GOOD MORNING. 

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Johnson confidence vote

1. UK prime minister Boris Johnson will face a vote of no confidence later today by Tory MPs amid anger across the party at the disclosures over lockdown parties in Downing Street.

Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, confirmed in a statement that he has now received the 54 letters from Conservative MPs needed to trigger a vote.

The vote – by secret ballot – will take place at Westminster today between 6pm and 8pm, with the count to take place immediately afterwards.

Ireland/EU relationship

2. In our lead story this morning the Good Information Project examines the relationship between Ireland and the European Union 50 years after Ireland voted to join the bloc.

In the post-Brexit union, it seems that Ireland is stepping up to the challenge in contributions and deepening its relationship with Europe, despite fears that the UK’s withdrawal would lead to a distancing of the State from the union.

Cost of living FactFind

3. Leo Varadkar has claimed that the Irish Government are doing more than their British counterparts to help citizens with spiralling rates of inflation in recent months.

Ireland has brought in a raft of such measures in the past few months, but after the UK announced similar measures last month, Leo Varadkar was asked whether “there any plans here to mirror what’s happening in the UK” in terms of dealing with inflation.

The Tánaiste answered: “we’ve actually done a lot more.” Our latest FactFind examines if this is true.

Air Corps jets

4. A leading US jet fighter manufacturer has said the Irish Air Corps could buy or lease second-hand aircraft from other European air forces which are now adopting the more modern stealth variants. 

In a presentation to a defence summit organised by non-profit policy group Slándáil in Dublin this week, JR Wildridge of Lockheed Martin suggested that Ireland could alternatively get new fighters from his company – including the F16 or the cheaper South Korean manufactured FA-50  jet.

Road deaths

5. A man in his early 20s has died in a single-vehicle collision in Co Limerick.

The incident took place on the R512 at Carrigmartin, Ballyneety, at approximately 12.30am today. The man was the only occupant of the vehicle.

He was pronounced dead at the scene and the body has been removed to University Hospital Limerick for a post-mortem. 

Long covid

6. Nearly three quarters of people with long Covid were consuming concerning levels of alcohol one year after they caught the virus, according to new research.

Two new studies have found that complications arising from long Covid are primarily brain related – not heart and lung conditions, as previously thought.

The studies, which took place in the Mater Hospital’s Long Covid Clinic in partnership with North Dublin GPs, have determined that psychological and psychiatric problems, such as anxiety and depression, are much more prevalent in Long Covid patients than in the general public.

Ukrainain students

7. Nearly 7,000 Ukrainian children and teenagers have enrolled in Irish schools since the start of the war in their home country.

New figures from the Department of Education show that 6,797 Ukrainian pupils have joined schools here in recent months – 4,766 in primary education and 2,031 in secondary schools.

The figures represent an increase of 954 since mid-May.

Ukraine

8. Russia has taken aim at Western military supplies for Ukraine launching strikes on Kyiv as Vladimir Putin warned that any Western deliveries of longer-range rocket systems would prompt Moscow to hit “objects that we haven’t yet struck”.

The Russian leader’s threat of military escalation did not specify what the new targets might be.

It came days after the United States announced plans to deliver $700 million of security assistance for Ukraine that includes four precision-guided, medium-range rocket systems, as well as helicopters, Javelin anti-tank systems, radars, tactical vehicles and more.

Church massacre

9. Gunmen with explosives stormed a Catholic church and opened fire in southwest Nigeria’s Ondo state yesterday, killing “many” worshippers and wounding others, the government and police said.

The violence at St Francis Catholic Church in Owo town erupted during the morning service in a rare attack in the southwest of Nigeria, where jihadists and criminal gangs operate in other parts of the country.