EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #CONTACT TRACING: The HSE has revealed plans to begin investigating where people are being infected with Covid-19 as part of a new “retrospective contact tracing” policy. 

2. #EPA: There are 35 towns and villages in Ireland where raw sewage is released into the environment every day.

3. #AIRPORT TESTING: Covid-19 testing facilities should be up and running at Dublin Airport next week. New testing facilities become fully operational in Cork and Shannon airports from today.

4. #BREXIT: Failure for the UK and European Union to reach an agreement on a post-Brexit trade deal would be “very, very damaging all around”, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said.

5. #BIDEN TRANSITION: US President-elect Joe Biden has chosen his longtime adviser Ron Klain to reprise his role as his chief of staff, installing an aide with decades of experience in the top role in his White House.

6. #INQUEST: The father of French-Irish teenager Nóra Quoirin, whose body was found in the Malaysian jungle, has told an inquest he heard noises in the family’s holiday chalet before she disappeared.

8. #POWER STRUGGLE: The Stormont Executive is to meet today after it again failed yesterday to agree on new coronavirus restrictions for Northern Ireland as the clock ticks towards the expiry of the current circuit-break.

9. #SUPPORT LOCAL: Cork County Council is lighting up its Christmas lights today – earlier than usual in an effort to drum up support for local businesses and to keep people’s spirits up.