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

IRELAND

Hetal Patel gets ready to fly her kite in the Phoenix Park in Dublin as part of the Makar Sankranti festival. Every year Makar Sankranti is celebrated in the month of January,this festival is dedicated to the Hindu religious sun god Surya. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

• A community group in Drimnagh, formed in response to protests over emergency accommodation for refugees, said they wanted to push back “against the hate and division that has been sown in the last week.”
• A man arrested by detectives investigating the murder of Natalie McNally was released on bail to allow for further enquiries by the PSNI.
• Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said he is conducting a full review of all records from the 2016 general election, after it emerged that a complaint has been made about his finances from that time
• Gardaí issued an appeal for people to come forward who may have information about the death of a woman whose body was discovered in an apartment at Dublin 15 yesterday
• A body was found in a boarded-up house in Mallow in Co Cork, which gardaí said may have lain there undiscovered for some time.
• A junior minister said it is difficult to rule out the possibility of using tents to house asylum seekers again.
• A partnership between semi-State forestry company Coillte and a British investment fund was strongly criticised by the Irish Wildlife Trust.

WORLD

A destroyed building in Dnipro, Ukraine AP / PA Images AP / PA Images / PA Images

#UKRAINE: A strike on a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has left at least five dead and 27 injured

#CHINA: Chinese health authorities have reported almost 60,000 Covid-related deaths in just over a month, the first major death toll released by the government since it loosened its virus restrictions in early December

#CZECH REPUBLIC: Billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis and retired NATO general Petr Pavel have topped the first round of the Czech presidential election

#LISA MARIE PRESLEY: The late singer and only daughter of Elvis Presley will be laid to rest on the grounds of her father’s Graceland mansion

#RUSSIA: Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned critic of Vladimir Putin, has said he is being denied hospital treatment by officials

#ANDREW TATE: Romanian authorities have reportedly seized several luxury cars from social media influencer Andrew Tate’s property in Bucharest

PARTING SHOT

Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

The red pandas in Dublin Zoo appeared to be stocking up on bamboo ahead of the cold weather forecast for next week.

Met Éireann has issued a winter weather warning for the whole country until Thursday, with forecasts of sharp to severe frosts and icy stretches on roads and footpaths.

Some showers of hail, sleet and snow can be expected. There is also the possibility of freezing fog.