1. Trolley numbers
Overcrowding in hospital emergency departments eased considerably in Dublin last month but got worse outside the capital, according to the latest survey by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
Trolley numbers fell 6 per cent in August compared to the same month a year earlier, but this masked divergent trends across the country. Overcrowding was 41 per cent down in Dublin hospitals but 14 per cent up in hospitals outside it.
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2. Obama cancels Duterte meeting after ‘son of a whore’ remark
President Barack Obama called off a planned meeting on Tuesday with new Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, seeking distance from a US ally's leader during a diplomatic tour that has put Mr Obama in close quarters with a cast of contentious world figures.
Mr Duterte managed to do both just before flying to Laos for a regional summit, warning Mr Obama not to challenge him over extra-judicial killings in the Philippines.
“Clearly, he’s a colourful guy,” Mr Obama said.
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3. Half of Co Mayo water supply tainted by parasite
An alert for the microscopic parasite cryptosporidium was issued for south Co Mayo last Friday.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was due to begin an audit of the Lough Mask water treatment plant today, but agencies said they still did not know how the contamination affecting half of Mayo’s water supply occurred.
Irish Water said the cryptosporidium was detected in one sample of water only, and that the results came back from the laboratory on Friday evening and were acted upon straight away.
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4. Irish universities continue to fall in global rankings
A decade of higher educational cutbacks means nearly all of Ireland's universities are continuing to fall in international rankings and the decline will have damaging long-term effects, the heads of Trinity College Dublin and UCD have warned.
Trinity is the only Irish university ranked in the top 100 international universities but it and all other universities here, except NUI Galway, are rated lower than last year in the just published QS World University Rankings 2016/17.
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5. Beaumont turns away patients in urgent need of brain surgery
Patients urgently requiring brain surgery are being turned away from the State's national neurosurgical centre because of a lack of beds and theatre access, according to the head of the unit.
The centre in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin had no beds for nine patients with malignant brain tumours last Friday who were awaiting transfer from other hospitals, according to Dr Mohsen Javadpour, clinical director of the centre.
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And finally. . . Fintan O'Toole says the Apple tax appeal will be an interesting way to commemorate the first World War: "We will send our brave and patriotic lawyers to the fields of Belgium and northern France (Brussels and Strasbourg standing in for Ypres and the Somme) to fight to the last drop of our taxpayers' money against the Apple-scrumping Hun."