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

1. #THE CANDIDATE: Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said he is not “instinctively against” the idea of a rent freeze. 

2. #CORONAVIRUS: The death toll in China’s coronavirus outbreak has risen to 25 with 830 cases confirmed, the country’s National Health Commission has confirmed.

3. #MANIFESTO FRIDAY: Extending Metrolink to University College Dublin is just one of the items covered in Fine Gael’s election manifesto due to be published today.

4. #CHRONIC PAIN: Children and their families living with chronic pain have said they feel “totally abandoned” after learning that the country’s only paediatric pain management consultant will not be returning to his position following the recent allocation of funding to Ireland’s only pain clinic for children. 

5. #GARDA NUMBERS: Only a third of the country’s network of over 560 Garda stations has experienced an increase in staffing levels in the past five years, despite almost 2,800 extra gardaí joining the force over the period.

6. #CILLIAN O’DRISCOLL: A four-year-old boy died when a viral infection in his lungs attacked his heart after he was discovered unresponsive following a two and a half hour sleep at his crèche in Ballincollig, Co Cork, an inquest has found. 

7. #IMPEACHMENT: US President Donald Trump was swept up by a “completely bogus” Ukraine theory pushed by attorney Rudy Giuliani that led to his abuse of power and impeachment, Democratic House prosecutors have said.

8. #BREXIT:  The UK is set to leave the EU at the end of January after EU chiefs signed off on the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated with Boris Johnson. 

9. #NEW ARRIVAL: A red-bellied jumping spider has been found in a Dublin garden, a sighting experts say is possibly the first of its kind in Ireland. 

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