animal welfare campaigners demanded a U-turn on the Government’s decision to export live pigs to China.

WORLD 

At least 22 people have died and others are missing in floods triggered by heavy rains in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. PA PA

#PHILADELPHIA: A man charged with raping a woman on a commuter train just outside a US city harassed her for more than 40 minutes while multiple people held up their phones to seemingly record the assault without intervening, local authorities said.

#POLEXIT: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused the EU of “blackmail” in a public clash with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen over his government’s decision to interfere with Poland’s judiciary and the rule of law.

#CRUSADERS: An Israeli scuba diver salvaged an ancient sword off the country’s Mediterranean coast that experts say dates back to the Crusaders.

PARTING SHOT 

Rapper, music producer and clothing entrepreneur Kanye West is now known as Ye after a court allowed him to legally change his name.

What are your thoughts, Ye or nay? 

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