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

IRELAND

A sunset in Dublin Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ie Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ie / © RollingNews.ie

• Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have parked government formation talks for Christmas, planning to meet again in the New Year after making “progress” in meetings today.
• President Michael D Higgins strongly criticised Israel has having “transcended all of the boundaries of humanitarian law” in his annual, and final, Christmas address.
• Eight children from Palestine arrived at Dublin Airport yesterday evening to receive life-saving healthcare in Ireland.
• Public ethics watchdog Sipo, for a second time, ruled out a formal investigation into Leo Varadkar leaking a GP contract while he was Taoiseach.
• The High Court ordered that school teacher Enoch Burke should be released from prison, where he has been held since 2 September for contempt of court, in the interest of saving the public money that is being spent on jailing him.
• Dublin City Council put out a tender for a new five-storey City Library at Parnell Square and a new public plaza.
• A candidate for the far-right Irish People Party was sentenced to three months in prison for his part in disrupting a drag story event for children at Tralee library in July 2023 after behaviour that included barging aside a young man on door duty, throwing a man on the ground, twisting the arm of a woman and assaulting a photographer, the judge detailed. 
• A man was charged in connection with the ramming of a garda vehicle in the early hours of this morning.

THE WORLD

Emergency services attend the scene at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. Alamy Alamy

#GERMANY At least two people have been killed and dozens more injured by a car driving into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.

#FRANCE French President Emmanuel Macron commended Gisèle Pelicot for her bravery following the sentencing of her ex-husband to 20 years in prison for sedating and raping her and recruiting other men also rape her.

#HOLYHEAD We asked our readers this week to let us know if they have been affected by the closure of Holyhead Port in Wales, which has disrupted people’s travel plans and delayed the arrival of postal packages at the busiest time of the year – here are their stories.

PARTING SHOT

Munster has beaten out Ulster 22-19 in the URC Round 8 fixture at at Kingspan Ravenhill.