LAST UPDATE | 8 Apr 2021

EVERY MORNING, The Journal brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #BELFAST: The Stormont Executive is to meet this morning to be briefed on unrest in the North over the past week, following violent scenes that were widely criticised on the streets of Belfast last night.

2. #NORTH CAROLINA: The killers of Limerick man Jason Corbett, Molly and Tom Martens, were granted bail by a US court last night ahead of a re-trial of their case.

3. #NPHET: The National Public Health Emergency Team will meet today to discuss possible additional freedoms that could be given to people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

4. #HOSPITALISATIONS: The number of Covid-19 patients in hospital has remained static, with 220 people being treated at 8pm last night, the same figure as 24 hours previously.

5. #CERVICALCHECK: New figures show that March saw the highest number of cervical smear samples taken in one month since October 2018.

6. #SPENDING HABITS: More than €25 million in contactless payments was spent every day during February, highlighting an ongoing shift from cash to digital spending by Irish consumers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

7. #ATOMIC BOMBSHELL: Preliminary results from two experiments suggest scientists may have discovered a fifth force of nature that could change the way physicists understand how the universe works.

8. #KILDARE: A man in his 30s has been arrested by gardaí after another man in his 30s was stabbed in Newbridge last night.

9. #WEATHER: It will be mainly dry for much of the day in most areas, with some passing showers, before a band of rain moves across the country this evening. Highest temperatures will be between 7 and 10 degrees Celsius.