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

This guy went swimming in Portmarnock today. Brian Lawless Brian Lawless

IRELAND

• It rained. A lot. 
• Mary Lou McDonald was suspended from the Dáil but wouldn’t leave. The situation then got a little out of hand.
• Russell Brand is an anti-water charge protester.
• The government got caught doing its homework on Google Translate.
• An 11-month-old baby died of meningitis.
• Irish scientists may have found something really important in the search for a cure for Parkinson’s Disease.
• Prices for alcohol, tobacco and dining out have all gone up over the past year.
• The Defence Forces is investigating a video that reportedly shows a soldier being given electric shocks by colleagues.
• A woman has settled a case for €38,000 with the pharmacy which allowed her husband to watch CCTV footage of her buying a pregnancy test. [RTÉ News]
• The New York Times spent 36 hours in Dublin. And it was just lovely.

WORLD

Syrian Kurdish refugee children from the Kobani area, hold hands at a camp in Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

#EUROPE He’s changed his mind. Jean-Claude Juncker now wants to end those tax loopholes his country rubber-stamped during his time in charge.

#FRANCE A tiger is on the loose in Paris.

#QATAR FIFA cleared Qatar of any wrongdoing because officials “did not compromise integrity of World Cup bidding process as a whole”.

#ISLAMIC STATE The so-called Islamic State group has released an audio file of its leader calling for “volcanoes of jihad”.

INNOVATION

• The Philae lander is facing some settling-in problems at its new home on 67P. It may stuck under a cliff with one leg dangling in space. 
• Have you read Facebook’s privacy policy? “Ha! Good one,” you say. That may be about to change.

PARTING SHOT

In light of the Ched Evans controversy – he’s the convicted rapist and footballer who is set to resume training with Sheffield Wednesday – Nick Miller in the Guardian asks: If not rape, what gets footballers sacked?