GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your week.

Pregnancy

1. A clinical trial at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin funded by a biomedical company has been criticised for the way it presents information on risks and benefits of induced labour to pregnant women.

The Home Induction Trial aims to assess two different methods of induction for healthy first-time mothers at 39 weeks pregnant. After the induction begins, they return home to await labour. 

The trial began in November 2020 and 86 women have so far taken part, the Rotunda said.  

However, Orla Dwyer reports that academics and healthcare professionals in the women’s health sector have outlined a number of key concerns they have with the way in which the trial is being advertised and marketed to people who are pregnant and who may want to take part. 

They feel that an information leaflet about the trial is “overplaying the potential benefit” of inducing labour at 39 weeks. 

Loosing out 

2. The majority of portable public toilets have been removed from Dublin city centre due to a “lack of use”. 

Dublin City Council installed over a hundred of the portable loos around the city at the start of June ahead of the reopening of outdoor hospitality as the good weather brought people into the city to socialise. 

It following criticism of a lack of facilities in the capital to allow people to socialise outdoors in line with public health guidelines.

However, the council said this week that demand for the toilets had plummeted since the reopening of outdoor hospitality. 

German floods

3. Authorities in Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate have said 50 people have died in devastating floods in the western state, bringing the national death toll to at least 81, with dozens more missing.

“The number of dead has gone up to 50″ from 28 in the badly hit region, a spokesman for the interior ministry of Rhineland-Palatinate, Timo Haungs said. 

Storms across parts of western Europe in recent days caused rivers and reservoirs to burst their banks, resulting in several flash floods overnight as rain-soaked soil failed to absorb any more water.

Dozens remain missing in western Germany, raising fears the death toll could rise further following the region’s worst floods in living memory.

Oh Canada

4. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his country could start allowing allowing fully vaccinated Americans into the country as of mid-August for non-essential travel and should be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by early September.

Trudeau spoke with leaders of Canada’s provinces and his office released a readout of the call. He noted that if Canada’s current positive path of vaccination rate and public health conditions continued, the border could reopen.

“Canada would be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by early September,” the readout said. 

“Trudeau noted the ongoing discussions with the United States on reopening plans, and indicated that we could expect to start allowing fully vaccinated US citizens and permanent residents into Canada as of mid-August for non-essential travel.”

Von der Leyen visits

5. The President of the European Commission will meet Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the Technological University Dublin in Grangegorman today.

The Taoiseach and the president will have a bilateral meeting at which they will discuss Covid-19 and vaccines, EU/UK relations and the Commission’s new “fit for 55” package of measures to support climate action.

The meeting comes at a time of tension between the UK and EU over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Jair Bolsonaro

6. The Brazilian president is recovering in hospital after being rushed in for treatment for an intestinal obstruction, but is unlikely to need surgery, his son Flavio has said.

The president’s office said in a statement that Bolsonaro was doing better and that his clinical and laboratory results were “satisfactory”, but it gave no expected discharge date.

The statement, signed by the president’s doctors, did not mention surgery.

Latest cases

7. A further 994 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Ireland. The Department of Health has reported that 80 patients with the illness are in hospital today, including 22 in intensive care units.

Data relating to the number of deaths associated with the coronavirus disease, as well as case numbers by county, have been affected by the cyber attack on the HSE IT systems.

Yesterday there were 783 new cases of Covid-19 and 73 patients in hospital, including 20 in intensive care units. 

United States

8. Firefighter are scrambling to control a raging inferno in southeastern Oregon that is spreading miles a day in windy conditions, one of numerous conflagrations across the US West that are straining resources.

Authorities ordered a new round of evacuations yesterday amid worries the Bootleg Fire, which has already destroyed 21 homes, could merge with another blaze that also grew explosively amid dry and blustery conditions.

The Bootleg Fire, the largest wildfire currently burning in the US, has now torched an area larger than New York City and has stymied firefighters for nearly a week with erratic winds and extremely dangerous fire behaviour.

Forecast

9. Met Éireann says it will be a warm and sunny day with temperatures ranging between 21 and 25 degrees. Get that sunscreen on.