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

IRELAND

PA Images The famous arctic walrus takes an interest in a boat while visiting the Waterford coast. PA Images

• Former minister Katherine Zappone declined the UN special envoy role, after coming under increasing political pressure about the appointment process
• The Archbishop of Dublin wrote to his priests indicating that they can proceed with confirmations and first holy communions, despite the public health advice
• The Kanturk shootings inquest heard that the young man killed by his father and brother wrote a letter saying he feared for his life
• Electric Picnic was refused a licence to hold the event this year
• A report from Trinity legal experts called for clarity on the relationship between the government and NPHET and how key pandemic decisions were made
• Restaurant owners said they want the 11.30pm curfew for pubs and restaurants to be scrapped in September, ahead of a meeting with Government officials
• A Status Yellow thunderstorm warning will be in place across Ireland tomorrow.

WORLD

PA The three teenage Olympic medalists of the women's skateboarding. L-t-R: Japan's Kokona Hiraki; Sakura Yosozumi; and Britain's Sky Brown. PA

#DELTA: China reported its highest daily number of local coronavirus cases in months as mass testing and contact tracing campaigns uncovered a trail of Delta variant cases.

#BELARUS: An Austrian Airlines plane from Tokyo carrying Belarusian Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya landed at Vienna airport this afternoon.

#BEIRUT DISASTER: Lebanon has marked one year since an explosion ravaged Beirut, with a mix of grief over lost lives and rage at the impunity for its worst peacetime disaster at a time when the economy was already in tatters.

PARTING SHOT

Pictured below is Kathy Rose O’Brien holding a plate of jelly.

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O’Brien is a cast member of ‘The Dead, An Opera’, the production that will reopen the Gaiety Theatre to in-person audiences on Saturday after being closed for 512 days.

It will be live at the Gaiety Theatre for four performances on 7 and 8 August.

Audience numbers will be capped at 50 people per performance in line with Government guidelines. A high quality recording of the performance will also be available to watch back on-demand for seven days from Monday 16 August.

Mark Stedman / Gaiety Theatre Mark Stedman / Gaiety Theatre / Gaiety Theatre