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

IRELAND

Thomas Taylor arriving from Kenna kisses daughter Chartlet Taylor aged 2 Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

• Gardaí are appealing for information after a young female pedestrian was seriously injured in a hit and run road traffic collision in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, Saturday.
• Families in a Letterkenny housing estate have been left in limbo after finding out that a deal for their landlord to sell the homes to Donegal County Council is on the verge of collapse.
• Three men in Dublin were hospitalised with injuries in separate assaults that occurred across the city centre in the late evening and night. 
• Met Éireann has issued Status Yellow wind and snow-ice warnings for a number of counties across the country. 
• Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said the party will speak with Laois Councillor Caroline Stanley, wife of ex-Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley, in the new year, telling The Journal “there are issues there that need to get ironed out”. 
• NAMA has today completed a €400 million cash transfer to the Exchequer.
• The Dublin Commuter Coalition has raised alarm over reduced public transport services during the Christmas season, as they warn that delays to new bus services and a temporary suspension of cross-city trains will pose significant commuting challenges.

INTERNATIONAL

#GERMANY Five people have been killed and 200 have been injured after a car was driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg yesterday evening.

#HE SAID SHE SAID Pope Francis has told Vatican bureaucrats to stop speaking ill of one another as he used his annual Christmas greetings to admonish the backstabbing and gossiping among his closest collaborators.

#CUTTING IT FINE The US Senate rushed through the final passage of a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid.

PARTING SHOT

Stonehenge, Wiltshire, Englanf Alamy Alamy

Thousands of people greeted the dawn with cheers and applause at Stonehenge this morning as they marked the winter solstice.

Those who observed the spectacle at the neolithic monument in Wiltshire encountered a windy morning as they marked the shortest day.

Check out the celebration in pictures here.