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

IRELAND

Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

• Flights and passenger ferries from Britain to Ireland will be suspended for 48 hours from midnight tonight.
• Public health officials have reported four deaths and 764 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
• Northern Ireland has confirmed thirteen further deaths and 505 cases of Covid-19.
• Gardaí broke up an organised ‘car meet’ in Cork yesterday evening that involved over 250 cars and around 700 to 800 people.
• Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has asked people to cut down their contacts and avoid crowds as we move into Christmas week.
• Sinn Féin Senator Linn Boylan has said that the government should implement a stricter tracking and tracing system for people arriving into Ireland.
• John Gilligan has been released from jail less than two months after his arrest for suspected drugs and weapons offences.
• Plans for a 14 metre LED advertisement at St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin have been rejected by An Bord Pleanála.

THE WORLD

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#WHO The World Health Organization is calling on its members in Europe to step up measures against coronavirus in the face of the new variant circulating in Britain.

#LOCKDOWN Strict restrictions in the UK may last for several months as the new strain spreads quickly.

#MINK MESS Four million minks that were culled in Denmark over a mutant coronavirus strain will be dug up next year to prevent pollution after the risk of infection passes.

#BORDER Mexico’s president and the US president-elect have discussed “working together on a new approach to regional migration“.

PARTING SHOT

Jupiter and Saturn are on track to appear in the sky closer together to each other than they have in centuries.

NASA has said that the two planets will pass each other with just a tenth of a degree in separation and will be visible from earth.

Social media users are sharing photos of the planets in the sky on Twitter with the hashtag #GreatConjunction2020.