Here's What Happened Today: Tuesday

20 Oct 2026, 20:58 by Sophie Finn, https://www.thejournal.ie/author/sophie-finn/ · TheJournal.ie

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

New Cork City mural celebrates people living with HIV. Darragh Kane PhotographyDarragh Kane Photography

IRELAND

Met Éireann has issued a Status Yellow rain warning for the country on Thursday ahead of the arrival of Storm Austen, the first named storm of the season.
A man and woman charged in relation to an arson attack which claimed the lives of a mother, father and their two children have been further remanded in custody.
The couple who died in a house fire in rural west Cork have been named locally.
Revolut services are back for Irish users after multiple services were down since this morning.
The rapist at the centre of the 1990s ‘C Case’ has repeatedly breached the conditions of his release from a 21-year sentence imposed in 2009 for the rape of an elderly woman, a court has heard.
A student has been scammed out of €1,400 in a rental scam involving a Dublin property used in an almost identical hoax just two months earlier.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has claimed that striking criminal legal aid solicitors have hired public relations firms to try to present him as “intransigent” in relation to the ongoing dispute.
Three more people have been arrested in connection with the fatal arson attack on a home in Waterford last week.
Two gardaí were injured in the early hours of this morning in Dublin during a pursuit with a stolen car.
Minister for Housing James Browne said turnkey homes for social housing were not a practice he liked or ever wanted to see happen.

INTERNATIONAL

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to the media in Calgary, Tuesday, Oct. 20, after Alberta separatists lose vote on leaving Canada. Alamy Stock PhotoAlamy Stock Photo

#UNREST: France will impose new curfews in areas where needed from today, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said, adding that the measures introduced in several cities the previous day had “helped keep the night calm”.

#WANGARATTA: Australian police have charged a man over what they alleged was a “targeted” attack with a vehicle on independent lawmaker Helen Haines.

#SOUTHWARK CROWN COURT: A Channel 4 worker said she was “repulsed” after she was forced to massage Russell Brand and the comedian thrust his head into her lap.

PARTING SHOT

A beluga whale has been spotted off Donegal Bay in what the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) said is only the second validated sighting of the Arctic species in Ireland.

The IWDG said drone footage of the whale was captured by a member of the public on Saturday.

Read the full story here.