The Examiner’s Elaine McLoughlin is calling for illness benefit for low-paid workers this morning.

Mandatory hotel quarantine in Ireland will come into force this Friday, with the booking portal going live this morning. Meanwhile, the plight for vaccines continues - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has voiced support for EU chief Ursula von der Leyen's threat to block AstraZeneca vaccines produced in the bloc from being exported, ahead of a crunch EU summit on the escalating row.

SIPTU is reiterating calls for a referendum to prohibit privatisation of water services - as the Government seeks to accelerate the integration of local authority water services personnel into the Irish Water utility, reports RTÉ.

The Examiner has this critical piece on the pay bill for the transfer of Robert Watt to the Department of Health.

Amazon workers took strike action in Italy yesterday in the first protest involving the US group's entire logistics operations, including third-party delivery service providers, over pandemic delivery demands.

Incidents of racism have increased during the pandemic, a new report by the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) has found.

The French branch of Swedish retailing giant IKEA went on trial yesterday, accused of running an elaborate system to spy on staff and job applicants using private detectives and police officers.

And finally, The Examiner interviews international soccer player Áine O’Gorman on her campaign for equal pay for women in the sport in this piece.

Our zen this morning is a bit of Fleetwood Mac. Dreams is fourty-four years old this month and still as soothing as ever. 

Have a good day folks.