GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.

1. Eurovision controversy

Calls for participating acts and Eurovision fans to boycott in protest at Israel’s involvement have only intensified in recent weeks as the death toll in Gaza has climbed to almost 35,000 people. The boycott campaign started late last year following the start of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attacks.

So how did we get here? And what can we expect in Malmö in the coming days as fans arrive and the semi-final shows begin?

2. Truce talks in Middle East

A Hamas delegation has arrived in Egypt for the latest round of talks on a proposed truce and hostage release in Gaza, which are due to take place today. 

3. Election pacts

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has defended asking Sinn Féin to participate in a vote-left, transfer-left pact for the local elections despite admitting that the party’s rhetoric has shifted “rightwards”.

Earlier this week, People Before Profit wrote to Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and Independent candidates on the left to propose the voting pact but excluded the Green Party and Labour from its plans.

4. Teen shot dead after stabbing man in Perth car park

Western Australian Police shot and killed a “radicalised” 16-year-old boy with a knife who had stabbed a man in a Perth car park, police said Sunday.

The teenager “rushed” at police who responded by shooting him twice with Tasers before firing a single fatal shot, they said.

5. European elections

Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen has said he hopes the upcoming European election will be measured on “more than name recognition or celebrity status”.

In February, the Laois-Offaly TD won his party’s selection race to stand as a candidate in the Midlands-North West constituency in next month’s election.

6. Over 1.5 million turn out for free Madonna show

Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach on last night, turning Rio de Janeiro’s vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with an estimated 1.5 million fans.

It was the last show of The Celebration Tour, which kicked off in October in London.

The “Queen of Pop” began the show with her 1998 hit Nothing Really Matters.

7. Late autism diagnosis

“I had found myself being introduced to my potential for being autistic via two routes. Firstly, the TikTok algorithm suggested it. Yes, really. I started to see videos of late-diagnosed women talking about their experiences of what it’s like to be autistic, and the similarities were uncanny.”

Clare McAfee documents how she went from being a girl who never felt like she fit in to a woman who knows what she wants.

8. Trinity college closed to public

Trinity college has said its campus will continue to remain closed to the public amid an ongoing student encampment in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza and the university’s ties to Israel.

A spokesperson for the University has issued a statement saying it supports the right to “peaceful protest”, but that it has closed the campus to the public to ensure that those protesting are actually students there, to ensure the safety of those partaking in the protest.

9. New asylum seeker encampment in Dublin

OVER 50 TENTS have been set up – in the main by unaccommodated asylum seekers – on the banks of Dublin city’s Grand Canal. 

 Asylum seekers who have pitched tents along the canal have told The Journal that they have done so because after sleeping rough on O’Connell street for several nights, they believe camping in a group will be safer. One couple said that they were previously threatened by two men with knives when they camped in another part of the city centre.

On Wednesday, the Taoiseach Simon Harris thanked the agencies who were involved in accommodating people who were sleeping at the Mount Street encampment. He said that a scenario where “tented villages” form on an ad hoc basis cannot be allowed to develop. 

Some organisations have criticised the Government’s decision to erect barriers in the Mount Street area, as newly arrived asylum seekers are once again without accommodation.