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

Ireland

Wintery weather at the Dun Laoghaire baths which reopened this week. Sam Boal Sam Boal

• A Status Orange low temperature/ ice warning has come into effect as widespread temperatures below -5 degrees are expected tonight, leading to severe frost and ice. 
• Jonathan Dowdall claimed at the Special Criminal Court that he was “set up” for the murder of Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne.
• A man who murdered a woman in her 70s he had become obsessed with received a life sentence.
• The Taoiseach said overhauling the planning system through new laws is essential if Ireland is to meet its “climate change agenda”.<
• The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) reported that the health system is under “unprecedented strain”.
• A file will be prepared for the DPP following the release without charge of a man in his forties arrested in connection with the death of a woman knocked down by a car following a funeral.
• A jury was sworn in to hear the trial of a man who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of his elderly mother at his home. 

International

Police work near the scene of the fatal shooting of two officers and one other person in Wieambilla, Australia. Jason O’Brien / AAP Image/AP Jason O’Brien / AAP Image/AP / AAP Image/AP

#QATAR SCANDAL The Greek MP central to an EU parliament graft scandal is awaiting a key ruling that may keep her behind bars as she maintains her innocence.

#AUSTRALIA Police are investigating the extremist views of three people who shot and killed two officers and a neighbour at a rural property before they were killed hours later by police in a gunfight. 

#SOLIHULL A six-year-old boy has become the fourth child to die after falling into an icy lake in the UK on Sunday.

#IRAN A doctor, rap artists and a footballer are among around two dozen Iranians who risk being hanged as Tehran uses capital punishment as an intimidation tactic to quell protests, rights groups say.

#SLAVERY The Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte is to make a speech on slavery on 19 December without confirming reports that he would give a formal apology for the Netherlands’ role.

Parting Shot

Sean O’Rourke is to return to RTÉ screens for the first time since the Golfgate scandal.

The veteran broadcaster will present a TV and podcast series  called TwoTribes, which will explore the diverging paths taken by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the wake of the Civil War.

The journalist was a long-time RTÉ employee but retired in May 2020, and was understood to be in talks to return to the station in the following months when it was revealed that he attended the controversial Oireachtas Golf Society dinner held at a hotel in Clifden, Co Galway in August 2020 amid strict Covid-19 restrictions.

But this new series will mark his comeback, with interviews featuring historians and political figures, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin , Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, set to feature.

 Comments closed as legal proceedings are ongoing in a listed story