EVERY MORNING TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #STATE PAPERS 1989: A senior British politician who stated in 1989 that some solicitors in Northern Ireland were “unduly sympathetic to the cause of the IRA” was reflecting “a precise official briefing” and was not making “spontaneous outburst”, newly released State papers show.

2. #MOGADISHU: A massive truck bomb exploded in a busy area of the Somali capital today, leaving at least 61 people dead.

3. #DRIVERS: More than half a million people, a total of 516,390, had penalty points on their driving licences this year – here’s how that breaks down by county.

4. #SPAIN: The mother of two children who drowned alongside their father while holidaying in the Costa del Sol said all three could swim, and claimed there was something “wrong” with the pool they died in.

5. #ASYLUM SEEKERS: An expert group on Direct Provision is being announced today to look at new ways to “better meet needs of asylum seekers”.

6. #RISING WINDS: A wind “revolution” is needed if Ireland is going to meet its energy needs in the future, according to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

7. #UK: The New Year Honours list has sparked a backlash, as it includes former director of public prosecutions Alison Saunders and ex-Tory Party leader Iain Duncan Smith.

8. #STATE PAPERS 2: Paddy Joe Hill, one of the Birmingham Six, wrote a letter from his prison cell to Taoiseach Charles Haughey in 1989, reminding him to support their case for a retrial.

9. #STATE PAPERS 3: A lobby group for Northern businesses was accused by an Irish diplomat of spreading misinformation about Ireland in 1989 to prevent South Korean firms from investing here.