LAST UPDATE | 18 Dec 2024

GOOD MORNING. HERE’S everything you need to know as another day gets underway.

New Dáil

1. The 34th Dáil will sit for the first time this morning in Leinster House following the general election last month. 

E-scooter explosion

2. Russia has detained a suspect in the killing of the head of the army’s chemical weapons division, investigators have said.

Healthcare collapse in Sudan

3. Gunfire rattles in the distance, warplanes roar overhead and nearby shelling makes the ground tremble, more than a year and a half into a grinding war between rival Sudanese generals.

Embattled health workers “have no choice but to continue”.

Sentence for driving offence

4. A disqualified driver who waved at gardaí as he drove through a garda checkpoint during a pursuit on Christmas Day two years ago has been jailed for almost three years.

Gaza

5. Doctors without borders staff working in Gaza were trapped in their homes and offices by bombing and gunfire in an area densely populated with displaced Palestinians.

Luigi Mangione

6. US authorities have charged the man suspected of fatally shooting a health insurance CEO in New York earlier this month with murder, including a second-degree murder charge “as an act of terrorism.”

Oscars for Ireland?

7. Belfast rap trio Kneecap has been shortlisted in two categories for Oscars 2025.

Greenland

8. Founder of Greenpeace and anti-whaling activist Paul Watson has been released from a prison in Greenland after authorities there dropped extradition proceedings which would’ve made him face charges in Japan.

Pensions

9. A single person would need a pension of €33,600 a year, and a couple would need €43,200 a year, in order to have a “comfortable” retirement, RTÉ has reported, based on figures by the Pensions Council of Ireland.