A young Indian boy cools himself off with water being distributed by the municipality in a local slum on a hot summer day in New Delhi, India. (Kevin Frayer/AP)

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

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#NO CONFIDENCE: The Dáil is beginning a two-day debate this evening on a motion of no confidence in justice minister Alan Shatter. Kicking off the debate, Fianna Fáil’s Niall Collins cited not only the recent penalty points controversy, but also Garda station closures and the banking veto in the insolvency system. Earlier, Enda Kenny once again said he had full confidence in Shatter – saying the difference between Shatter’s encounter with the Gardaí and that of Mick Wallace was that Shatter hadn’t committed a crime and Wallace had. Shatter also found an unlikely friend on the independent benches…

#HADDINGTON ROAD: One of Ireland’s biggest public unions has recommended that its members vote in favour of the ‘Haddington Road’ pay deal. The INMO, representing nurses and midwives, had been one of the staunchest critics of the original Croke Park 2 proposals. Its general secretary Liam Doran said the offer was the best available.

#PAY: The average weekly wage for a Irish worker stood at €696.59 in the first quarter of this year, the CSO says – up slightly from the last quarter of 2012. The same figures showed a drop of 1.3 per cent in the numbers employed in the public service; the average wage in public administration is now €938.99 a week.

#TOBACCO: Ireland is to become only the second country in the world to enforce new mandatory plain packages for cigarettes. Ireland will follow Australia’s lead in demanding that cigarettes be sold in bland packaging and carrying even bigger health warnings than they do right now.

#ATTACK: Gardaí investigating the stabbing of a solicitor in Dublin two years ago have arrested a man in his 30s. The man was detained in the city centre this morning after a vicious assault on a 44-year-old woman in her home at Donaghmede Park in 2011. The victim suffered serious injuries in the stabbing but has since recovered.

#AUSTERITY: Joan Burton no longer believes in austerity. The social protection minister has put her name to a letter in today’s Guardian where signatories argue that Europe must now move onto the “next stage”, as austerity measures have already been brought as far as possible.

Californian Jack Wiegand waves from the cockpit of his Mooney M20 single-engine plane prior to taking off for Kobe, Japan, in the next leg of his attempt to be the youngest pilot to fly around the world. Wiegand, 20, has flown across North America, the Atlantic, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

THINGS WE LOVED:

• This incredible photograph from the Women’s Museum of Ireland. It’s a young Irish doctor called Patricia Horne, crossing the Ananambra river in Nigeria in the 1950s. A talk on Patricia’s adventures in Nigeria will be given at the History Festival of Ireland next month.
• Most of us are probably a little uneasy about drones – unmanned planes which have become synonymous with bombings in some less fortunate parts of the world. Well, here’s a useful application for them in South Africa: one music festival is using drones to deliver beer to people who order it on their smartphones.
• This video makes us want chocolate, and also a purple carpet. But mostly chocolate.

(YouTube: CadburyIRE)

THINGS WE SHARED:

• In case you ever wondered just how developed Europe was, relative to some other parts of the world: here’s a map visualising the world’s busiest flight paths.
• If you’re going to heckle a comedian, just don’t make it Jimmy Carr.
• Ever wonder what it’s like actually being inside a tornado? Wonder no more. Sleep tight…

(YouTube: Brandon Ivey)

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