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

IRELAND 

A woman jumps for a photograph taken by a friend on the beach in Ballbriggan, Dublin. Leon Farrell Leon Farrell

• NPHET confirmed 522 new cases and nine deaths from coronavirus.
• The British government moved to unilaterally ease another element of the contentious Brexit arrangements governing trade to Northern Ireland.
• The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has fallen to the lowest level since late December. 
•  Parents who had to submit their own passports as part of the application for their child to get a passport may have to wait as long as six months to receive their own back.
• Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has said there are “no guarantees” that the construction sector will reopen on 5 April.
• Gardaí have issued almost 12,000 fines related to Covid breaches.
• The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board suspended trainer Gordon Elliott’s licence for 12 months – with the final six months of that ban suspended – following an investigation into a photo showing Elliott sitting on a dead horse. 
• Gardaí launched an investigation into the death of a man in Lusk, north Dublin.

WORLD

Pope Francis meets clergymen at the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation (Sayidat al-Najat) in the capital Baghdad. Vandeville Eric / ABACA Vandeville Eric / ABACA / ABACA

#SWEDEN: A 22-year-old Afghan man has been remanded in custody in Sweden, after he was accused of stabbing seven people earlier in the week, the district court said.

#IRAQ: Pope Francis arrived in Iraq to urge the country’s dwindling number of Christians to stay put and help rebuild the country after years of war and persecution.

#NEW ZEALAND: The country will lift a Covid-19 lockdown on nearly two million people on Sunday, as authorities say they are confident that a virus cluster in the country’s largest city has been contained.

PARTING SHOT

It’s another Friday in lockdown, sadly. 

Here’s a video of some dogs playing to cheer you up. (If the link doesn’t work then click here.)