GOOD MORNING. HERE’S everything you need to know as the weekend gets underway.

1. Gaza War

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Egypt into war-torn and besieged Gaza started passing through the Rafah border crossing today, a security source and an Egyptian Red Crescent official told AFP.

Egyptian state television showed several trucks entering the gate on the 15th day of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Some 2.4 million Palestinians live in the densely populated enclave, and almost half have been displaced, according to the UN. Israel has cut off supplies of water, electricity, fuel and food to the long-blockaded territory.

2. Weather

There will be a brief respite from the wet weather this weekend with cooler, more settled conditions forecast, but the rain is likely to return next week.

According to Met Éireann, it will be a dry day in many places today, with variable cloud and some brighter spells. Some drizzle will remain, however, and there will be some showers in the north and west.

3. Citizen’s Assembly

The Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use is to vote today on its key recommendations to the Government on possible policy, legislative and operational changes to Ireland’s drug policy that it believes will reduce harms to individuals and communities. 

One of the most debated issues that has been considered by the assembly is whether a policy of drug decriminalisation should be put in place in Ireland. 

4. Vaping

A number of schools have removed the outer doors of bathrooms on their campuses in an effort to crack down on vaping, as they struggle to find ways to deal with the large numbers of students using vapes during school hours. 

Parents of students from one school in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan were upset to find out, through their children, that this decision was taken without their consultancy.

5. Collision 

A number of people were hospitalised following a collision between a car and a bus in Co Tipperary yesterday.

The incident happened on the N76 outside of Clonmel, near Kilsheelan at around 4.30pm. The driver of the car was taken to Cork University Hospital where he is currently receiving treatment for serious injuries.

6. EU politics ‘not working’

A number of Irish MEPs have spoken to TheJournal about the issues they see with how EU politics are functioning. 

It comes after European Commission president Ursula vond der Leyen has been strongly criticised for her response to the Israel and Hamas war and bombardment of Gaza.

7. All Blacks victory 

New Zealand easily dispatched Argentina to advance to the final of the Rugby World Cup in what was a bit of a no-contest last night in France. The All Blacks easily defeated their opponents.  

8. Trump fined

Former US president Donald Trump has been fined $5,000 after a disparaging social media post about a key court employee in his New York civil fraud case was allowed to linger on his campaign website after the judge ordered it deleted.

Judge Arthur Engoron avoided holding Trump in contempt for now, but reserved the right to do so – and possibly put him in jail – if he continued to violate a gagging order barring parties in the case from personal attacks on court staff.

9. Web Summit

Amazon has become the latest company to say that they will not be participating in this year’s Web Summit in Lisbon, a representative for Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing arm of the company, confirmed to the Business Post.

The news follows the announcement by Google and Meta yesterday that they were withdrawing from the tech event following comments made by its chief executive Paddy Cosgrave in relation to Israel and Palestine.