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

IRELAND

William Deasy gets to meet Santa Claus as bikers from Killarney and Tralee came together for the Annual Charity Christmas Bike run on the Ring of Kerry 175km route. Valerie O'Sullivan Valerie O'Sullivan

• A cyclist died after being struck by a Luas in Dublin. He was later named as 19-year-old Labour Youth Chair Cormac Ó Braonáin.
• Micheál Martin urged the Taoiseach to set a date for the general election next year.
• A man in his 20s died after crashing into a wall near Cork city.
• Internal Tusla documents revealed that staff complained of poor engagement with Scouting Ireland. 
• A Status Yellow snow/ice warning was extended to tomorrow morning. 
• Thousands of calls to a helpline for abuse survivors were missed due to limited staffing hours. 
• The value of residential property in Ireland climbed by €5.3 billion in the last 12 months.
• Over 2,800 people used a late-night Dublin Bus route in the first five nights of operation. 
• Facebook data showed that Fine Gael outspent all other parties promoting candidates through the social media platform for the recent by-election.
• Police in the North are investigating a serious assault in Antrim.

INTERNATIONAL

A dog taking part in a sausage dog festive walk in Hyde Park, London. Hollie Adams / PA Images Hollie Adams / PA Images / PA Images

#BULLISH: Michael Gove said today he was “confident” of a Brexit trade deal by the end of the year despite Michel Barnier describing this as “unrealistic”. 

#COP25: Rich countries were accused of being “missing in action” as a compromise at the UN climate summit fell well short of what had been called for.

#MESUT OZIL: Chinese State TV pulled coverage of an Arsenal match over comments made by a player about the treatment of Muslims. 

PARTING SHOT

The recriminations in the Labour Party will continue for a very long time after their mauling in the general election. 

Part of their efforts will be to try to understand why the red wall fell and what can be done to regain those voters in northern England.

This piece on The Guardian sees reporter Tim Adams travel to Tony Blair’s old constituency of Sedgefield to discover why men and women who voted for Labour their whole lives went Tory. 

“You are talking about the north-east of England. It is not just based on a strong unionised workforce, but also the armed services. There is hardly a family around here who has not had a son or a brother or a father serve. A man like Corbyn, with his history, they could not vote for him.”