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

IRELAND 

Visitors on the beach and in the water in north County Dublin as the country experienced a freezing cold day with heavy frost and fog. Eamonn Farrell / Rollingnews.ie Eamonn Farrell / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

• No new deaths from Covid-19 have been recorded in Ireland today but 301 new cases have been confirmed by public health officials.
• Northern Ireland has recorded an additional 419 cases of Covid-19 and eleven more deaths.
• A woman and man have been found dead in a house fire in Portmarnock.
• The Taoiseach is to meet with Northern Ireland’s First Minister to discuss claims of the Irish state’s alleged collusion in IRA murders.
• Minister Simon Harris has said there can be “no room whatsoever for pseudoscience or nonsense or scaremongering” in messaging on Covid-19 vaccines.
• A proposal that would have limited one’s number of social contacts to six people for a period of six months was rejected by public health officials.
• A Sinn Féin TD has said that PAC chair Brian Stanley is “guilty of colossal errors of judgment” by posting two controversial tweets.
• Following suggestions that Covid-19 vaccines were mostly tested on people between 18 and 55, we’ve delved into the vaccines with this FactFind to see to what extent older people were involved in clinical trials.
• A garda has been hospitalised after being assaulted while on patrol yesterday evening.

WORLD

Downtown Johannesburg, South Africa Shutterstock / Sopotnicki Shutterstock / Sopotnicki / Sopotnicki

#AFRICA UNION African leaders held talks today to review an ambitious plan for a conflict-free Africa as violent unrest escalates in parts of the continent.

#BREXIT British and EU negotiators have resumed talks in Brussels in a “final throw of the dice” as they try to secure a post-Brexit trade deal.

#UNITED STATES Donald Trump has said called on Georgia’s governor to hold a special legislative session to overturn the state’s result in the presidential election.

#GERMANY Nearly 13,000 residents were evacuated in Frankfurt today as experts defused an unexploded World War II bomb.

PARTING SHOT

PA PA

After a less-than-ideal year, many are looking forward to enjoying some special moments over Christmas – and astronauts in outer space are no different.

A supply ship has left earth today and is on its way to the International Space Station, where it will deliver Christmas treats and presents to the team at the station.

The shipment includes roast turkey, cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, shortbread biscuits, and tubes of icing.