NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal brings you all of today’s top stories.

IRELAND

Director General of RTÉ Kevin Bakhurst and RTÉ Board chair Siun Ni Raghallaigh on their way into their meeting with Minister Catherine Martin Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• RTÉ is to seek legal advice from external lawyers following uproar about confidentiality clauses in the exit packages of senior staff.
• Tánaiste Micheál Martin said it will be “very challenging” to convince other member states to join with Ireland and Spain’s call for a review of the EU’s trade deal with Israel. 
• Gardaí are continuing to question two men in connection with the seizure of €32.8 million worth of drugs believed to be crystal meth.
• Former solicitor Michael Lynn, who was found guilty of stealing just over €18 million from six financial institutions during the Celtic Tiger era, has been jailed.
• Tributes have been paid following the death of long-time journalist Michael O’Regan.
• An oral hearing into the MetroLink project has heard that Ireland is “outgrowing its current transportation infrastructure”, with congestion reaching “critical levels”.
• TikTok is to cut several hundred jobs globally, with a proportion of the redundancies affecting staff at its headquarters in Dublin.
• A man who believed his wife had cheated on him in the past with his brother-in-law has been jailed for 10 years for stabbing his relative to death.
• A man in his 70s has been charged in relation to alleged historical abuse at a school in south Dublin.
• Gardaí are appealing for witnesses after a man was assaulted in Limerick shortly after midnight yesterday. 

INTERNATIONAL

Palestinian crowds struggle to buy bread from a bakery in Rafah, Gaza Strip Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#GAZA: Israel has threatened to invade Gaza’s Rafah by the start of Ramadan if Hamas does not return the remaining hostages by then.

#NAVALNY: Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya has accused President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband and vowed to continue his work.

#EU: Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen will seek a second term as president of the European Union’s powerful commission, she announced today. 

PARTING SHOT

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Blockbuster movie Barbie will be on the Leaving Certificate English syllabus for 2026.

The movie, which took €9,934,064 in box office receipts in Irish cinemas, was overlooked at last night’s Bafta awards in London last night.

However, in two years time, students in Ireland will be asked to compare various aspects of the film with other films – including its social context, the relationships between characters and the hero, heroine and villain.

• Read more about it here