GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. We asked our readers to get in touch with their stories of trying to access childcare. They gave their experiences, and we compiled them into this article. Here are just two testimonies:
I have tried all the crèches in our area and have either been told that they don’t take babies under one year old or that they don’t have any availability until at least next August. I am on cancellation lists but the crèches have told me that a cancellation is rare.
“Currently, there are no affordable care options and almost no crèches with availability in 2022. We recently buckled under fear and worry and paid a deposit for a crèche in late August 2022 that is further away from us than ideal and we haven’t even seen it. This still leaves a gap of four to five months where I should be returning to work but we have no care to do so.”
2. The US has conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State target in Afghanistan, as the airlift of those desperate to flee moved into its fraught final stages with fresh terror attack warnings and encroaching Taliban forces primed to take over Kabul airport.
Thursday’s Kabul airport attack was claimed by a regional chapter of the Islamic State group, and the Pentagon announced it had carried out a drone attack on a “planner” from the jihadist group in eastern Afghanistan.
3. Para athletes Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal took second in the B 3000m Individual Pursuit with a time of 3:21.505, winning a silver medal at the Izu Veladrome overnight.
It is a result that further emphasises their remarkable record representing Ireland having medalled consistently at World and Paralympic Games since 2014. Read more about it from the Olympic Breakfast briefing by our colleagues at The42.
4. Support for the DUP has slipped to 13%, according to an opinion poll published today, putting the party behind its unionist party rivals and in joint-fourth place alongside the Alliance Party and the SDLP.
A poll conducted by Lucid Talk on behalf of the Belfast Telegraph shows support for the DUP has fallen by three percentage points since the last opinion poll in May, while support for the UUP has grown to 16%, and TUV has grown to 14%.
5. The Irish Independent is reporting that NPHET is to disband in October, and employees will return to offices in phases from 13 September.
It had been hoped that some of this detail would be officially announced last night after a meeting of Cabinet, but the announcement is set to be made next week instead. Here’s the rough outline of what was discussed yesterda, and what will be announced.
In related news, Denmark is to lift all of its Covid-19 restrictions by 10 September, saying the virus no longer posed “a threat to society” due to the country’s broad vaccination coverage (more than 70% of Danes are fully vaccinated).
6. Walk-in Covid vaccination clinics are in operation again over the course of this weekend. The centres are open to anyone who needs either their first or second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
The centres have also been opened up to children aged 12-15 for the first time this weekend, as Ireland nears 90% vaccination by the autumn.
7. 270 Irish people have applied to be an astronaut with the European Space Agency, which put out a call earlier this year for new candidates for the first time since 2008. So will we see an Irish person in space in the next few years?
8. The Guardian reports that the 77-year-old man who killed Robert F Kennedy was granted parole after two of the former attorney general, senator and presidential hopeful’s sons spoke in favor of release and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars.
9. A group of scientists say they have discovered by luck what they believe is the world’s northernmost island off Greenland’s coast, the BBC reports.
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