Palestinian youths practice their parkour skills in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Pic: AP Photo/Hatem Moussa

HERE ARE THE things you need to know as we round off the day in three easy steps…

THINGS WE LEARNED

• There was good and bad news on the economic front this evening with Exchequer returns for the first quarter of the year showing tax revenue up but the International Monetary Fund gave a sobering assessment of our progress on the bailout.
• Education Minister Ruairí Quinn faced another tough crowd today, this time at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) annual conference in Galway where his speech received only small applause as delegates vowed to ballot on possible strike action, as RTÉ reports.
• The former HMV store on Grafton Street is now up for rent for a cool €1 million with Savills announcing details today.
• The sentencing of mother and father who killed six of their children in a house fire in England last year has been delayed until tomorrow. Mick Philpott faces a life of “hatred and hostility” his solicitor said today.
• An Irish teenager has been charged with threatening to shoot and kill the president of Guyana. Cillian James Crossan, 17, is said to have been joking with two men who are bodyguards to President Donald Rabindranauth Ramotar.
• Two men have been convicted of a plot to kill singer Joss Stone at her home in June 2011. Stone had been unaware of the plot until after police arrested the two men, one of whom was setenced to life in prison today.

THINGS WE LOVED

• Tom Cruise was in Dublin today and the actor’s presence had plenty of  you chatting on Twitter about how your day had been ruined by his presence in the Big Shmoke.
• We liked this Telegraph sketch writer’s take on British Chancellor George Osborne‘s speech to workers in Kent yesterday, includes the line: “Mr Osborne never appears wholly at ease in the presence of human beings”.
• This great picture of Irish actor Milo O’Shea who has sadly died, aged 86. Here he is in his pomp in ‘The Adding Machine’ with American comedienne and actress Phyllis Diller in 1968:

THINGS WE SHARED

• These 9 essential destinations to see the real Ireland and not the one on the tourism ads or that Tom Cruise saw today.
• News that Pippa Middleton could soon be battling it out with Boris Johnson in a game of, er, table tennis.
• This incredible story of how Seinfeld has amassed over $3 billion in fees for repeats since its final episode 15 years ago.
• This great skit of Vincent Browne by Mario Rosenstock is a bit old but we stumbled across today and got some great laughs:

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