NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Gerry Hutch driving a limo in his Carry Any Body company. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

• Unions expressed concerns about pregnant teachers and SNAs returning to school later this month prior to them being fully vaccinated against Covid-19
• Almost 65,000 children aged between 12 and 15 are now registered for a Covid-19 vaccine after the HSE online portal opened late on Wednesday
• A sports firm has been ordered to pay €10,000 to a worker they dismissed after she could not return to work following a Covid-enforced closure of her kids’ creche
• Katherine Zappone‘s appointment as a UN envoy is to be discussed by the Public Accounts Committee in September
• 1,978 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Ireland today.

WORLD

Children on horses on the bank of the River Eden for the Appleby Horse Fair. PA PA

#AFGHANISTAN: The Taliban seized more major cities today as they raced towards full control of Afghanistan and inched closer to Kabul, with the United States and Britain deploying thousands of troops to evacuate their citizens from the capital.

#PLYMOUTH: A gunman killed five people, including a three-year-old girl, before turning the weapon on himself in a mass shooting that lasted less than 10 minutes.

#ON FIRE: A new fire broke out on the Greek island of Evia, south of the area where a massive wildfire devastated forests, torched homes and still smouldered 10 days after it started.

PARTING SHOT

Gerry Hutch once said that prison was his ‘college for criminals’. Last night, his arrest market the latest chapter in a colourful life, to say the least. Here’s a profile of ‘The Monk’, told by our reporter Niall O’Connor.