GOOD MORNING.

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

Back to the office

1. Covid-19 restrictions on non-essential work are easing from today, allowing a “phased and staggered” return for specific business needs, and lifting fully on 22 October.

As people return to the office, employers must navigate official guidelines on reopening workplaces and preventing the spread of Covid-19. But if they demand that a worker who has a medical concern returns to the office, it could come with a legal risk, according to an employment law expert.

Speaking to Lauren Boland in this morning’s lead story, employment lawyer Karen Killalea of Maples and Calder said that employers will need to engage with employees in a “reasonable fashion”.

Restrictions eased on group activities

2. Some of the other major changes that take place today include the easing of restrictions for indoor and outdoor group activities. These are different to organised indoor and outdoor events which are also returning on a phased basis but are being treated separately.

Group activities include gatherings such as sports training or dance classes. For outdoor group activities, all restrictions are now lifted.

Clean sweep

3. Streaming Giant Netflix dominated the Emmys last night, finally winning television’s biggest prizes with The Crown and The Queen’s Gambit at a scaled-down ceremony.

Netflix had never won any top series prize before yesterday at the small-screen equivalent of the Oscars. Now, it has two of them.

In the comedy categories, Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso was this year’s big winner. See all the big winners here.

Protest outside Varadkar’s home

4. There has been criticism from politicians of various parties of an anti-vaccine protest that was held at the home of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar yesterday afternoon.

One video of the incident shows about 25 people present at the demonstration with several holding placards displaying false anti-vaccine messages.

Another video featured homophobic insults being used about Varadkar by an individual recording the scene.

Afghanistan

5. A further eleven Irish citizens and their direct family members were moved out of Afghanistan over the weekend, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has confirmed.

The citizens and their families availed of a flight “arranged through diplomatic channels” and are currently in Doha, Qatar.

Taoiseach takes New York

6. Taoiseach Micheál Martin will meet New York Governor Kathy Hochul later today as he kicks off his five-day visit to the US. Governor Hochul, an Irish-American and the first woman Governor of New York, will host a bi-lateral meeting with the Taoiseach at her office on Third Avenue, followed by an afternoon press conference.

Monaghan crash

7. A woman in her 50s has died in a single-vehicle collision on the Roslea Road near Clones in Co Monaghan. Two men aged in their 20s and a woman aged in her 30s were taken to Cavan General Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Contaminated water 

8. Irish Water’s chief executive has apologised to customers who became ill after recent contaminated water incidents.

The incidents at plants in Ballymore Eustace, which supplies drinking water to parts of Dublin city, and in Creagh, which serves Gorey in Co Wexford, led to at least 52 confirmed illnesses.

Gabrielle Petito

9. A body discovered in a national park in Wyoming is believed to be that of 22-year-old Gabrielle Petito – while her partner is now subject of an intense search in Florida.

The FBI said the body was found on Sunday by law enforcement agents who spent the weekend searching camp sites on the eastern border of Grand Teton National Park. Boyfriend Brian Laundrie, 23, has been identified as a person of interest in the case. He was last seen on Tuesday by family members in Florida.

The pair, childhood sweethearts who met while growing up on Long Island, New York, left in July on a cross-country trek in a converted van to visit national parks in the west of the US. petito vanished after her last known contact with family in late August from Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, authorities said.