The Minister for Health has said it was a Government decision to allow the return of public transport to full capacity and was not based on a NPHET recommendation.

The HSE has been criticised in an unpublished internal audit report about how it procured millions of euro worth of ventilators at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The World Health Organization has said it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as "Mu", which was first identified in Colombia in January.

What changes have been announced by the Government? Here is a quick look at some of the key measures.

US President Joe Biden has said the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was the best available option to end both the United States' longest war and decades of fruitless efforts to remake other countries through military force.

Coffee trucks and trailers have become a feature of pandemic life, as more and more businesses adapted to the changed times.

Ireland takes over the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of September.

Researchers have recorded "hundreds" of basking sharks engaged in courtship behaviour off the Co Clare coast in recent days.

A "whirlwind" relative, a "quick-as-lightning" goalkeeper, and a daughter who "leaves a trail of destruction" are among friends, family members and pets to feature in a new list of storm names.

Japan reported a fresh contamination case involving Moderna's Covid vaccine, the fourth such incident in less than a week, threatening to slow the country's sputtering inoculation campaign.

After the announcement of what is hoped will be the plan to end all plans, there is a sense that politics might soon be done with the pandemic. But it's unlikely that the pandemic will be done with politics, writes Mary Regan.

Financial services company State Street is to create 400 new jobs in Kilkenny as it sets up a new specialist team to provide technology infrastructure and cyber security services to support its group operations globally.

The Tánaiste is in Northern Ireland for two days of private talks with political leaders and members of the business community.

Three murders of women in Florida around 20 years ago were committed by a Brazilian serial killer who later died in a plane crash, police said.

People in Scotland will be able to self-identify their sex in next year's census, official guidance has said.

South Louisiana is braced for a month without electricity and reliable water supplies in the wake of Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms to hit the US Gulf Coast, as people face stifling heat and humidity.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the sectors still closed due to Covid-19 can "now begin to hope again" as he outlined the latest roadmap to reopen society.

The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution requiring the Taliban to honour its commitment to let people freely leave Afghanistan.

Coverage of all today's developments on the coronavirus pandemic as the Taoiseach delivered an address after Cabinet approved the ending of almost all Covid-19 restrictions by 22 October.

All religious services can be held at 50% capacity regardless of vaccination status from next week.