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

IRELAND

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by a number of other organisations take part in demonstration at the Spire to highlight the war in Gaza. Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• Sinn Féin has accused RTÉ of “electoral interference” and criticised Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty for his reference to “Sinn Féin traitors” last night.
• Counties Kerry, Sligo, and Leitrim have now been upgraded to Status Orange for the approaching Storm Ashley alongside Galway, Mayo, Donegal and Clare.
• Tributes have been paid to a retired teacher and farmer, aged in his 90s, who was killed in a collision in a supermarket carpark on Friday morning.
• Criminals are delivering drugs and weapons to inmates using drones with burning packages slung beneath them in order to burn through the netting covering prison yards, sources have told The Journal.
  
• Fine Gael TD and member of the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying, Alan Farrell has poured cold water on the significance of next week’s Dáil vote on assisted dying, arguing that it is nothing more than procedural.
• Gardaí have seized over 800 suspected fake Apple products worth an estimated €160,000 in Co Mayo following a search operation of a number of business premises.

INTERNATIONAL

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon today. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#ISRAEL: Israel said a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence today, as Hezbollah launched a barrage of projectiles into Israel from Lebanon.

#CUBA: Cuba’s government said that some electricity was restored on the island today after one of the country’s major power plants failed and left millions without electricity in an outage that started two days earlier.

#JAPAN: A man threw several firebombs into the headquarters of Japan’s ruling party in Tokyo, then crashed his car into the fencing of the prime minister’s residence, police said

#GAZA: Gaza’s Civil Defence agency said today that more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the north of the territory over the past two weeks during an ongoing military assault Israel says is aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.

#MICHIGAN: Donald Trump’s energy levels emerged as a flashpoint in the presidential race as the Republican nominee and Democrat Kamala Harris scrambled across battleground Michigan with election day looming.

PARTING SHOT

Brian Cleary at the National Library of Ireland, where he found 'Gibbet Hill' in October 2023. Marc O'Sullivan Marc O'Sullivan

A LONG LOST short story by the famed Irish author of Dracula, Bram Stoker, has been found in Dublin after 130 years – and is to be unveiled to the public at the Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival next week. 

Life-long Stoker fan, Brian Cleary, unearthed the story in October 2023 at the National Library of Ireland while examining historical literature and the work of Bram Stoker.