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

IRELAND

Leo Varadkar speaking to press earlier today at Government Buildings Source: Leah Farrell/Rollingnews.ie

• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar ruled out an election before Christmas.
• A court heard of possible trafficking as a Vietnamese woman pleaded guilty in a case involving a €1 million grow house.
• Minister for Transport Shane Ross announced 41 new train carriages as well as €447 million worth of roads upgrades.
• Comedian Al Porter was spared jail for trying to prevent a garda arrest a man in Dublin city centre.
• Rank-and-file soldiers have formally accepted Public Service Pay Commission recommendations.
• An Extinction Rebellion activist was arrested following a “bloody” protest outside Dublin’s Clayton Hotel.
• Fine Gael’s Hildegarde Naughton recused herself from a probe into Votegate – after admitting she’s also voted for another TD.
• Dublin Marathon organisers have said the new lottery system “gives everyone a fair chance” of competing.
• A 38-year-old man has been remanded in custody charged with firearms and robbery offences after an Italian teacher and one of her students were held up at gunpoint outside the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.
• A recall of batches of houmous with suspected Salmonella was extended to some available in Supervalu, Centra and Iceland stores.

INTERNATIONAL

The Grenfell Tower in west London on the day the first report from the public inquiry into the fire which claimed 72 lives is published. Source: Steve Parsons/PA Images

#REPORT: The Grenfell Tower cladding did not comply with building regulations and was the “principal” reason for the fire’s rapid and “profoundly shocking” spread, the inquiry report said.

#TAX: A court ruled Australia’s ‘backpacker tax’ illegally targets foreigners but Irish emigrants might be out of luck.

#ARMENIA: What were the Armenian massacres and why is it controversial to describe them as a ‘genocide’? Here’s our explainer.

PARTING SHOT

South Africa take on England in the Rugby World Cup Final this weekend.

They’ll be led out by Siya Kolisi and the Springbok’s first black captain has a remarkable story.

In this piece by the BBC’s Tom Fordyce, it delves how Kolisi rose from the township of Zwide to leading his country into a world final.

“When you are from Zwide you step into this other world when the chance comes, but you never leave your old life behind. Kolisi’s mother died when he was 15, his grandmother shortly afterwards. When Smit’s team was beating England in that World Cup final of 2007, the 16-year-old Kolisi was watching it in a township tavern because there was no television at home.”