Every afternoon, TheJournal.ie brings you 5 things you really need to know by 5pm.

1. # CHILE: So far, a total of 15 of the 33 miners who have been trapped half a mile below the surface of the earth of Chile’s San José desert have been winched to the surface.

After 69 days of the men living underground, the effort to rescue them has been going smoothly. The whole operation now expected to take about 36 hours to complete – a revision on the original 48-hour estimate.

2. # CONSTRUCTION: An examiner has been appointed to Ireland’s third largest construction company.

Pierse Construction, and its sister outfitting company Pierse Building Services, asked the High Court to appoint an examiner to their companies, which said they had had to write off €30m in bad debt between them over works they had completed but never been paid for.

3. # EDUCATION BILL: The number of Vocational Education Committees (VEC) in the country cut will be cut by over 50%.

Donegal TD and education minister Mary Coughlan cuts the number of Vocational Educational Committees by half – going beyond even the recommendations by An Bord Snip Nua.

4. # EUROPE: The president of the European Central Bank has called for sterner budget policy scrutiny in EU countries - particularly for those experiencing debt problems.

Jean-Claude Trichet has said that the creation of an “early warning system” to identify unsustainable economic policies in eurozone countries ought to be introduced.

5. # X FACTOR: Tesco has come under fire after sending a circular email to 300,000 staff, telling them to vote for Mary Byrne on the X-Factor – as well as paying for a TV3 advertisement.

A Tesco spokesman dismissed accusations that it was attempting to “fix” the show, saying it was merely “supportive of Mary” adding “so are her friends and colleagues at Tesco – but as to how anyone votes, that is up to them.”