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

IRELAND

A mural in Harold's Cross, Dublin depicting a nurse signing a heart symbol. Sam Boal Sam Boal

• Ireland is exporting 11 times more peat than it imports, despite concerns that there isn’t enough supply for the needs of the domestic horticulture sector, a Noteworthy investigation has revealed.
• Public health officials confirmed 5,959 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland with 640 Covid-19 patients in hospital of whom 121 were receiving intensive care as of 8am today.
• Ireland is on a “very concerning and worrying trajectory”, Dr Cillian de Gascun said today, with the Delta variant of the virus “not quite as susceptible to the vaccine” as previously thought. 
• After a 10-week closure to facilitate a runway upgrade — hailed as “the fastest large-scale State construction project” ever — Cork Airport reopened today.
• Cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 subtype of bird flu have been detected in a turkey flock in Co Monaghan.
• In an emotional Late Late Show appearance last night, cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan said she didn’t believe she’d “see Christmas” only a month ago, following her decision to stop chemotherapy. 
• A male pedestrian aged in his late teens died after being struck by a van in Co Laois this morning.

INTERNATIONAL

A protest in Vienna today against Austria's impending lockdown and vaccine mandate. PA PA

#RIOTS: Seven people were injured in Rotterdam last night after Dutch police opened fire on an anti-lockdown protest that turned violent.

#OH VIENNA: Protestors also gathered in the Austrian capital today to protest the country’s latest lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19, which comes into force from Monday.

#BEIJING: A body representing athletes within the International Olympic Committee has urged “quiet diplomacy” around Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who has been missing since making allegations of sexual assault against a former Chinese vice-premier.

#WISCONSIN: Black Americans are expressing anger after Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on charges of murder after shooting dead two people during protests last year following the shooting dead by police officers of Jacob Blake.

PARTING SHOT

The richness and variety of the Irish language is a powerful tool for understanding nature and how we relate to it, argues Manchán Magan.

The author and broadcaster “spent the second half of lockdown gathering the most insightful, cheeky and evocative” words and compiling them into his new book, Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and other Irish Words for Nature.

“Neuroscience tells us that a language can’t change our reality, but it can help us perceive things differently,” he writes. “This is clear from the distinction that Irish makes between colours, such as dearg and rua. Dearg is the word for a dark or vibrant red, as in red ink, blood, gore, fire, embers, hot iron or the lower layers of soil, while rua is a more brownish-red, like a fox pelt.

“It’s not a major difference, but your brain needs to adjust its optical sensitivity a little to take account of this.”

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