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

IRELAND

Members of the Kildare Arts Collective, stand in the River Liffey to promote Art Feeds, their contribution to Cutlture Night 2020 RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

• The CAO points for 2020 have been released today. The list is available to read here.
• Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has defended the calculated grades system for this year’s Leaving Certificate results.
• There have been a further 211 cases of Covid-19 confirmed in Ireland, health officials said this evening.
• The Department of Health has introduced new restrictions on nursing homes in Dublin following the continuing spike in new cases in the county. 
• The Department of Justice and the HSE have today confirmed that widespread testing will begin in all direct provision centres from tomorrow. 
• An infectious disease specialist has said he believes pubs in Dublin where there are large outbreaks of Covid-19 should remain closed.  
• Police in Tyrone arrested a 37-year-old man today after a video that appears to show a child driving a lorry on a motorway circulated online. 

INTERNATIONAL

A flipped car remains on the side of CA-162 in California SIPA USA / PA Images SIPA USA / PA Images / PA Images

#WILDFIRES: 15 people have died and 500,000 others have been evacuated as a result of the California wildfires.  

#TRADE DEAL: Britain has secured its first major post-Brexit trade agreement – a free trade deal with Japan – the day after bitter wranglings with the European Union.

#GREECE: Thousands of refugees and migrants have spent a third night in the open on the Greek island of Lesbos after two successive nights of fires in the notoriously overcrowded Moria camp left them homeless. 

PARTING SHOT

A blue gull found in Carlisle RSPCA RSPCA

A blue gull spotted in Cumbria in England has left animal rescue experts scratching their heads.

“I have been in this job for about 20 years and I have never seen anything like this. This bird was incredible,” animal welfare officer Graham Carter said.

“We just don’t know what happened in this case with this poor bird. I wonder if some kind of blue powder has fallen on him and left him in this state.”