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Tonight's Evening Fix... now with added apologies from Death Row inmates

Here are the things we learned, loved and shared today.

Thousands of Egyptian protesters gather in Tahrir Square to rally against president Mohammed Morsi (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

HERE ARE THE things we learned, loved and shared today as we round off the day in three easy steps.

THINGS WE LEARNED

#ANGLO TAPES: “I knew they were bad, bad, bad” – former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has spoken publicly for the first time about release of taped conversations between senior executives at the bank, saying he is sorry for the bad language and frivolous tone. Drumm also criticised the media for suggesting that Anglo bosses misrepresented the bank’s financial situation in order to make sure it was bailed out by the State.

#BANKING INQUIRY: Separately, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has defended the slow pace of criminal proceedings against bankers and said prosecutors are being deliberately cautious because they don’t want to ‘blow the case’. Noonan said he expects to see three bankers appearing before the courts in the first half of next year.

#TRAGEDY: Gardaí are investigating after a woman was struck by an out-of-service commuter train in the early hours of this morning near the Adamstown station in west Dublin. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

#BUGGING: Tensions are running high between the US and the EU following revelations in a German news magazine that Washington bugged European Union offices in Brussels and America. Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said he was shocked at the allegations, attributed to US fugitive Edward Snowden, and demanded full clarification from Washington.

#ROBBEN ISLAND: Barack Obama has said he was “deeply humbled” by his visit to the South African prison cell where Nelson Mandela spent most of his 27-year incarceration.

#SNOBBERY?: Dublin City Council will vote tomorrow night on a controversial plan to ban charity shops from Grafton Street’. Council officials say charity shops would detract from the character of the street, but groups representing the shops say the proposal is based on snobbery rather than retailing facts.

THINGS WE LOVED

Barack Obama peers out from the Robben Island prison cell where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years imprisoned. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

  • For some, it is a final chance to be the centre of attention; for others, it is an opportunity to make amends or to apologise. Texas – which kills more people through the death penalty than any other US state – publishes the final statements of its inmates on a prison website, which makes for eerie reading.  The New York Times has a good insight into the reasons why it does this here, and you can see the actual statements here.
  • “When there is a close up of a face it’s like you’re looking at a giant. Impressive!”. What would happen if films were reviewed in the weirdly cold and analytical way that video games are reviewed? This. This would happen.
  • Twenty-six years ago, a young woman committed a small act of kindness on a crowded bus in Bristol. Now, the person she was kind to has written this moving and anonymous letter in the Guardian about how much that one tiny gesture meant to her.

THINGS WE SHARED

  • Forget about the Stones. Cavan teenagers The Strypes played at Glastonbury last night to a packed tent, and by all accounts killed it. Here they are performing Blue Collar Jane and simultaneously looking ridiculously cool.

(Video: BBC/YouTube)

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