EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know as you kick off your day.

1.#SLAVERY: A video broadcast by ITV News claims to be the Irish woman at the centre of slavery accusations in the UK. The video comes from a documentary broadcast in 1997 that investigated the death of a member of the Maoist commune allegedly run by the man accused of keeping three women as slaves. The woman is identified in English papers as Josephine Herival, whose father was part of the team that cracked the Enigma ciphers in World War II.

2.#HOMELESSNESS: 16 families become homeless in Dublin every month, a homeless charity has said. Focus Ireland said that it has seen an 18 per cent rise in people seeking their support, with over 9,200 people having been provided assistance so far this year.

3.#GERMANY: After two months, Germany may have a government. Two months after her party secured the most votes, but not a majority, Angela Merkel has recruited two parties to form a coalition. Merkel made concessions on the minimum wage, but managed to avoid any new taxes for the rich.

4.#HOSPITAL: Documents obtained by the Irish Independent say that the new National Children’s Hospital won’t be finished by the 2018 deadline. The paper quotes a report by the hospital board that contradicts claims by the Health Minister that the hospital will open in 2018.

5.#COMING HOME: 171 Irish soldiers will return home from a six-month tour of duty in the Lebanon today. Their replacements at Camp Shamrock have already flown out and are getting set to spend Christmas in the Lebanon.

6.#INSOLVENCY: The first case of a family with mortgage debt availing of the Personal Insolvency legislation has come before a court in Trim. The family has debt of over €600,000 and their Personal Insolvency Practitioner Mitchell O’Brien says he will look to strike an agreement that will protect the family home.

7.#WAGES: The average weekly earnings of staff in nine of Ireland’s 13 employment sectors are down, according to the latest figures. Pay in the education sector has taken the biggest tumble, with a 6.6 per cent drop in earnings, while information and communication jobs are up 4 per cent.

8.#JOBS: Healthcare company Northgate today announced that they will create 150 jobs over the next three years in Castlebar. The company will create the jobs in the IT and transactional services departments of their business.

9.#REFUGEE: A Pacific Islander has been denied refugee status in New Zealand, after claiming his life was under threat because of climate change. Kiribati native Ioane Teitiota said that rising seas were threatening his homeland, but a judge called his case “unconvincing”.