NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

President Higgins was at the European Young Scientist contest in the RDS today Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

• Storm Helene is set to bring “short interval intense rain” as it hits Ireland.
• The O’Donovan brothers won rowing gold for Ireland at the World Championships.
• An elderly woman died after she was hit by an SUV on a Galway motorway.
• Fine Gael lost ground but still managed to extend its lead over Fianna Fáil in the latest opinion poll.
• A Westminster committee said Irish fishermen must stay away from Northern Irish waters unless a Brexit deal is done.
• The driver at the scene of a collision on the M50 had a fake driving licence and tested positive for drugs.
• A Cork man accused of helping migrants into Greece has been detained for “at least” another 40 days.
• Leaving Cert students at a Dublin school were taught the wrong English text for two years.
• A man was in critical condition after he was shot in Belfast last night.
• Most people would rather income tax cuts than increased spending in Budget 2019.

INTERNATIONAL

A car drives through water on U.S. 74/76 in Leland, North Carolina. Matt Born AP / PA Images Matt Born AP / PA Images / PA Images

#STORMY: Florence has been “unloading epic amounts of rainfall” as it batters North Carolina.

#THE DON: Pope Francis travelled to Sicily to honour a priest shot dead by the Mafia.

#PHILLIPINES: The world’s biggest storm of 2018 has claimed its first victims.

PARTING SHOT

The lads did the nation proud today as they secured gold for Ireland at the World Championships.

In typical O’Donovan brothers style, though, they had some craic in their post match interview with RTÉ’s Evanne Ní Chuilinn afterwards.

Norway were firm favourites to be in medal contention, but illness ruled out one of their rowers just before the race.

Gary O’Donovan began: “One of the Norwegian crew got sick and they had to make a late substitution last night.”

And Paul continued: “We were out on the town with them last night, but we were saying ‘big day tomorrow, we need to be on form’ so we headed away early, around 2am. By 3am Kristopher was buckled and they had to make the substitution then! Early this morning he was still hungover.”