Four week old meerkat cub Monty in his enclosure at Blair Drummond Safari Park, as a group of new cubs make their public debut. (Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

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: Fianna Fáil has tabled a motion of no confidence in Alan Shatter, scheduling a Dáil debate on the matter next week. It says Shatter’s position is untenable since he revealed details of Mick Wallace’s own encounters with Gardaí, and that the minister has shown “extremely poor judgement” of late.

#PUBLIC PAY: The junior finance minister has warned that trade unions who don’t sign up to the new ‘Haddington Road’ deal will have “less favourable” conditions applied to them unilaterally. Brian Hayes’ warning came after the two secondary teachers’ unions both rejected the deal.

#HADDINGTON: Meanwhile, the association of Irish doctors has postponed a decision on how to respond to the proposals. The Irish Medical Organisation wants further guidance on plans to hold talks on how to encourage aspiring consultants not to leave Ireland.

#LONDON: Two people have been arrested on suspicion of trying to endanger an aircraft, after a flight from Pakistan was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Stansted this afternoon. An RAF jet was scrambled to escort the plane to the ground. It’s thought that a passenger had become loud and disruptive – and it’s been suggested that he may have tried to access restricted areas of the aircraft.

#COURTS: A Garda has appeared in court charged with fabricating an official document. Catherine McGowan, 46, is alleged to have forged a letter from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in a case investigating a sexual assault in 2011. She was remanded on bail.

#WOOLWICH: Police in London are unable to determine whether Lee Rigby, the soldier killed in Wednesday’s machete attack in Woolwich, was deliberately targeted – or whether he was attacked simply for wearing the t-shirt of a veterans’ charity. It has emerged that the two suspects were known to security services and had been part of previous investigations.

No, love – the photographers are over there. Marion Cotillard poses at a photo call for ‘The Immigrant’ at the 66th international film festival in Cannes. (Francois Mori/AP)

THINGS WE LOVED

• Just a lion enjoying an encounter with some Dachshunds. As you do.
• If you ever make it into professional sports, we dare you – dare you! - to interrupt a colleague’s interview like this.
• The reaction of this crowd at an Aussie Rules match in the last few hours. Sydney Swans player Adam Goodes – who is well known for his work in his native indigenous Australian community – was abused by a fan during a game. He stops to point her out, and gets her kicked out of the ground… and it’s perfectly clear who’s side the fans are on:

(YouTube: timthemanager)

THINGS WE SHARED

• We’re dialling up the information superhighway today, marking the 17th birthday of RTE.ie. Here’ Colum Connolly’s report on the launch of the website, which was aimed at 80 million internet users around the world, and streamed the Late Late online for expatriates to watch.
• Ever wonder how laws apply in space? This nifty piece from The Economist might get you started. It deals with the question of copyright for Chris Hadfield’s cover of ‘Space Oddity’ could have opened up a whole new can of worms for international copyright law.
• So we’re all still obsessing over Daft Punk’s new album, ‘Random Access Memories’ (and its various YouTube mashups). But if they’d performed the whole thing on a Game Boy…

(YouTube: Joe Jeremiah)

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