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

IRELAND

Liv Judd from Canada attends the St Stephen's Day sales Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• A man died following a crash in Letterkenny this morning.
• The leader of the Green Party said he believes one of the party’s TDs can become Taoiseach in two governments’ time.
• The current Taoiseach said the Irish government would not “dismiss or pooh-pooh” the idea of a bridge being built linking Northern Ireland and Scotland.
• The PSNI Chief Constable was criticised for posing alongside machine-gun-armed officers outside a police station in Crossmaglen.
• A man appeared at a Belfast court over the pre-Christmas murder of two people in a flat in the city.
• Another man appeared in court over charges relating to a house fire in Navan.
• It emerged that nearly 800 children contacted Childline on Christmas Day.
• St Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin urged members of the public to donate their unwanted Christmas gifts, rather than exchanging them.

INTERNATIONAL

A swimmer reacts as he climbs out of the Vltava river at an annual swim in Prague, Czechia Slavek Ruta / PA Images Slavek Ruta / PA Images / PA Images

#COSTA DEL SOL The British father and his two children who drowned in a Spanish swimming pool on Christmas Eve were named.

#TYPHOON PHANPHONE At least 20 people were killed in a tropical storm that swept across remote villages and popular tourist areas of the central Philippines on Christmas Day.

#MIDDLE EAST Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to take shelter after a rocket launch from the Gaza strip set off warning sirens.

#CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Japan executed a Chinese man over the 2003 murder and robbery of a family of four, the first foreigner to be put to death in the country in 10 years.

PARTING SHOT

Around 150 people gathered outside the main entrance to Brown Thomas on Dublin’s Grafton Street before 9am for one of the most popular winter sales events in the city. 

The department store was promising discounts of up to 50% on clothes, accessories, footwear and other items, and shoppers flooded the story when its doors finally opened.

Comments have been closed as legal proceedings are active in some of the stories above.