GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news you need to know this Christmas Eve.

Homelessness

1. In our lead story this morning, Jane Moore speaks to homelessness charities about what Christmas will bring for families in emergency accommodation.

Focus Ireland has said that many parents living in emergency accommodation feel anxious that they will not be able to give their children the best Christmas they can because of their circumstances.

USA

2. Over one million US power customers were in the dark yesterday as a “bomb cyclone” winter storm walloped the country, closing highways, grounding flights and causing misery for Christmas travellers.

Heavy snow, howling winds and air so frigid it instantly turned boiling water into ice took hold of much of the nation, including normally temperate southern states.

China

3. Half a million people in a single Chinese city are being infected with Covid-19 every day, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgement that the country’s wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics.

A news outlet operated by the ruling Communist Party in Qingdao reported the municipal health chief as saying that the eastern city was seeing “between 490,000 and 530,000″ new Covid cases a day.

The report was shared by several other news outlets but appeared to have been edited by this morning to remove the case figures.

Ukraine

4. Ukraine estimates that its grain harvest fell by around 40% year on year due to the Russian invasion.

Ukraine is a major exporter but Russia’s invasion in late February stopped shipments and blocked 20 million tonnes of grain in Ukraine’s ports.

Russia

5. Twenty killed in fire in private nursing home in Russia, according to emergency services.

Pele

6. Pele’s daughter has posted a photo of the Brazilian football legend from his hospital bed in Sao Paulo with the caption “one more night together.”

In the photo, Kely Cristina Nascimento is seen hugging her 82-year-old father, with only one side of his face visible in the image. Pele is suffering from worsening cancer as well as kidney and heart problems.

Megan Thee Stallion

7. US rapper Tory Lanez has been found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion after an argument in the Hollywood Hills in 2020.

Lanez, 30, who pleaded not guilty, was convicted of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, discharging a firearm with gross negligence and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle.

Cribs

8. The live crib returned to Dublin this Christmas, though in a different location, and you may have your very own crib perched somewhere in your house.

Diarmuid Pepper has investigated the origin of this Christmas tradition, including questions of ethnicity and why there’s a defecating figurine in some Spanish nativities

Christmas cooking

9. In our Voices column today, the head chefs in O’Neill’s Pub and Townhouse in Dublin have some new recipes for the festive season, including what to do with leftovers.

From leftover curry to sprout pesto, these recipes will help you use up some of the Christmas spread.