Monday’s Top Stories: Measles catch-up vaccine to be offered to 310,000 people; PTSB kept terminally ill mother waiting six months over payout

Measles catch-up vaccine to be offered to 310,000 people

More than 300,000 people are to be offered a measles catch-up vaccine under plans to come before Cabinet on Tuesday.

The catch-up vaccine programme has been drawn up over fears of outbreaks of the highly infectious virus in unprotected segments of the population.

Measles cases continue to rise across the UK and the rest of Europe, although so far in Ireland 12 cases have been reported and only one of these has been confirmed.

News from around the World

Kamala Harris calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza: US vice-president Kamala Harris on Sunday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and pressed Israel to increase the flow of aid to ease “inhumane” conditions and a “humanitarian catastrophe” among the Palestinian people. Ms Harris’s comments were among the sharpest yet by a senior leader of the US government calling for Israel to alleviate the conditions in Gaza.

The Big Read

Voice notes are somehow one of the most divisive forms of modern communication. Photograph: Pheelings Media/Getty

Voice notes: ‘I dislike them when I have to listen to them . . . but I love sending them’: It has become a common scene. Your phone dings, but instead of a text, it’s a forewarning that someone has orated just for you a private podcast of any imaginable length, the subject unknown until you press play.

Pricewatch

‘Our children will in all likelihood lose their mother. We didn’t want to spend precious time calling PTSB’: Just over a year ago a young mother of four children, including an infant, was told by her doctors she was terminally ill. The news couldn’t have been any more devastating and as she and her husband tried as best they could to come to terms with it, they set about getting their financial affairs in order. How PTSB kept a terminally ill mother waiting six months over mortgage protection policy payout.

Education Highlights

‘It feels like a rebirth’: A visually impaired student’s journey of inspiration: Deirdre Murphy (38) is losing her sight due to a rare genetic disease but is determined to teach her eight-year-old daughter about the importance of overcoming challenges.

The best from Opinion

Today's Business

Why are women still being cast off the glass cliff?: The glass cliff describes the way women are deemed more likely to break through the glass ceiling and rise to a top job when things are dire, the risk of failure is high and men are less interested in the gig. Exhibit one: running the UK’s splintered, fractious and unpopular Conservative party.