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

IRELAND

Carrowkeel Passage Tombs in County Sligo which is an applicant for UNESCO World Heritage site status. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

• Tracker mortgage rates for Irish banking customers are set to rise following the European Central Bank’s (ECB) decision to raise it’s interest rate by 0.5%, the first hike in over a decade.
• Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said AIB should reconsider its decision to remove cash services from 70 of its branches.
• Sinn Féin have called on President Michael D Higgins to reject the Government’s electoral reform bill after the European Commission raised concerns.
• Irish used car prices have risen 63.7% since the beginning of the pandemic, while asking prices for cheaper cars have almost doubled.
• Free contraception for women aged 17 to 25 is set to be rolled out following the signing off of new legislation.
• Mary Lou McDonald has brushed off suggestions that attending a dinner event in Sydney where a ‘Gold Table’ is on sale for upwards of €2,000 might send the wrong message back home.

INTERNATIONAL

Funeral flowers at Kharkiv cemetery on 16 July. PA PA

#PANDEMIC US President Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid-19, the White House has said.

#TROUBLES The victims of the Guildford pub bombings carried out by the IRA nearly 48 years ago were unlawfully killed by a powerful time bomb planted by a “courting couple”, a coroner has ruled.

#ROYALS The former nanny of the UK’s Prince William and Prince Harry has received substantial damages from the BBC after false allegations she had an affair with Prince Charles were made ahead of the 1995 Panorama interview with their mother Diana.

#TRAGIC The latest barrage of Russian shelling on Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv has killed at least two people and wounded 19 others on today, according to the regional governor.

PARTING SHOT 

EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum

The Irish Emigration Museum has launched a campaign to disprove common Irish stereotypes, such as the idea that Irish people have tempers, hold grudges, love potatoes, drinking and fighting.

Google autofill predictions related to Irish people show that many incorrect and misleading perceptions of the Irish still prevail globally, the museum has said.

The character has been named Paddy McFlaherty and was created to encourage people to visit EPIC and see that the Irish are world leaders, musicians, inventors and architects. 

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