LAST UPDATE | 13 Aug 2018

EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #FIRE: A man in his 70s has died following a house fire in Co Kilkenny yesterday evening.

2. #PSC: A number of companies that make security card prototypes declined to apply for a contract to produce the second generation Public Services Card because they felt the process was unfairly slanted towards the company that held the previous tender.

3. #HEATWAVE: Irish retailers have enjoyed a boost to their sales thanks to the long spells of fine weather. 

4. #FAR RIGHT: A white supremacist rally outside the White House has been drowned out after being outnumbered by hundreds of counter-protesters.

5. #RYANAIR: Further Ryanair strike action can’t be ruled out as of yet, according to the union representing pilots who are in a dispute with the airline.

6. #LITTER: 40% of Ireland’s rivers, beaches and harbours are littered or heavily littered, according to a new survey, RTÉ is reporting.

7. #TRIBUTES: Tributes are being paid this morning to Tom Moran, chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, who has died in New York.

8. DROGHEDA: Gardaí have said the circumstances surrounding the sudden death of a woman yesterday in Drogheda are not being treated as suspicious.

9. #TAIWAN: At least nine people have been killed in a fire at a hospital in Taiwan, BBC is reporting.