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

IRELAND

National Services Day commemorations at Collins Barracks in Dublin today. Sam Boal Sam Boal

• 1,703 new cases of Covid-19 were reported Ireland.
• Mike Ryan warned that the pandemic is not over, despite positive developments.
• A late header from Shane Duffy spared the Ireland football team a humiliating defeat at home against Azerbaijan.
• The Taoiseach promised “comprehensive” information that will clear up the remaining questions about the Katherine Zappone controversy.
• Parades and commemorations were held across Ireland for National Services Day.
• Police in Northern Ireland are appealing for witnesses after a man was stabbed in the head in Belfast.
• European Space Agency senior officer Piero Messina spoke to TheJournal about Ireland’s role in the space industry.
• Novelist Hilary Mantel said she plans to take up Irish citizenship, “to become a European again” after Brexit.

INTERNATIONAL

Extinction Rebellion finishes its two weeks of protest with a March for Nature in London today. Guy Bell / Alamy Live News Guy Bell / Alamy Live News / Alamy Live News

#AFGHANISTAN: Fresh fighting was reported between the Taliban and resistance forces in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley, even as the hardline Islamists finalise a new government that will set the tone for their rule.

#RED LIST: Indonesia’s Komodo dragons were listed as “endangered” in an update of the wildlife Red List that also warned overfishing threatens nearly two-in-five sharks with extinction.

#BREXIT: The UK’s Brexit minister David Frost said Britain will not sweep away the Northern Ireland Protocol as he warned conflict over the deal risks creating “cold mistrust” with the European Union.

#NEW ZEALAND: The ISIS-inspired radical responsible for a supermarket knife rampage in New Zealand was watched for five years and jailed for three before authorities exhausted all avenues to keep him detained, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed.

PARTING SHOT

The bicycle struck the windscreen (Police Scotland/PA)

A driver in Scotland escaped with minor injuries after a bicycle smashed through her windscreen when it came free from another vehicle on a motorway.

The bike is believed to have come loose from a vehicle travelling on the opposite carriageway.

Images released by Police Scotland show the handlebars smashed through the driver’s side of the windscreen above the steering wheel.

The bike’s wheel was sticking out from a hole in the windscreen.