LAST UPDATE | 19 Dec 2025

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Ukraine

1. EU leaders have struck a deal to provide Ukraine a loan of €90 billion to plug its looming budget shortfalls – but failed to agree on using frozen Russian assets to come up with the funds.

Bondi Beach

2. Australia will use a sweeping buyback scheme to “get guns off our streets”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said as hundreds plunged into the ocean to honour Bondi Beach shooting victims.

Mercosur

3. The signing of a trade deal between the EU and South American bloc Mercosur was pushed back to January, after farmers staged a show of force against the pact outside a Brussels leaders’ summit.

CareDoc dispute

4. Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said that a pay dispute between the HSE and out-of-hours GP service CareDoc has been resolved, but the unions have said no offer has been received on their end.

Central Bank warning

5. Job postings have fallen year-on-year and the unemployment rate has edged higher, but the Central Bank says this cooling in Ireland’s labour market should not be mistaken for an economic downturn.

Brown University

6. A man believed to be behind both a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor has been found dead after a days-long manhunt.

Green card

7. US Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem suspended the green card lottery programme yesterday, saying it was used by the suspect in a mass shooting at Brown University.

Palestine Action

8. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intervene in the case of pro-Palestine hunger strikers.

Sligo

9. Retirees renting homes in a Co Sligo community have spoken of their dismay after the owner of the houses commenced eviction proceedings.