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

IRELAND

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Health Simon Harris speaking to the media after they met the HSE’s Winter Plan Oversight Group Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he is reluctant to use the term “vulture fund” when describing the firms that have bought up thousands of Irish homeowner’s mortgages.
• Gardaí have revealed that a motorcyclist caught driving at almost twice the speed limit in a 100km/h zone was among hundreds of drivers found speeding yesterday.
• Gardaí are appealing for witnesses following two separate incidents of serious assault in Co Donegal. 
• Good weather and low levels of flu are keeping pressure off the health system, but that’s expected to change in the coming weeks, according to the HSE. 
• A woman has lost her High Court challenge over the manner in which Tusla, the Child and Family Agency removed a child she was fostering from her care.
• Former Irish president Mary Robinson has said she is “dismayed” at some of the media comments about her visit with a Dubai princess who was feared missing. 
• As of the end of November, the NTA had received 1,163 complaints about taxis. 
• Newly released 1988 State papers reveal that former Taoiseach Charles Haughey and former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher clashed over an IRA clergyman.

INTERNATIONAL

The Capitol is seen on a rainy morning in Washington, day seven of a partial government shutdown. J. Scott Applewhite J. Scott Applewhite

#CAIRO: A roadside bomb which exploded near the pyramids in the Egyptian capital Cairo has killed two people.

#AUSTRALIA: An Australian town has recorded temperatures of 49.3 Celsius as the country sizzles in a record-breaking heatwave. 

#SHUTDOWN: US president Donald Trump has threatened to seal the US-Mexico border “entirely” if Congress does not approve billions of dollars in funding for a wall.

PARTING SHOT

Gardaí have today tweeted a stunning photo of Mount Errigal in Co Donegal at dawn on Christmas Day.