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

1. #TRACKER MORTGAGE SCANDAL: The Central Bank has fined AIB and EBS almost €100 million for the two banks’ roles in the tracker mortgage scandal. The fines follow an enforcement investigation by the regulator that has been ongoing for five years.

2. #POPULATION: Ireland’s population on Census night was 5,123,536, preliminary data from this year’s Census shows. This marks the first time that the country’s population has topped five million since 1851, the Central Statistics Office confirmed today.

3. #LEAVING CERT: Leaving Certificate results will be issued to students on Friday 2 September, the State Examinations Commission has confirmed. The delay in issuing the results has been criticised by opposition TDs.

4. #PRIDE: Equality Minister Roderic O’Gorman has acknowledged the “increasingly vitriolic” attacks on the LGBTQI+ community in Ireland, particularly transgender people, who have to hear “their very existence debated” in public discourse. In a statement in the Dáil ahead of Dublin Pride this weekend, O’Gorman said Ireland has become “a proud, progressive and modern nation”, but LGBTQI+ people “continue to face significant barriers to full participation in public life”.

5. #UKRAINE: The Russian military has expanded its control of territory in eastern Ukraine in an offensive that could cut supply lines and encircle frontline Ukrainian forces, British and Ukrainian military chiefs have said.