LAST UPDATE | 5 Jul 2021
GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your week.
1. Talks are set to get underway later today between government representatives and the hospitality industry over indoor dining.
Indoor dining and drinking had been set to recommence in pubs and restaurants today. However, Taoiseach Micheál Martin last week confirmed this would be delayed due to concerned over the Delta variant.
Indoor hospitality is now being delayed until at least 19 July when the government will propose a plan for how the reopening will take place.
2. Planning laws often take the rap for surging house prices. As the construction industry tells it, red tape ensnaring development and enabling NIMBY (“not in my back yard”) objections are part of the reason supply of housing is so low.
The Irish Home Builders Association says “we are trying to meet the demands of the 21st Century with a 20th century planning system. The result is unnecessary delays to homebuilding up and down the country”.
But the whole point of the planning system is to stop builders doing whatever they like, and try to strike a balance between competing interests. So how does that system work, and is there really a pressing need for reform?
CJ McKinney takes a look for the Good Information Project.
3. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to tell people in England that it will be left to their “judgment” to manage coronavirus risks as he prepares to restore freedoms on 19 July.
Johnson will lead a Downing Street press conference today where he will tell the public that the country must “begin to learn to live with this virus” in the clearest indication yet that he is preparing to do away with a swathe of restrictions on daily life.
Johnson will update the nation on the future of the one metre-plus rule in hospitality venues, the use of face coverings and work from home guidance, with multiple reports suggesting they will all be scrapped.
4. The damaged remaining portion of a collapsed South Florida apartment building has been demolished with explosives as rescuers try to reach new areas of the rubble in the search for victims.
After demolition crews set off the explosives a number of explosions could be heard and then the building started to fall, sending up massive plumes of dust into the air in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Crews were to begin clearing some of the new debris so rescuers could start making their way into parts of the underground garage that is of particular interest. Once there, they were hoping to get a clearer picture of voids that may exist in the rubble and could possibly hold survivors.
5. The Suez Canal Authority said it has reached an agreement to settle a financial dispute with the owners of a giant container ship that blocked the crucial waterway for nearly a week earlier this year.
The authority did not reveal details of the settlement deal with Shoei Kisen Kaisha, the Japanese owner of the Ever Given.
It said the deal will be signed in a ceremony in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia on Wednesday.
6. Efforts are ongoing this morning after a large fire broke out at a coffin makers in Strabane, Co Tyrone yesterday.
Emergency services attended the scene of the fire at O’Doherty & Sons on Railway Street in the border town. The business has a history of over 100 years at the location.
The PSNI has urged people to avoid the area.
7. Hit ITV drama Normal People was the big winner at last night’s virtual Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) Film and Drama Awards, taking home wins in nine categories.
The series won the IFTA for Best Drama, actor Paul Mescal won Best Actor – Drama, and Lenny Abrahamson won Best Director – Drama.
Abrahamson joined from the set of Normal People follow-up Conversations with Friends to receive his award from Irish comedian and actress Deirdre O’Kane, while last year’s winner of the Best Actor Film category Tom Vaughan-Lawlor presented producers Catherine Magee and Emma Norton with the award for Best Drama.
8. Philippine troops have found the final five bodies after a transport aircraft crashed in the south, raising the death toll to 50 in the country’s worst military air disaster.
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft was carrying 96 mostly combat troops when it overshot the runway while landing yesterday at the Jolo airport in Sulu province, military officials said.
The plane slammed into a coconut grove beyond the airport and burst into flames in a disaster witnessed by horrified soldiers and villagers.
9. Today will be mostly cloudy over the northern half of Ulster with outbreaks of showery rain.
It will be a brighter day elsewhere, according to Met Éireann, with sunny spells and scattered showers, heaviest and most frequent this afternoon and evening.
Highest temperatures of 13 degrees in north Ulster to 19 degrees in Leinster with mostly light southwest breezes.
Tomorrow will start with showery rain over the western half of the country which will extend to all areas. The afternoon and evening will be mostly cloudy with rain or showers in most areas.
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