EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie bring you five stories you really should check out by 5pm.

1. #RACE FOR THE ÁRAS A new opinion poll has put Gay Byrne in the lead in the race for Áras an Uachtaráin, despite the fact that he hasn’t even officially declared himself in the running. He’s commanded the support of 24 per cent of respondents, putting him ahead of runner up Michael D. Higgins. Last night Byrne made the remark that Ireland was being run by “mad people” from the European Union.

2. #RIOTS British Prime Minister has said that too few police were on the streets and that they were using the wrong tactics during the worst of the disturbances across England. David Cameron addressed the House of Commons today and said that the unrest was not down to “politics or protest”, rather it was simply criminal activity.

3. #TABLET WARS Apple has won an injunction blocking the import of Samsung Galaxy tablets into Ireland and 25 other European countries. A German court has granted the injunction after Apple managed to persuade it that many aspects of the Galaxy 10.1 tablet mimick that of Apple’s iPad.

4. #DIRTY DOCTORS Junior doctors at Blanchardstown’s Connolly Hospital are being threatened with the loss of their car parking spaces if they don’t attend hygiene classes. They’ll be issued with a temporary month-long parking permits, and they’ll have to pay up when they expire, unless they finish their hygiene sessions.

5. #BERT AND ERNIE Thousands of people in New York have signed a petition for Sesame Street roommates Bert and Ernie to get married, since the city legalised gay marriage last month. The pair have never acknowledged that they were anything more than friends. They’ve shared a bedroom since Sesame Street began in 1969.