GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

1. Israel

Fresh strikes were reported across the Gaza Strip overnight, as mediators urged Israel and Hamas to agree to a truce and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden.

Since Biden spoke at the White House on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted Israel will pursue the war – now nearing its ninth month – until it has destroyed Hamas and freed the captives taken during the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented 7 October attack.

2. Mayo 

Taoiseach Simon Harris has called for a garda investigation into what he described as “thuggery” while he was campaigning in Mayo this afternoon. 

Harris faced disruption while canvassing in Westport and faced barracking from protesters in Castlebar about state provision of asylum seeker accommodation in the county.

3. South Africa

Humbled by a historic election result this week, South Africa’s African National Congress has been talking to all other political parties in an effort to form a coalition government, after it lost its 30-year majority.

4. Monaghan

Gardaí were investigating the discovery of a man’s body at a residence in Co Monaghan last night. The man’s body was found around 10pm last night in a property in Clones.

Gardaí have launched an investigation into his death.

5. Mexico

Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become Mexico’s first female president, RTÉ News reports

Ms Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote.

6. Migration

EU border policy was among the major themes debated on yesterday’s The Week in Politics programme on RTÉ after Taoiseach Simon Harris said on Friday that he was keeping a “very open mind” about the possibility of the EU outsourcing the processing of asylum seeker claims to non-EU countries. 

7. Lightning 

18 people were injured after a lightning strike hit a tree in a castle park in northern Czechia yesterday.

The strike occurred in the Liberec-Vratislavice castle park about 90 kilometres northeast of the capital Prague.

8. South Korea

North Korea launched hundreds of rubbish-filled balloons towards the South after a similar campaign a few days earlier, according to South Korea’s military, in what Pyongyang called retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.

Between Saturday night and Sunday morning, about 600 balloons flown from North Korea have been found in various parts of South Korea.

9. Weather

It will be mainly dry though rather cloudy today, according to Met Éireann.

Yhe best of the sunshine will be in the south and there’ll be patchy drizzle in the north. Highest temperatures 14 to 20 degrees, warmest in the south, in a light to moderate westerly breeze.