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

IRELAND

Timi Ogunymei crossing Ireland`s first ever inflatable pedestrian bridge. Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

• Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds died.
• Reynolds’ life and work is remembered in words and in pictures.
• The HSE is carrying out tests on the body of a man in Letterkenny to find out whether he died of Ebola.
• Irish Rail’s chief executive David Franks will return from a holiday in Mauritius ahead of this weekend’s rail strikes.
• Ireland’s Jason Smyth won completed a sprint double at the Paralympic Athletics European Championships.
• Every single one of Ireland’s newspapers have declined in circulation in the last six months.
• Ryanair has opened a range of new European routes. These include Dublin-Brussels which Michael O’Leary hopes politicians will take up.
• Beef farmers launched a “blitz” at Tesco in Naas to send a message to British retailers about new rules.

INTERNATIONAL

A squirrel monkey gets weighed at the annual London Zoo weigh-in. Philip Toscano / PA Philip Toscano / PA / PA

#JAMES FOLEY: Islamic State militants demanded a ransom of up to $100m for the slain US journalist James Foley.

#JAMES FOLEY: There was fierce debate about whether the New York Post was right to publish an image taken just before James Foley’s execution. Here are two sides of the debate.

#GAZA: Three Hamas commanders and four children were among at least 15 killed in Israeli air-strikes.

#EBOLA: The American doctor who contracted the Ebola virus while treating patients in Liberia is to be released from hospital.

INNOVATION

• Netlflix are trialling their software with the Oculus Rift 3D headset. They’re calling it Oculix, and it looks pretty awesome. 
• Facebook has been given four weeks to respond to a claim that it violated a number of data protection laws.

PARTING SHOT

Imagine never having seen The Simpsons? It sounds implausible, but it’s the case for Megan Grenwell who had never caught a minute of the 25-year-old show. She therefore decided to try and watch the entire collection in two-weeks. She wrote about it too. [Slate]