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

IRELAND

Photographer Theresa Ehiguese holds one of her images that will feature as part of the Diversity in Dublin outdoor exhibition commissioned by Dublin City Council and Creative Ireland. Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

• The Cabinet will tomorrow decide on whether it will progress with plans to reopen indoor dining from next Monday. As part of this decision, it’s expected the gap between AstraZeneca vaccine doses will reduce from eight weeks to four. 
• A further 305 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Ireland.
• A man in his 80s died after a two-car crash in Tipperary.
• New legislation was approved to allow drinking outside pubs and restaurants after gardaí warned earlier this month that it is technically illegal in some instances. 
• Firefighters tackled a blaze that broke out on a roof terrace at the Vicar Street venue in Dublin city centre. 
• Dublin Bus launched an investigation after a member of the public claimed she was “slut-shamed” and initially denied entry to the bus due to the clothes she was wearing. 

WORLD 

Members of the Cowessess First Nation do a ceremonial smudge at the site of unmarked graves near a former indigenous residential school in Saskatchewan, Canada. Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

#BREXIT: The European Commission vice president said the EU is prepared to consider “bold steps” to reduce checks required under Brexit’s Irish Sea border to an “absolute minimum”.

#HEAT RISING: The village of Lytton in the interior of southern British Columbia in Canada sizzled under a new all-time high temperature for Canada, reaching 46.1C.

PARTING SHOT 

Looking a bit further afield, a new research report led by a Queen’s University Belfast scientist has said life could be possible in the clouds surrounding Jupiter. 

The clouds surrounding the planet have water conditions that would allow Earth-like life to exist, a research project led by Dr John Hallsworth found.

He said: “While our research doesn’t claim that alien (microbial-type) life does exist on other planets in our solar system, it shows that if the water activity and other conditions are right, then such life could exist in places where we haven’t previously been looking.”