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

IRELAND

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue giving a thumbs up to media as leaves Dublin Castle after today's meeting of the Cabinet. Sam Boal Sam Boal

• Cabinet’s last scheduled meeting of the summer ended this morning without a decision on sectoral emission reductions targets, which have become a serious point of conflict within the government.
• The government has approved a proposal to establish an independent office to excavate the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.
• Cabinet has approved plans to legislate for safe access zones around clinics that provide abortion services.
• Smallpox vaccines supplies to inoculate people against monkeypox are “low and limited” in Ireland and the EU, the HSE has said.
• An “obsessive” Dublin youth has been spared jail and was handed a two-year probation supervision order for sustained online harassment of a BBC journalist.
• Covid-19 testing for the general public is set to be stood down in the autumn, after the Government accepted advice from the Interim Chief Medical Officer.
• Justice Minister Helen McEntee has received Cabinet approval for a bill to strengthen laws around consent in rape cases.

INTERNATIONAL 

Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington today Susan Walsh / PA Susan Walsh / PA / PA

#BIDEN HIS TIME US President Joe Biden is out of isolation following a negative Covid-19 test.

#INVASION Russian energy giant Gazprom drastically cut gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline today to about 20% of its capacity, German authorities said.

#FURIOUS GEORGE Local authorities hunting for a gang of monkeys who attacked and wounded nearly 50 people in western Japan have caught and killed one of the marauding primates.

#OUT OF THIS WORLD The jacket worn by astronaut Buzz Aldrin on his historic first mission to the moon has become the most valuable American space artefact ever sold at auction, after fetching over €2.4 million.

PARTING SHOT

Shutterstock / Patcharaporn Puttipon2465 Shutterstock / Patcharaporn Puttipon2465 / Patcharaporn Puttipon2465

Just when you thought inflation couldn’t get worse McDonald’s will up the prices of several of its menu items, including increasing the cost of a cheeseburger for the first time in 14 years.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s Ireland confirmed to The Journal that selected products including breakfast meals, main meals, large coffees, McFlurrys, the Chicken Mayo, the McNuggets share box and some Go Large options are set to become more expensive.

Cheeseburgers will go from €1.50 to €1.70.

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