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

IRELAND

Artist Dylan Hansard was gifted his first water colour set by his brother, Academy Award winning singer songwriter and musician, Glen Hansard. The unusual city nightscapes of Dylan Hansard will feature at Art Source in the RDS, which opens on Friday, November 15 at 11am, and runs until November 17. Hannah Devoy Hannah Devoy

• A childcare worker has been accused of a “sickening” attack on a toddler who suffered facial injuries after being “slammed” face down onto Lego bricks in a crèche.
• A post-mortem on the body of a 27-year-old man discovered in a quarry in Wexford has now been completed, gardaí have said. 
• Gardaí have detected over 1200 drivers speeding, according to provisional figures, in a road policing operation over the bank holiday weekend.
• Hourly Enterprise services between Dublin’s Connolly Station and the new Belfast Grand Central Station will commence from tomorrow.
• PSNI has confirmed that damage caused to a portrait of former DUP Lord Mayor Wallace Browne at Belfast City Hall is now being treated as a hate crime.
• A man in his 20s has been arrested after a man (40s) was found dead at a residential property in Lucan this morning.

INTERNATIONAL

Police stand ready during an opposition protest against the results of the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#ISRAEL: Israel’s parliament has passed a bill that bans the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) from working in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, despite objections from the United States.

#UK: British far-right activist Tommy Robinson has admitted committing contempt of court by repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee, in breach of an injunction.

#LEBANON: Israel has launched fresh attacks on the Lebanese city of Tyre, after attacks earlier today killed seven people.

#GEORGIA: Georgia’s pro-EU president Salome Zurabishvili has alleged there was “sophisticated” voting fraud during the government’s parliamentary election victory over the weekend.

#MIKE AMESBURY: Video footage that appears to show Labour MP Mike Amesbury punching a man to the ground is “shocking”, Keir Starmer said as he defended Labour’s decision to suspend him.

PARTING SHOT

FIFTY STATES WILL, obviously, decide the outcome of the US presidential election next week – but it’ll come down to seven in particular.

They are known by different names: battleground states, purple states or swing states.

Ultimately, they are states that could reasonably be won by either a Democratic or Republican candidate.

The Journal’s Órla Ryan asks the question: What exactly are swing states, and how could they decide the outcome of ‘knife-edge’ US race?