LAST UPDATE | 15 Jul 2022

GOOD MORNING AND happy Friday.

These are the stories you need to know as you start your day.

Mask wearing

1. More than three quarters of people in Ireland would like to see face masks made mandatory in public settings, according to a new survey.

An opinion poll carried out on behalf of The Journal by Red C Research found that 79% of people feel that face masks should be mandatory in any public settings, reporter Jane Moore details in our lead story this morning.

District court cases

2. Garda chiefs have issued strict new rules on how gardaí cancel or strike out minor court cases at District Court level.

Sources have told The Journal that the new rules have ordered that individual gardaí will now have to complete a report to the Director of Public Prosecutions or a senior officer before they can cease a prosecution.

New brewery

3. Brewing giant Diageo are set to invest €200 million into a new brewery site in Kildare, with up to 1,000 jobs set to be created during its construction.

The plan, announced this morning, would see the new brewery built on a greenfield site in Littleconnell in Newbridge, Co Kildare and would focus on the production of ale and lager.

Retail turf ban

4. The Cabinet has agreed to regulations that will ban the retail sale of turf alongside wet wood and smoky coal.

Cabinet met incorporeally to sign on on the new measures, with the Environment Minister Eamon Ryan stating yesterday that the new measures will save lives.

Childhood vaccinations

5. The largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years has been recorded in official data published today by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF.

The percentage of children who received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) – a marker for immunisation coverage within and across countries – fell 5% between 2019 and 2021 to 81%.

Secret Service and 6 January

6. The US Secret Service, the law enforcement agency that protects the president, deleted agents’ text messages sent during the January 6 Capitol riot, a government watchdog said in a letter published yesterday.

Joseph Cuffari, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, told Congress in the letter dated Wednesday that his office has had difficulties obtaining records from the Secret Service from January 5 and 6, 2021.

Sri Lankan crisis

7. Sri Lanka’s parliament speaker says President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned after fleeing the country.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana said on Friday that the parliament will convene on Saturday to start the process of electing a new president. He expects to complete the process within seven days.

Saudi Arabia

8. Saudi Arabia has announced it was lifting restrictions on “all carriers” using its airspace, an apparent gesture of openness towards Israel ahead of US President Joe Biden’s arrival.

The US leader welcomed the “historic” decision, the latest conciliatory move by Riyadh concerning the Jewish state, which it has refused to recognise despite intensive efforts by the Israelis to establish ties with Arab countries.

New Van Gogh painting

9. The never-before-seen Vincent Van Gogh portrait discovered by curators at the National Galleries of Scotland could be worth €118 million, an art historian has said.

Speaking to BBC Scotland’s The Nine yesterday evening, Dr Bendor Grosvenor said the last Van Gogh self-portrait to be sold on the market fetched 71 million US dollars (€70m) in 1998.