EACH WEEKDAY evening, TheJournal.ie brings you five things you should know at 5pm.

1. #WIKILEAKS: Ecuador today granted political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, two months after he took refuge in the country’s embassy in London. Ecuador’s foreign minister said the country believed that Assange’s fears of persecution were legitimate and that his human rights were in danger of being violated. However, the UK has said the decision “changes nothing” and that the Wikileaks founder will still be extradited to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of sexual assault.

2. #AER LINGUS: Etihad Airways has indicated an interest in buying Ryanair’s 30 per cent stake in Aer Lingus: Etihad already owns 3 per cent of the Irish flag carrier, and says it has also had talks about buying the Irish Government’s 25 per cent stake in the airline. CEO James Hogan said Dublin was a strong and profitable route for the Abu Dhabi head-quartered airline and it was “very keen” to strengthen its partnership there.

3. #CONCERTS: Gardaí have warned concert-goers that tight restrictions will be in place at a series concerts due to take place at Marlay Park in Dublin. Some 175 gardaí and sniffer dogs are scheduled to patrol the David Guetta concert next week – and gardaí will be permitted to carry out searches both at the entrance point to the concert and within the park. Kasabian and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Van Morrison, Tom Jones and Don Baker are also book to play the park. Private security will be supplied by MCD, the concert promoter.

4. #GETAWAY: An armed raider made off with an undisclosed sum of cash from a G4S security van in the car park of Rathfarnham Shopping Centre on Butterfield Avenue at around 12.45pm. No details of the amount taken have been disclosed. No-one was injured in the incident.

5. #WHALE: The Baltimore whale, which was stuck at the west Cork harbour since Tuesday, has died. It is understood the body of the 40-foot mammal will be removed to Waterford by the National Park & Wildlife Service, where it may be used for scientific research purposes.