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

IRELAND

Mural of two city foxes by artist Shane Sutton on Dorset street in Dublin today. Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

• Mandatory hotel quarantine was effectively brought to an end with all remaining countries removed from designated list.
• Ireland has offered humanitarian-access places to 400 Afghanistan citizens since July, meaning they will be granted asylum if they arrive in Ireland.
• 1,335 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Ireland.
• Did you spot loud flashes and choppers flying over part of Dublin this week? Don’t worry it was just a drill.
• Gardaí appealed to the public for help in tracing the whereabouts of 15-year-old Saoirse O’Hora who is missing from Dublin.
• Campaigners staged demonstrations across Ireland in protest at the UK Government’s proposed Troubles amnesty.
• Ireland’s private rental sector is broken and no longer fit for purpose, housing expert Dr Rory Hearne writes in The Journal today.
• Ireland’s dreams of reaching next year’s Rugby World Cup were ended after Adam Griggs’ side suffered a heartbreaking loss to Scotland. 

INTERNATIONAL

People look up at a dead body hanged by the Taliban from a crane in the main square of Herat city in western Afghanistan today. AP / PA Images AP / PA Images / PA Images

#AFGHANISTAN: The Taliban hung the bodies of four kidnappers from cranes after killing them during a shootout in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat today, a senior official said.

#GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel today urged Germans to give her would-be successor Armin Laschet the vote to shape Germany’s future, in a last-ditch push to shore up his beleaguered campaign 24-hours before Germans vote.

#CHINA: A Hong Kong group which organises annual vigils in remembrance of victims of the Chinese military’s crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has voted to disband.

PARTING SHOT

If ever there was a roving reporter that could cover a fuel shortage… pic.twitter.com/cMukaZfnON

— Graeme (@redleaderwright) September 25, 2021

With the UK experiencing a fuel crunch the BBC knew there was only one reporter with the credentials to cover the crisis. A grand bit of nominative determinism.