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

Frankie Travers (age 7) from Dublin, as Iarnród Éireann unveiled a new community mural at the Courtney Place railway arches, Dublin 3. Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

IRELAND

• Pressure continued to mount on Micheál Martin’s leadership of Fianna Fáil.
• An English tourist who was hospitalised after an alleged assault during the summer in Temple Bar died.
• Weather warnings were issued for four southern counties for Thursday.
• Amazon announced it would be laying off 14,000 office workers around the world, including in Ireland.
• The Journal Investigates heard allegations of historic neglect, forced labour and isolation in Ireland’s shuttered state-run asylums from the 1950s to the early 2000s.
• RTÉ defended a number of unorthodox payments uncovered in a new internal report, saying they are historic and date back “years or decades”.
• President Michael D Higgins returned to Áras an Uachtaráin today after spending two nights in hospital.
• A new report from a European body said legislation banning hate speech and improving accommodation for international protection applicants are “matters of priority” in Ireland.

A team recovered the bodies of 70 people in Gaza today. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

INTERNATIONAL

#PALESTINE Israel launched deadly strikes in Gaza today despite a ceasefire agreement being in place. 

#HURRICANE Jamaica was bracing for Hurricane Melissa, a massive category five storm expected to devastate the Caribbean island nation.

#JAPAN US President Donald Trump visited Japan today, where Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi lavished praise on him.

PARTING SHOT

THE DUST HAS settled on the race for the Áras, but one of the stories of the campaign was undoubtedly the record number of people who spoiled their vote on polling day.

One in eight voters did so, many of them doing so as a form of protest against the government or for the perceived lack of candidates running in the election.

Many of those who spoiled their votes did so by writing messages on their ballot paper and sharing images of their ballots on social media, but the vast majority of the 200,000 or so spoiled votes went unseen.

So we want to find out more about why people spoiled their votes in such big numbers.