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

IRELAND

Comedian and radio presenter PJ Gallagher celebrates on Hill 16 at Croke Park after embarked on an epic 17km ‘Hill to Hill’ challenge today to launch the #UpTheHill2021 campaign for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation Leon Farrell Leon Farrell

• Gardaí tasked with heading up a probe into claims that members of the force have been aiding a Dublin drugs gang are now trawling through a significant amount of digital data in the wake of their operation this week. 
• A government report into homes affected by defective mica blocs has found that a remediation scheme for impacted property owners could cost up to €3.2 billion.
• A man accused of murdering 72-year-old Mary O’Keeffe, whose body was found in a burning car in Doneraile, Co Cork, has been sent forward for trial at the Central Criminal Court.
• Electric Ireland is raising the price of residential electricity and gas for the second time in four months.
• Health officials have confirmed 1,059 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
• 70% of Covid-19 patients admitted to intensive care units since April had not received a vaccine against the virus.
• Ireland will not see the same problems with shortages of lorry drivers being witnessed in the UK, the Taoiseach has said.
• Police in Northern Ireland investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Derry have arrested two men.
• Retail and supermarket staff were hardest hit by Covid-19 in the last two waves of the pandemic in Ireland, new figures show. 

INTERNATIONAL

Greece's Migration Minister Notis Mitarachis, third left and Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, forth left, visit the new closed monitored facility for migrants and refugees in Zervou village, on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, Greece Thanassis Stavrakis Thanassis Stavrakis

#MET: Police officers allegedly shared offensive messages with Wayne Couzens in the months before he killed Sarah Everard, according to reports.

#AUSTRALIA: Australia is to reopen its borders next month, 18 months after citizens were banned from travelling overseas without permission.

#GREECE: Greece’s Prime Minister has flown to the eastern Aegean island of Samos to view a new camp for asylum seekers that has replaced the island’s squalid facility. 

PARTING SHOT

The week saw the sentencing of Wayne Couzens in one of the most high-profile and shocking murder cases in recent UK history.

He was jailed for life for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard, after arresting her under false pretences while she was walking home from a friend’s house.

Elsewhere in the UK, the body of 28-year-old teacher Sabina Nessa was found the day after she was killed while on her way to meet a friend last month.

On this week’s episode of The Journal’s The Explainer podcast, producer Aoife Barry talks us through the Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa discussions and media coverage.

The Explainer / SoundCloud