LAST UPDATE | 19 Oct

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Storm Ashley

1. Motorists are being advised to take extra care this weekend on the roads as the entire country has received a weather warning ahead of Storm Ashley tomorrow.

A status Orange wind warning had been put in place by Met Éireann for counties Galway and Mayo tomorrow while a Status Yellow warning will be in place for every other county. Donegal and Clare have since been added to the counties under Orange warnings.

Drugs in prisons 

2. 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. 

The new method has been spotted around Mountjoy and Wheatfield Prisons in Dublin recently.

Gaza hospital surrounded

3. Health authorities in Gaza said Israeli forces surrounded and shelled the Indonesian Hospital in the territory’s northern town of Beit Lahia at dawn today.

UK bank in trouble

4. Starling Bank, launched in 2014, was hit with massive fines by the UK’s financial regulator this month.

Beirut

5. Smoke was still billowing from the mounds of debris that was all that was left of a multistorey building in Dahiyeh hit at 4am earlier that morning. Beirut’s southern suburbs have been heavily targeted since Israel launched a widespread bombing campaign across Lebanon in September.

Assisted dying

6. 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.

Trump

7. 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.

Colin Farrell

8. Colin Farrell is set to run the Dublin Marathon this year to raise money for people living with the genetic condition Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB).

The actor appeared on The Late Late Show alongside Emma Fogarty, who is Ireland’s longest-surviving person with the skin condition, which is also known as Butterfly Skin.

Election speculation

9. Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has said he wants the general election to be held on 29 November.

Speaking today, O’Gorman said it was his preference to hold the election before Christmas. He said: “I think the 29th is the date to go.”