EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, The Journal brings you the five biggest stories of the day.

1. #KATHERINE ZAPPONE: The Foreign Affairs Committee is to ask the former Minister to appear before it to answer questions about the aborted effort by the government to appoint her to a UN role. 

2. #COVID-19: The Chief Medical Officer has said health officials expect to soon be in a position to change self-isolation criteria for schoolchildren who are close contacts of confirmed Covid cases.

3. #TIME GENTLEMEN: Pubs and nightclubs could soon be allowed to stay open later as the Government is expected to approve the drafting on new laws to “modernise Ireland’s licensing laws”.

4. #NORTHERN IRELAND: Four men have been arrested by detectives investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee on 18 April 2019 in Derry.

5. #UNITED STATES: The country’s top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him the two nations would not suddenly go to war in the last weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, a new book claims.