Workers and residents in Sydney were ordered to stay home for a week, as authorities locked down several central areas of Australia's largest city to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19.

US President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration in the state of Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts after a building collapse near Miami left at least one dead and nearly 100 missing.

The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has dropped to 36 from 47 in the past 24 hours, the Health Service Executive has said.

The Chief Executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland has said that he has called for an urgent meeting with the Government to discuss speculation around a pause on reopening of indoor hospitality.

Children have suffered and lost out over the past 18 months as a result of lengthy school closures and lack of access to important therapies and supports.

One of the first Syrian refugees to have been resettled to Ireland has opened a pharmacy in rural Carlow.

Africa is facing a vicious coronavirus resurgence, with unprecedented hospital admissions and fatalities pushing health facilities to the brink as the continent falls far behind in the global vaccination drive.

A simple blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer before any clinical signs or symptoms of the disease is accurate enough to be rolled out as a multi-cancer screening test, according to scientists.

A selection of work from Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) graduates will be projected on the walls of the LexIcon Library in Dún Laoghaire this weekend.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin will be sentenced for the murder of George Floyd.

European Union leaders have rejected a push from Germany and France to restart meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

At least three people died and dozens were injured after a rare tornado razed houses to the ground in the Czech Republic's southeast last night, rescuers have said.

The Taoiseach said full vaccination was now the most important protective weapon Ireland had against the Delta variant of Covid-19, as it spreads rapidly across Europe.

HSE CEO Paul Reid has said that many key measures and trends of Covid-19 within the community remain very positive, but the threat of the Delta variant is something that must be monitored closely.

The Garda Commissioner has publicly apologised to domestic violence victims who made emergency calls for help but did not receive the standard of service from gardaí that they required and to which they were entitled.

There were complaints about David Barry, a former scout leader who was sentenced on Thursday for a series of sexual assaults, going back decades.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said that Hungary should not be part of the European Union because of its new law banning LGBT content in schools.

Three Denmark fans were infected with the Delta coronavirus variant by attending the Euro 2020 match against Belgium, according to the Danish Agency for Patient Safety.

Bones belonging to a "new type of early human" previously unknown to science have been found in Israel, researchers have said, claiming to have shed new light on human evolution.

Fifteen candidates have registered to contest the Dublin Bay South by-election, which will be held on Thursday 8 July.