EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, The Journal brings you five of the biggest stories of the day.

1. #EU: “I believe it will be possible for us to come out of here tomorrow with a unified stance as a European Union,” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said in Brussels today.

2. #ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR: Israel sent tanks, troops and armoured bulldozers into the Gaza Strip in a “targeted raid” overnight that destroyed multiple sites before withdrawing from the Hamas-run territory, the army has said.

3. #MEXICO Hurricane Otis has killed at least 27 people as it lashed the beach resort town of Acapulco on Mexico’s Pacific coast as a scale-topping Category 5 storm, officials said Thursday.

4. #COURTS An interpreter who translated Jozef Puska’s alleged admission to the murder of Ashling Murphy said the accused man was emotional, spoke with a “trembling” voice and appeared in “very low spirits… even desperate” after the confession.

5. #RUGBY Former Ireland and Leinster captain Johnny Sexton has marked his retirement from rugby with an emotional statement saying he believes Andy Farrell’s team were able to inspire the nation in recent years.