LAST UPDATE | 7 Aug 2025

GOOD MORNING.

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

Return-to-office

1. AIB staff have expressed frustration at the bank’s return-to-office policy after being told they will not be able to work from the company’s 49 staff hubs or 170 bank branches on days when they are mandated to work in the office

Hot school meals

2. Schools participating in the ‘Hot School Meals’ scheme for the first time this year will see a delay with its rollout due to a change in procurement rules. 

Irish woman dies

3. There is no evidence to suggest foul play was involved in the death of an Irish woman, who was found on a yacht docked in the coastal New York town of Montauk in the early hours of yesterday morning, local police have confirmed. 

Trump’s tariffs

4. Higher US tariffs have come into effect for dozens of economies, drastically raising the stakes in USPresident Donald Trump’s wide-ranging efforts to reshape global trade.

Climate change

5. The third hottest July worldwide has ended a string of record-breaking temperatures last month, but many regions were still devastated by extreme weather, the European climate monitoring service has said.

Trump meeting Putin?

6. US President Donald Trump has said there is a “good chance” of him meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future.

Metrolink

7. The Metrolink is the “only show in town” when it comes to transportation, despite recent criticism from billionaire investor Dermot Desmond and billionaire airline chief Michael O’Leary. 

California wildfires

8. Rising temperatures are posing new challenges for firefighters who have made incremental progress against a massive wildfire in central California which has become the biggest blaze in the state so far this year.

Gaza occupation

9. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly pushing ahead with plans for a full military occupation of Gaza, defying mounting opposition and warnings over the escalating humanitarian disaster.