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

IRELAND

Taoiseach Micheál Martin in Government Buildings today. Julien Behal Photography Julien Behal Photography

• Ireland is to move to a version of Level 5 restrictions from Christmas Eve due to rapidly increasing rates of Covid-19. 
• The rolling restrictions include limits on household and will last until 12 January, here’s when the different measures will come in. 
• Non-essential retail is to remain open under Level 5 but shops asked to defer January sales.
• Ireland’s travel ban from Britain is to remain in place ‘until at least 31 December’.
• The HSE has issued updated advice for anyone who has arrived in Ireland from Britain since 8 December, including self-isolation for 14 days. 
• The developments come amid rising cases of Covid-19, with 13 deaths and 970 cases confirmed today. 
• The number of people who can attend a wedding will be reduced to six from 3 January.
• The first vaccines against Covid-19 in Ireland will be administered on 30 December.
• Northern Ireland became a ‘funnel’ to the Republic from Britain after Sunday’s travel ban was introduced, Stormont’s Health Minister has said. 
• A man has been convicted of the murder of two Irish soldiers in Lebanon in 1980.

WORLD

Lorry drivers walk about on the M20 in Kent where freight traffic is parked up. PA Images PA Images

#CHANNEL: France is to ease a travel ban from the UK subject to negative tests from lorry drivers as worries grow about supply chain issues.

#PEAK: A further 36,804 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the UK – the highest number of daily cases since the pandemic began. 

#BREXIT: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in “close contact” with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen as the time to strike a post-Brexit trade deal.

#NEW ZEALAND: The man who murdered British backpacker Grace Millane after meeting her on a dating app has also been convicted of two other violent offences against women. 

PARTING SHOT

How did the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference come to happen? @Olivianuzzi writes on her six-week, 37-source search for answers https://t.co/qAa9eZEvRw

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) December 22, 2020

Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Four words that will forever be associated with the shambles of the Donald Trump campaign’s failure to accept the result of the election. But just how did the infamous press conference come about, Olivia Nuzzi of New York Magazine set about finding out.