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

TheJournal.ie reader Paul Corcoran took this photograph today of surfer Ronan O’Flynn taking advantage of the waves being whipped up near Aughris Head in Sligo.

IRISH

• Health Minister James Reilly is staring down the face of cutbacks rather than reform to save €1bn but he has some support.
• Two former Fianna Fáil TDs passed away this weekend, Noel Davern and Denis Foley.
• There were two massive cannabis plant seizures – while a high-profile GP reckons passing Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan’s legislation would help tackle that criminality.
• Junior Minister Paschal Donohue reckons the government will take a hard line on getting EU heads to stick to a commitment about retrospective use of ESM finances. Our columnist Damien Kiberd had something to say about that.
• Ireland may be able to spot when radiation leaks into the atmosphere.
• Storm St Jude is gathering across the UK – we should escape the worst of it but be careful out there.
• Had a bicycle stolen recently? Alan Shatter is mad as hell and he’s… commissioned a report.
• Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has promised a marriage equality referendum in the life of this government.

WORLD

#IRAQ: A bloody day in which a dozen car bombs killed 55 people. [Reuters]

#GERMANY/USA: US intelligence agencies have been spying on Angela Merkel’s phone since 2002. [Der Spiegel]

#USA: The influential rocker and songwriter Lou Reed died at the age of 71, just months after a liver transplant. Here’s an essential playlist. [Rolling Stone]

#BULGARIA: The biological mother of the girl ‘Maria’, found in a Roma camp in Greece, has given her first interview since the DNA test result – she denies “selling” her daughter when she was a baby.

INNOVATION

• Preserve us from the “billion-dollar babies” – the pet projects of tech’s richest folks. [CNet]
• Uh-oh. The gym that knows how hard you’re working… or not. [TechCrunch]

PARTING SHOT

One for the road, Lou: