"A complete meltdown of humanity".
That description of yesterday's bloodshed in Aleppo as described by a UN official in which 82 civilians were killed by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad provides a caption over a picture of people fleeing their homes on the front of today's Irish Times.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
The Irish Independent, meanwhile, runs with a picture of a man carrying an infant wrapped in a blanket in one arm and an iv drip in the other. A woman in a burka walks behind him.
That paper also reports that many of those civilians who were shot yesterday by Syrian forces were shot inside their own homes.
"Women, children 'shot on sight' in Aleppo carnage" is the headline there.
And writing inside today's Independent Robert Fisk suggests that "The familiar and now tired political-journalistic narrative is in need of refreshing. It's time to tell the other truth that many of the 'rebels' whom we in the West have been supporting are among the cruellest and most ruthless of fighters in the Middle East."
Over in The Irish Examiner, meanwhile, Reuters global affairs columnist Peter Apps writes that:
"While blaming Vladimir Putin is easy the US and the UK must also take responsibility".
Rent cap
The big domestic story of the day is Simon Coveney's plan to impose a cap on rent.
The Irish Independent and Irish Examiner both lead with this story today.
"Fianna Fail casts doubts on plans for rent limits" is the headline in The Examiner...while a headline on the front of the Irish Times runs with the headline: "Coveney faces resistance to rent proposals".
All of today's papers provide extensive coverage and analysis of this story today.
Writing in the Independent, David McWilliams conjures up an image of the Housing Minister "in a translucent, skin-tight leotard...high above the political swamp...walking the tight-rope between the social reforming objective of rent control and the hard commercial reality of dormant housing supply".
Capping rents while accelerating building won't be easy but, according to McWilliams:
"Doing something urgently is far better than doing nothing". A sentiment which is echoed in the paper's lead editorial headline: "Coveney's rent plan is flawed...but it's a start".
Elsewhere this morning:
A court case this time at Monaghan District Court provides the lead story in today's Irish Daily Mirror.
Most of today's other papers also report on the conviction of former Fine Gael TD Sean Conlan yesterday for assaulting a man with a broken glass in his family pub last August.
But finally, the Examiner has a picture on its back page today of the winner of Energia award for the best lit-up home in the country this Christmas.
It's Tony and Hannah Noonan's house in Co Limerick which has a total of 500,000 Christmas lights and a sign on the driveway urging visitors to keep off the grass "due to high voltage".
