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

IRELAND

People walking on the Great South wall this morning. Sam Boal / RollingNews Sam Boal / RollingNews / RollingNews

• Tributes are continuing to be paid to the three young people who died in a road traffic collision in Co Carlow on Wednesday night.
• Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill is set to be the First Minister as the DUP gave the green light for the recall of the Stormont Assembly tomorrow. 
• A motocyclist died following a road traffic collision in Co Limerick this afternoon.
• Chief Medical Officer Professor Breda Smyth is set to leave her role 18 months in the position.
• Dublin City Council cited the ongoing housing crisis as grounds for refusing planning permission for a new 111-bedroom hotel for Dublin city centre.
• Two men were arrested after gardaí seized €3.1 million worth of cocaine and €213,000 in cash during a day of action yesterday.
• Passengers at Dublin Airport have been told they “should be prepared” to remove hoodies or loose jumpers when passing through security screenings.
• Aslan announced they will begin performing with a new singer, Lee Tomkins, following the death of frontman Christy Dignam last year. 

INTERNATIONAL

Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed in Rocky (1976). Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#BRIANNA GHEY: Teenagers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe have each been given a life sentence and ordered to serve a minimum term of 22 and 20 years respectively before parole for the murder of teenager Brianna Ghey.

#GAZA: More than 100 people were killed in Gaza overnight as Israel continued its bombardment in the wake of talks between both sides.

#NAIROBI: Three people died and 280 others were injured after a truck laden with gas canisters exploded in a densely populated area of the Kenyan capital.

#RIP: Carl Weathers, who starred as Apollo Creed in the Rocky films, has died at the age of 76. 

#RED SEA: Australian welfare groups demand the release of thousands of sheep and cattle stuck aboard a ship after their trip to the Middle East was diverted by Yemen’s Huthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea.

#UKRAINE: The International Court of Justice said that it has jurisdiction to hear part of a case brought by Ukraine against Russia. 

PARTING SHOT

Groundhog Club handler A.J. Dereume holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, while posing for a photo with Miss Pennsylvania Miranda Moore Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

An early spring was predicted at the largest and best-known Groundhog Day celebration in the United States.

Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring this morning in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania.

The annual event is held on 2 February and is a tongue-in-cheek ritual in which Phil’s handlers, members of a club with roots in the late 1800s, reveal whether the groundhog has seen his shadow.

The tradition dates back to the Pennsylvania Dutch belief that if a groundhog left its burrow and saw its shadow, it would scurry back inside and winter would go on for six more weeks.

You can read more about Groundhog Day here.