EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you the five biggest stories of the day.

1. #COURT: A healthcare assistant who raped a pensioner in her nursing home bed during the Covid-19 lockdown has been jailed for 11 years.

2. #CIVIL WAR: Senior civil servants have called on Sligo-Leitrim TD Marc MacSharry to withdraw comments he made accusing some public servants of laziness and using the Covid-19 crisis as an excuse to “lie on the couch and watch box sets”.

3. #AMERICA: US President Donald Trump has suggested November’s presidential election should be delayed because of “fraudulent” voting arising from mail-in votes.

4. #LIFE ON MARS: Nasa’s latest Mars rover Perseverance launched today on an astrobiology mission to look for signs of ancient microbial life – and to fly a helicopter-drone on another world for the first time.

5. #PUBS: Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said he hopes pubs can reopen for business on 10 August under Phase 4 of reopening the economy.

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The 5 at 5 Five minutes, five stories, five o’clock…

Making a difference

A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.