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

IRELAND

The remains of a burnt out bus in north Belfast after it was set on fire in a loyalist area. Source: Peter Morrison/AP Photo

• Three men were found guilty of the false imprisonment and assault of Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney.
• Eamon Ryan said he took a second Covid-19 test because the first was ‘inconclusive‘.
• The Taoiseach confirmed that antigen testing is to be carried out in schools.
• A new report said crack cocaine ‘causing chaos and destruction’ in parts of Dublin.
• Aer Lingus said “almost every seat” is booked after the US ended its 19-month ban on travel.
• The justice minister sought to quell opposition to proposed powers for a garda watchdog.
• Jeffrey Donaldson warned that Unionist support for peace process agreements is “falling away”.
• A bus was hijacked and set on fire at a loyalist estate on the outskirts of Belfast yesterday evening.
• Junior health minister Frank Feighan tested positive for Covid-19.

INTERNATIONAL

Former US President Barack Obama at the COP26 Climate Change Conference today. Source: Colin Fisher/Alamy Live News

#COP26: The world has not done nearly enough to tackle the climate crisis, and curbing rising temperatures will be hard – but humanity has done hard things before, Barack Obama said at the Cop26 summit.

#GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a positive verdict on the influx of migrants to Germany in 2015 and 2016 as she prepares to step down, saying: “We managed it.”

#NICARAGUA: Daniel Ortega won a fourth consecutive presidential term in elections denounced by the United States as a “sham,” with the long-term Nicaraguan leader deriding his opponents – most of them jailed or in exile – as “terrorists”.

PARTING SHOT

Source: Gerard McCarthy

Michael Collins’ family today presented the State with the Irish revolutionary’s diaries from the years 1918-1922. 

“These diaries tell the story of one of the most turbulent periods in our history,” said Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the event at Woodfield, the house where Michael Collins was born in Clonakilty, Co. Cork.

He added: “There are many new discoveries that will be revealed through the diaries which will now become part of the national collection at the National Archives.”