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

IRELAND 

Afternoon sun over Lugnaquilla in the Wicklow Mountains. Eamonn Farrell Eamonn Farrell

• 68 deaths and 556 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Ireland. 
• Motorists have been warned of treacherous conditions in some areas as a Status Yellow snow/ice warning is in place for eight eastern counties.
• The government will table a bill next week that seeks to change the law to allow media and others report the names of child murder victims.
• The Tánaiste said the Irish and UK governments are discussing the arrangements around travel, stating it would “make sense” to have the same list of red countries.
• People who gave evidence to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission are contacting the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) and gardaí about the destruction of audio recordings of their testimony.
• BAM, the primary contractor building the new National Children’s Hospital, has submitted claims for extra costs running to more than €300 million, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told.
• The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) told an Oireachtas committee that frontline healthcare workers should receive some compensation for their work during the pandemic.
• A scheme is to be introduced that will provide a medical card to persons who are terminally ill and have a prognosis of up to 24 months.
• A former vet who is wanted to face multiple charges of sexual activity with animals and of having extreme pornographic material appeared before the High Court on foot of an extradition warrant.

INTERNATIONAL 

A video projection near Union Station on the first day of Trump's second impeachment trial. SIPA USA / PA Images SIPA USA / PA Images / PA Images

#ROUND TWO: Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial has begun as the former president stands accused of inciting the deadly mob attack on the US Capitol.

#CORONAVIRUS: Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) all but eliminated a controversial theory that Covid-19 came from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

PARTING SHOT 

It’s not snow or sleet, what is it? Some keen weather-watchers may have seen an interesting type of frozen precipitation falling from the sky today. Graupel are soft, small pellets formed when supercooled water droplets (at a temperature below 0°C)...(1/2)

— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) February 8, 2021

Wintry weather has taken over the country in the past couple of days, and it turns out there’s a term for the soft, small pellets falling from the sky (no, it’s not just snow). 

Graupel, also called snow pellets or soft hail, is formed when supercooled water droplets freeze onto a snow crystal, according to Met Éireann.

The graupel particles are quite fragile and disintegrate when handled. This is what you may have been seeing over the past two days. 

So there you go!