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

IRELAND

The Autumnal setting sun, seconds before it drops below the horizon on the Curragh Plains in County Kildare. Eamonn Farrell Eamonn Farrell

• Health officials confirmed a further 390 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland – including 209 new cases in Dublin. 
• Around 70 cases in recent weeks have been linked to pubs and restaurants in Cork, Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said this evening.
• Minister Darragh O’Brien said this afternoon that his department has “no plans for a general cull of seals” and also distanced himself from a scheme that could provide licences for fishermen to shoot “problem seals”.
• Former Junior Finance Minister Michael D’Arcy is to resign his seat in the Seanad to become chief executive of the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM), a representative body for the funds and investment industry.
• Bus Éireann said it plans to close a number of its intercity routes in the coming months for financial reasons. 
• Up to 400 taxi drivers took part in a protest in Cork against what they described as poor working conditions and a lack of clarity from Government over a financial package which would get drivers back to work. 
• Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he is “not optimistic” that Britain will strike a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union.

THE WORLD 

Chinese contemporary artist and activist Ai Weiwei during a silent protest outside the Old Bailey in London in support of Julian Assange. PA PA

#DONALD TRUMP: The US President paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for president and in his first year in the White House, according to a report in The New York Times.

#CALIFORNIA: The state’s wine country is on fire again as strong winds fanned flames in the already badly scorched region, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes in the dark of night.

#BORIS JOHNSON: The UK Prime Minister came under mounting pressure to give parliament greater power to debate and vote on Covid-19 restrictions, with more than 50 Tory MPs signalling they could revolt on the matter.

PARTING SHOT

It’s 29 years today since the world lost jazz great Miles Davis. Here’s 1960s ‘Sketches of Spain’.