Fianna Fáil leader is staggering on, but poor handling of Jim Gavin controversy means he could face trouble next year It came not with a bang, but a whimper. After more than two months of cloak-and-dagger murmurs from the Fianna Fáil backbenches, a long-winded press release from three party grandees last Friday said it all. There would be no public call for Micheál Martin to step aside, and a line would be drawn under the whole sorry Jim Gavin affair.
Two countries dominated the Eurail rankings this year: Switzerland and Italy. Florence to Rome (Santa Maria Novella to Roma Termini) was the most popular journey of 2025. Switzerland's Interlaken Ost-Lauterbrunnen line and the Visp-Zermatt connection followed-with mountain villages, waterfalls, and alpine views, both routes are stunning. Paris to London via Eurostar came in fourth, and Milan to Florence rounded out the top five.
Leinster and Ireland full-back relieves the tense build-up that led to the elation of him scoring one of the most famous tries ever by an Irish player on last summer's Lions tour in Australia It's a dark, gloomy afternoon in Dublin, and as the rain pounds and the wind howls, we are nestled in the back of a cafe, safe from the elements, away from the madness of the Christmas rush outside.
Gardaí said security staff at the building had become aware of Fernandez after spotting him lingering around the site and monitored him on CCTV for some time. The court heard Fernandez ran towards the building's pedestrian entrance off Merrion Road, where a member of the security team attempted to speak to him. Fernandez then began swinging his arms towards the security worker, who retreated, moved backwards and fell, hitting his head on the ground.
Russian attacks targeting ports in Ukraine's Odesa killed seven people and wounded 15, Governor Oleh Kiper said in a post on Telegram. Kiper described the attack as massive and said it involved Russian ballistic missiles, which targeted trucks that caught fire. The Kyiv Independent news outlet reported that Odesa city has been suffering from chronic power outages since December 13, due to earlier Russian attacks.
Up and down the length of the 650-metre-long space, people come and go, bikes and scooters weaving in and out of the crowds. Next year, this scene will look somewhat different: bikes and scooters will be banned from this 18,000-sq-metre pedestrian zone for most of the day. People on two wheels will be allowed to ride only between 4am and 11am. At all other times, they must dismount and push their vehicle up the street, or face a fine.
Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to the fatal crash on the Conna Road R628, Co Cork, which occurred between Friday and 10am this morning. Gardaí and emergency services were alerted to the car in the water and the male driver and sole occupant was pronounced dead at the scene. "The male's body was removed to Cork University Hospital where a post-mortem examination will take place in due course.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez got everyone excited about a new countrywide travel pass which will cost 60 per month and can be used anywhere' in the country and on all types' of means of transport. People under 26 will pay 30. But it hasn't taken long for the first cracks to appear. For starters, there's the fact that, as things stand, it can only be used on commuter trains, mid-distance trains and state buses.
Austria is expected to create thousands of new jobs in 2026, but that does not mean the labour market will be painless. While healthcare, public services and green industries continue to expand, several sectors are heading in the opposite direction. From media to parts of the automotive supply chain, job losses are already underway and are set to continue into 2026. In many cases, this is less about sudden collapse and more about long-term structural change, digitalisation, cost pressure and shifting global markets.
Data for the first three quarters of 2025 have shown that smaller German firms have borne the brunt of almost three years of economic downturn in Europe's biggest economy over the past three years. On December 12, the chief analyst at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Volker Treier, told news agency Reuters that the "wave of insolvencies continues." He added that small and medium-sized enterprises in particular were "running into difficulties."
I grew up in a small place called Tana, where there were just 12 children in my school class. Of the five of us who were Sami, two came from families of reindeer herders. At the time, I believed the rest were Norwegian. Later, I learned that everyone in my class was Sami. Their parents had been pressured to hide who they were.
The Bureau of Prisons shut down FCI Dublin, a former minimum-security women's facility, in 2024 after news broke of the repeated sexual abuse of inmates, deteriorating and uninhabitable infrastructure, and cover-up and retaliation from the former prison's guards and staff. Felony charges were levied against the facility's warden, chaplain and several guards, who were suspected of running a rape club, resulting in nine convictions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (right) has arrived in Warsaw for meetings with his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki (left) and Polish Prime Minister Donald TuskImage: Kacper Pempel/REUTERS Skip next section What you need to know Zelenskyy is in Warsaw, seeking to shore up support from a key ally during a strategically crucial time Putin says he sees no 'readiness' from Ukraine for peace EU has agreed to fund a 90 billion loan for Ukraine
