LAST UPDATE | 23 Jan 2020

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

1. #GANGS Criminal mugging gangs have started to use fitness applications on phones to track people using expensive equipment in their workouts, sources say. 

2. #DRUGS Housing, health and drugs were top of the agenda in the first televised debate between Micheál Martin and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. 

3. #FOG Motorists across the country have been warned to drive with caution this morning as a nationwide Status Yellow fog remains in place.

4. #TAX A new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute has found that no other tax system in Europe does more to reduce household income inequality than Ireland’s.

5. #CHINA Experts from the WHO will meet again today to decide whether the outbreak of the coronavirus in China should be declared an international emergency. 

6. #TRAVELLERS There should be a place in the Seanad reserved for members of the Traveller community, a Seanad report will today recommend. 

7. #SPAIN The death toll from a storm that has lashed Spain with strong winds and heavy snow has risen to seven, while four people are still missing.

8. #GARDAÍ An independent watchdog has criticised gardaí for their continuing failure to provide details of the circumstances why they seek to have penalty points cancelled when detected speeding while on duty.

9. #AUSTRALIA A water tanker plane fighting wildfires in Australia has crashed killing three American crew members.

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