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

IRELAND

Image of the Northern Lights this evening in Co Donegal Maria Delaney / The Journal Maria Delaney / The Journal / The Journal

• Gardaí launched a murder investigation following the discovery of a man’s body in Co Wexford.
• A woman in her 40s died following a fire at a house in south Dublin on Monday evening.
• A total of 174 people died in 160 fatal collisions last year, according to an analysis from provisional fatal collision reports from An Garda Síochána.
• Gardaí are appealing for witnesses following a report of an alleged assault at a bus stop in Dublin.
• A young girl who suffered life-threatening injuries in an attack in Parnell Square in Dublin in November 2023 celebrated a “low-key New Year celebration” at home, her family said.
• An increase in Ireland’s minimum wage came into effect today.
• Meanwhile, here are the Budget 2025 measures that will take effect from today.
• An illegal 70-metre fishing net which was discovered at the Leixlip Reservoir in Co Kildare was taken down on Sunday by Inland Fisheries Ireland, with over 100 fish recovered from the drift net.
• The PSNI renewed an appeal for information regarding the disappearance of Martin Kelly, who went missing from Belfast on New Year’s Day in 2006.
• Ireland’s first baby of 2025 was born at just 19 seconds after midnight in the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin.

INTERNATIONAL

Emergency services attend the scene after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#NEW ORLEANS: At least 10 people died and dozens were injured following a “mass casualty incident” in New Orleans, after a vehicle was driven into a crowd celebrating the New Year.
#GAZA: An Israeli air strike killed at least 15 people in the territory’s north today, Gaza’s civil defence agency said, in what it called the first deadly attack of the New Year.
#MUAN: South Korean investigators probing a Jeju Air crash which killed 179 people said they will send one of the retrieved black boxes to the United States for analysis.
#GERMANY: The German Government condemned a series of incidents on New Year’s Eve in which police officers and firefighters were attacked and injured, mostly with fireworks.
#EU PRESIDENCY: Poland assumed the European Union presidency from Viktor Orban’s Hungary.
#SCHENGEN ZONE: Romania and Bulgaria became full members of the Schengen zone, expanding the borderless area to 29 members and ending a 13-year wait for the two eastern European countries.

PARTING SHOT

Australia celebrated the arrival of 2025 with a midnight fireworks display on Sydney Harbour Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

2024 IS OVER and with a New Year comes a new resolve for some people. 

There will be some who see a new year as a good way to kick start a new habit or cut out an old one.

However, others think resolutions don’t work and just put unnecessary pressure on people at what can already be a stressful time.

So in today’s poll we wanted to know: Did you make a New Year’s resolution?

Take part in our poll here, or see how others have been voting.