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

IRELAND

Youngsters with their best scary faces at Botanic Gardens today at the launch of the Bram Stoker Festival 2018. Sasko Lazarov / Rollingnews.ie Sasko Lazarov / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

• The Taoiseach criticised Arlene Foster after she said the Good Friday Agreement wasn’t untouchable. 
• Varadkar also met with former Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick, after the Louth man said the party has become “style over substance”. 
• A teenage girl settled for €30,000 over a “small” lip injury sustained creche 13 years ago.
• The problem over the payment of child benefit to Irish parents has been resolved following an industry-wide banking issue. 
• A Dublin man was jailed for receiving a Hello Kitty toy containing €200k worth of cannabis.  
• Presidential hopeful Gavin Duffy officially launched his campaign today, defending his background in business.
• Arrests were made over the distribution of “child sex dolls” as gardaí raided 32 premises.
• The Ana Kriegel inquest heard she died of blunt force trauma to the head. 
• A Dublin businessman who kicked a mother-of-two in the head with a steel toe shoe is to be sentenced. 
• Dublin City Council is to spend €3 million on fanzones for four Euro 2020 games to be played in Dublin. 

INTERNATIONAL

Crab dishes during a feast in Hongze District of Huai'an, east China's Jiangsu Province today Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

#FORE SHOUT: A spectator has lost the sight in her eye after being hit by a gold ball at the Ryder Cup. 

#TORY SCRAP: Boris Johnson gave a speech at the Conservative party conference, urging the government not to believe “we can bodge it now and fix it later” on Brexit.

#OREGON: An FBI agent was shot by a booby-trapped wheelchair. 

PARTING SHOT

There’s been plenty of stories coming out about Brett Kavanaugh in recent days, as controversy swirls around Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick.

The latest is that Kavanaugh instigated a bar fight after a UB40 concert in 1985.

And singer Ali Campbell has had his say on the matter in the Guardian.

But it is a big surprise to find out that Kavanaugh used to come to see us in his Yale days. You don’t expect a right-wing Republican to follow a left-wing reggae socialist band from Birmingham. But we used to sing about really heavy stuff and wrap it up in frothy, happy tunes, so a lot of people got into us who had no idea what we were singing about.