GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Mask Chance Saloon

1. University College Cork has told students that campus security may forcibly remove them from lectures if they refuse to wear a face-covering or leave a classroom, as part of plans to ensure the safe return of classes this year.

Students were told via email that lecturers will ask them to wear a mask or leave the lecture hall if they turn up to a classroom without a face covering, Stephen McDermott writes in this morning’s lead story.

Inner City Helping Homeless

2. An Internal report for the Inner City Helping Homeless charity has detailed four serious allegations made against former CEO Anthony Flynn. Flynn, who was also a Dublin City councillor, died last month.

Make Way Day

3. Cars and vans parked on footpaths continue to be one of the most serious barriers to the full inclusion of disabled people, a survey has found.

The Disability Federation of Ireland has published details of a survey of its activists it conducted which found 96% would like to see more awareness of accessibility issues caused by vehicles parked on pathways. Wheelie bins and sandwich boards on footpaths also topped the list of barriers, as well as bicycles tied to lamp posts and beer barrels on pathways.

Struck by lightning

4. A rise in the cost of electricity bills may have stayed below households’ radars during the warmer months, but could bring a “big shock” in winter, consumers are being warned.

Rising energy costs around Europe, coupled with pressure on supply, have pushed up electricity prices. But less use of energy during the summer could mean that some households are not yet aware of the increase, which could hit hard in the colder months.

Lyra McKee

5. Two men have been charged with riot offences by detectives investigating the murder of Belfast journalist Lyra McKee, police said.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the pair, aged 24 and 29, have been charged with riot and throwing petrol bombs and are expected to appear before Derry Magistrates Court via video link this morning.

Carles Puigdemont

6. Exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was arrested in Italy yesterday, four years after fleeing following an independence referendum that Madrid ruled illegal.

The European MEP was expected to appear in court today at a hearing that could see him extradited to Spain to face sedition charges.

US Capitol riot

7. Four members of Donald Trump’s inner circle have received subpoenas to appear before a congressional committee to shed light on what exactly the former president said and did on the day rioters stormed the US Capitol earlier this year.

Congressional investigators are closing in on the Republican billionaire, whom Democrats accuse of being responsible for the deadly attack on the seat of US democracy in Washington on 6 January.

Booster shots 

8. HSE CEO Paul Reid has confirmed the Covid-19 vaccine booster programme will begin next week for vulnerable and immunocompromised people.  

Fossil prints 

9. Fossilised footprints discovered in New Mexico indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago.

The first footprints were found in a dry lake bed in White Sands National Park in 2009.

Scientists at the US Geological Survey recently analysed seeds stuck in the footprints to determine their approximate age, ranging from around 22,800 and 21,130 years ago.