Catch-up with what you've missed with our evening briefing

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

IRELAND

The Government is set to announce that businesses who could not get insurance and who have been affected by Storm Desmond are to get emergency payments of up to €5,000. The €5m fund is to be administered by the Red Cross.

The number of people sleeping rough in Dublin has almost halved when compared to this time last year. The 2015 rough sleeper count showed that there were 91 people sleeping on the streets of Dublin on December 1st, compared with 168 in 2014.

The Dáil has agreed to extra sittings this week and next week in order to pass legislation before Christmas. TDs will work tomorrow, Monday and begin work earlier on Tuesday to get extra laws passed.

The HSE has said it is unable to do anything about nurses' pay, as it is signed up to the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

WORLD

Donald Trump has scrapped a planned trip to Israel saying he will reschedule “at a later date after I become President of the US”. Mr Trump tweeted that he is postponing the trip, which had become problematic for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Being happy or sad has no bearing on your mortality, a study has found. A team at the University of Oxford said previous studies linking unhappiness to length of life failed to account for unhappiness caused by poor health, where the poor health was in itself a key factor to the shortening of someone’s life.

SPORT

Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has accepted a Football Association charge of violent conduct and will serve a three-match suspension, the governing body has announced.

Ulster boss Les Kiss has described French heavyweights Toulouse as “predictably unpredictable” ahead of Friday’s European Champions Cup clash in Belfast.

BUSINESS

Airbnb visits contributed €202m to the Irish economy in a year. The study carried out between October 2014 and September 2015 showed that 330,000 people used Airbnb to visit Ireland during that time, spending an average of €561 each.

Volkswagen shares climbed yesterday as it all but eliminated one front in the pollution scandal that has plagued the car maker for nearly three months, after the company’s suspicions of illegal discrepancies in carbon-dioxide emissions proved unfounded.

ANALYSIS

There is scarcely a logical reason for Britain to leave the EU, but fear can drive people to pull up a drawbridge, writes Philippe Legrain

LIFESTYLE

Michael Dell, chief executive of the company that bears his name, talks to Sophie Curtis about the biggest tech takeover in history, and why data is the next trillion-dollar opportunity

VIDEO

The people of Lyon did what they always do on December 8th and lit candles and put them on their windowsills and in public places but this year they did it to pay tribute to the 130 victims of last month’s Paris attacks.

VIRAL

These London pedestrians had a very lucky escape when the roof of a three-story building collapsed, sending debris crashing on to the street below.

This charity calendar featuring professional firemen is stirring things online. The calendar is raising money for Pompier Sans Frontières, a French organization that provides humanitarian aid and people are very impressed with its efforts.

TECHNOW

GAMING: The latest patch for Fallout 4 has just been released and it includes a large number of optimisations which improve frame rates and tighten up the flabby edges of Bethesda's biggest RPG to date.

MOVIES: With just under one week to go until Star Wars: The Force Awakens releases here in Ireland, a new international trailer has been released with a few new pieces of footage to get fans excited again.

TECH: Windows 10 has arrived, and it will change the way you use your devices forever.

SHOWBIZ

Irish actress Caitriona Balfe has been nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the American-British drama series Outlander. The good news keeps coming for Saoirse Ronan who has just received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama in Brooklyn and Michael Fassbender has received a nod for Best Lead Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Steve Jobs.

MOST READ RIGHT NOW

WE DIDN’T need Prime Time’s sting operation to tell us there was endemic corruption in our planning processes in this country. We only had to look at our destroyed landscapes and our ghost estates, writes Victoria White.