LAST UPDATE | 4 Jan 2021

EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #MALAYSIA: A coroner has ruled that the death of Irish-French teenager Nora Quoirin was most likely due to “misadventure”.

2. #COVID-19: Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn has urged members of the public to cut their contacts to a minimum after a record 4,692 new cases of coronavirus were reported yesterday. 

3. #US: Donald Trump has come under fire after a recording emerged in which he is heard asking Georgia’s election chief to “find” votes to overturn the state’s election result.

4. #VACCINES: The rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is set to begin in Northern Ireland from today. 

5. #IVF: The Department of Health has told Noteworthy that “it is not possible” to give a definitive timeline for the rollout of publicly-funded IVF, despite an indication by former Minister for Health Simon Harris that the service would begin in 2021. 

6. #UK: Millions more people in England are reportedly set to be placed under the toughest level of Covid-19 restrictions after a key government committee meets today.

7. #WIKILEAKS: A UK court is set to rule whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States.

8. #WEATHER: Met Éireann has forecast freezing and icy conditions for the next few days, with temperatures expected to fall to -4 in parts tonight.

9. #SCHOOLS: Minister for Education Norma Foley will meet with members of the opposition today regarding the re-opening of the country’s schools next week, although it is currently expected that this will happen on 11 January.