GOOD MORNING. HERE’s everything you need to know this Stephen’s Day. 

Ukraine peace talks

1. US president Donald Trump has declared that he holds the final decision on this weekend’s peace talks with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

State papers

2. It’s that time of year when official state papers are peeled open on events from 30 years ago.

Among the finds this time are details of Irish officials wondering if a possible visit to Ireland by Diana, Princess of Wales could see Diana’s team try to “upstage” a similar trip by her estranged husband Charles.

Boyzone hysteria

3. It truly was 1995, as another state paper reveals that fans were hospitalised for “hysteria” at a gig for hot young group Boyzone – leading the Attorney General to push for tougher laws on holding gigs for younger people.

Nigeria

4. Confusion has been expressed by villagers in Nigeria after Donald Trump launched strikes that were intended on Islamic State militants in the country.

Farmer killed in crash

5. Tributes have been paid to a young farmer who died following a road traffic collision in Co Tyrone yesterday.

Cervical checks

6. Back to the State Papers, which show that concerns about the cost of cervical screening and delays in laboratory processing were already emerging in the late 1980s — nearly three decades before the CervicalCheck scandal.

The year in the Late Late

7. As 2025 draws to a close, we’ve taken a look back at some of the biggest and best moments from this year’s Late Late Show.

How we take in the news

8. Our reading habits have changed since the days of the dominance of daily newspapers but the Irish public are not rejecting news – they are curating it, as researcher Finian Murphy shows.

Premier League

9. Patrick Dorgu’s first Manchester United goal earned the depleted Red Devils a 1-0 win over Newcastle to propel Ruben Amorim’s men up to fifth in the Premier League.