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

IRELAND

Jack 10 and Emily McGrath 8 from Blackrock pictured at yesterday's Elf Dash in Cabinteely Park Gareth Chaney Gareth Chaney

• A nationwide Status Yellow wind warning issued for tomorrow has been upgraded to Status Orange in eleven counties.
• Ruth Lawrence was been given two separate life sentences for shooting a drug dealer and working in tandem with her boyfriend to murder him and another man.
• Gardaí investigating the death of a woman and child in a fire at a home in Co Offaly believe they were not the intended targets of the attack and were entirely innocent victims. 
• A 14-year-old boy was among the youngest people arrested for drink driving last year, according to new figures from the Medical Bureau of Road Safety.
• A social media campaign shared by the Department of Housing, which offers advice to young people moving back in with their parents, was met with shock and fury.
• A judicial review taken by a private company against the expansion of the Dart railway service has been resolved.
• A social housing organisation in Dublin said it “regrets the inconvenience” caused to two of its tenants in south Dublin, whose homes have been affected by severe leaking, damp and mould for over a year without any resolution, despite repeated engagement with the charity.
• Gardaí have recovered 18 cattle that were stolen from a farm in west Cork last month.
• Fota Wildlife Park in Co Cork is to reopen later this month, after an outbreak of avian influenza shut the attraction down.
• Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal were nominated for Golden Globes for their roles in Hamnet.
• Audiences from some 137 countries tuned into The Late Late Toy Show on the RTÉ Player.
• Christmas shoppers at Liffey Valley got an unexpected spectacle today as dozens of people willingly joined a pre-11am queue for a new chicken wing restaurant.

INTERNATIONAL

Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz say farewell to Starmer and Zelenskyy Alamy Alamy

#JAPAN: A major earthquake rocked Japan’s northern coast today, with the country’s meteorological agency recording several tsunami waves and local media reporting injuries.
#UKRAINE: Crisis talks over the future of Ukraine took behind the black door of No 10 Downing Street, after the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in London to meet European allies.
#JOEY BARTON: Former Premier League footballer Joey Barton was spared jail after sending grossly offensive social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.

PARTING SHOT

Paudie Moloney RTÉ RTÉ

Paudie Moloney from The Traitors Ireland has been announced as the second contestant on Dancing With The Stars this upcoming season.

Former Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh was the first contestant announced yesterday.

Revealing Moloney as the next contestant, RTÉ said he had “won over the country earlier this year with his typical Irish Dad forthrightness that struck a chord with viewers”.

The retired prison officer has appeared on The Late Late Show alongside his son and felly The Traitor Island contestant Andrew, as well as being cast as the wizard in a Dublin Christmas panto Olly Goes to Oz.

“I’m really looking forward to the challenge, but I’m afraid all the glitter, the fake tan, and the sequins are going to be very new to me so I don’t know what to make of any of that,” he said.

“I really got lucky with my pro dancer – I can’t say the same for her but she has reassured me we’ll have a lot of fun while going through this great experience.”

It returns from Sunday 4 January on RTÉ One.