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

IRELAND

The Irish flag flying at half-mast outside Government Buildings in Dublin, following the death of UK Queen Elizabeth II. Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• Three food businesses were served with closure orders in the past month by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
• The finance minister was not drawn on energy price caps despite UK moves to freeze prices.
• Tracker mortgages set to increase after the ECB hiked interest rates by a record 0.75 percentage points.
• Conor McGregor was charged with an additional offence in conjunction with six existing driving charges.
• Blathnaid Ní Chofaigh has withdrawn her sexual harassment claims against RTÉ.
  

INTERNATIONAL

People gathered outside Buckingham Palace in London following the death of Britain's queen, Elizabeth Windsor. Yui Mok / PA Yui Mok / PA / PA

#UK: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has died aged 96. Buckingham Palace said the UK’s longest-serving monarch died peacefully in Scotland this afternoon. 

#WEATHER: The summer of 2022 was the hottest in Europe’s recorded history, with the continent suffering blistering heatwaves and the worst drought in centuries, the European Commission’s satellite monitor said today.

#USA: A man killed at least four people and wounded three others in an hours-long shooting rampage across Memphis, Tennessee yesterday, before a high-speed chase that ended with his arrest, police in the US city said.

PARTING SHOT

Sabina Coyne, President Michael D. Higgins, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Following the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II today, The Journal’s Rónán Duffy reflected on Ireland’s relationship with the UK monarch and the impact of her 2011 visit, which was the first ever by a reigning British monarch to the Republic of Ireland.

“While the visit was a success in how it continued the normalisation of the relationship between the two near neighbours, it did not heal wounds in a lasting way that some had predicted,” Rónán writes.

“Anyone who says following her death that the 2011 visit was a moment of lasting reconciliation is not acknowledging the reality of British-Irish relations over the past six years.”