EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you start your day.

1. #UNITED LEFT: The alliance with Dáil speaking rights, the United Left Alliance, is looking into forming a political party – though there are differences among them in terms of how that can be brought about.

2. #CRASH: Over 50 people, many of them elderly, were taken to hospital in Letterkenny, Co Donegal yesterday following a bus crash. Forty-nine were released by last night, but three people were being treated for more serious injuries.

3. #SYRIA: Tensions remain high between Syria and Turkey following the former’s admission that it shot down one of the latter’s military planes. Turkey’s president said yesterday that the plane may have violated Syrian airspace by a short distance, but insisted that this was routine for military planes flying at high speeds.

4.#TRIALS: New drugs in Ireland must undergo several stages of clinical trials before approval. We’ve been taking a look at what happens during those trials.

5. #FIRE: Part of Dublin’s Merrion Road is closed this morning following a major fire at the Merrion Inn pub overnight. RTÉ reports that the blaze has been brought under control by this time, but not extinguished.

6. #FORESTS: The Sunday Times reports that the state stands to make up to €680 million in selling the harvesting rights of state-owned forests.

7. #ASSANGE: Australia’s foreign minister has said that there is no “hint” of any plan to extradite WikiLeaks founder and political activist Julian Assange should he be sent to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning in relation to rape allegations. Assange continues to seek political asylum in Ecuador after British courts ruled he should be extradited to Sweden.

8. #SPACE: Three Chinese astronauts have successfully carried out the country’s first manual docking with an orbiting space station module. The operation is particularly difficult given that the two units are travelling at high speeds.

9. #JEAN GENIE: Young Irish designer and entrepreneur Peter Heron has developed a clothing line produced from part-recycled materials – including jeans made from beer bottles. Heron has launched his line in New York.