Every Morning, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know as you kick off your day — shortly before 9am.

1. #CONTEST: Alex White is to throw his hat in the ring for the Labour leadership later this morning.

2. #MEDICAL CARDS: The suspension of the review discretionary medical cards has been widely welcomed, but families say clarity is needed as to what the changes will mean.

3. #STRIKE: The 24-hour work stoppage by cabin crew of Aer Lingus is underway with pickets outside Cork, Shannon and Dublin airports. Most of the airline’s flights are cancelled today.

4. #GANG RAPE: Two teen sisters have been gang raped, killed and hung from a mango tree in India. Two of the men so far arrested are believed to be policemen.

5. #EXPLOSION: A hotel in Derry has been badly damaged after a device was thrown into its reception area.

6. #BLACK WIDOW: Catherine Nevin, who was jailed for life for murdering her husband, is to have her appeal heard in July, reports The Irish Times.

7. #HPV: The HSE say they cannot contact home-schooled girls about getting the HPV vaccine due to data protection issues.

8.#JOBS THREAT: Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, the IDA Chief Executive Barry O’Leary urged workers at the Bausch + Lomb eye care facility in Waterford to consider carefully proposals put to them by management.

9. #MH370: No debris of missing Malaysian Airlines flight has been found where an underwater acoustic transmissions were detected in early April.