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

IRELAND

Anti-restrictions protesters in Dublin today Source: Sam Boal/RollingNews

• Raised spirits could be found across the country as restrictions were lifted.
• However several hundred still took to the streets of the capital demanding that the legislation underpinning the restrictions be repealed. 
• Health officials confirmed 10,600 news cases of Covid-19.
• Russian bombers and naval ships are set to test missiles off the coast of Ireland.
• An Irishman who refused to wear a face mask during a flight from Dublin to New York and exposed his rear end to a flight attendant faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of assault.
• A universities body said it would prefer a return to normalised grading for the Leaving Cert. 
• A convicted sex offender in Belfast has been refused bail after police discovered he had been communicating with a child.
• General practice nurses have criticised their omission from plans to give frontline healthcare workers a €1,000 bonus.
• Tributes have been paid to the award-winning journalist Colm Keane who has died aged 70.

INTERNATIONAL

A man being helped out of a window following an air strike in Yemen Source: AP/PA Images

#UK: The MP who heads the Commons “sleaze” watchdog warned Government attempts to pressurise Tory MPs seeking to oust Boris Johnson are illegal.

#UKRAINE: US and Russian diplomats agreed to keep talking amid the stand-off over Ukraine.

#YEMEN: The death toll has risen following an air strike on a prison the country.

#US: Police in Georgia said the fatal shooting of an English astrophysicist in his bed appeared to be the result of “reckless discharge”.

PARTING SHOT

Just another news story, or the origin of a Hollywood sci-fi franchise? It’s a fair question to ask when you see this story about some monkeys who escaped from a van destined for a lab in the US. The New York Times have the details…