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

IRELAND 

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar welcomes Chinese premier Li Qiang, to Farmleigh House in Dublin Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

• China is reopening its market to Irish beef after it suspended imports in November, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has confirmed. 
• The HSE has apologised to a boy who developed a tracheoesophageal fistula after doctors failed to order an x-ray which could have confirmed he swallowed a button battery.
• The Dáil was suspended briefly today when People Before Profit TDs called on the government to allow a Dáil debate this week on the situation in Gaza.
• Local authorities cannot have an “a la carte” relationship with the Government, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said, after Mayo County Council passed a non-binding motion to end co-operation with a government department.
• Two men accused of murdering gunman Tristan Sherry, who died from “blunt force trauma to the head” after he fatally shot a man in a Dublin restaurant on Christmas Eve, have been denied bail.
• Gardaí have arrested a man in his 30s in connection with the discovery of 14 people inside a shipping container at Rosslare Harbour last week.
• Government will oppose a motion by Sinn Féin today to increase stamp duty on the bulk purchase of homes by investment funds. 
• A bid to elect a new Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly has failed and today’s session was suspended as a result. 
• It’s set to be another freezing night tonight with temperatures to drop as low as -6 degrees in some areas.

INTERNATIONAL

Police secure trucks carrying gas and humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip through the the Kerem Shalom crossing border Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#GAZA: Israel has continued to strike Gaza’s south, where medicines are expected to be delivered for hostages in exchange for humanitarian aid under a newly brokered deal.

#MIDLEADING: Legislation to ban misleading environmental claims on products has been approved by the European Parliament.

#TRUMP: E Jean Carroll has testified that former US president Donald Trump “shattered” her reputation after she accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s.

PARTING SHOT

The US and the UK began bombing Yemen this week after the Houthis launched attacks on international shipping vessels in the Red Sea.

This week on The Explainer podcast, we’re looking at everything about Yemen that might have flown under the radar in recent years with Dr Elisabeth Kendall, the Mistress of Girton College at Cambridge University and an Arabist and middle east specialist.

Listen here: 

https://soundcloud.com/the-explainer-podcast/why-did-the-us-and-the-uk-start-bombing-yemen-and-who-are-the-houthis

(Click here for Soundcloud link if you can’t view audio clip)