A boy plays in a fountain to beat the heat at a Tokyo park Saturday, July 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

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

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#ABORTION: Thousands of people took place in a ‘Rally for Life’ in Dublin city centre this afternoon, with demonstrators calling on the Taoiseach to put the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill to a referendum. Some 35,000 people took to the streets today, according to official Garda estimates. Meanwhile, pro-life campaigning group The Life Institute put that figure 60,000, saying that the march was the “biggest pro-life rally ever seen in Ireland”.

#POLL: The latest Sunday Independent/Millward Brown opinion poll has indicated that Fianna Fáil is now three points ahead of Fine Gael in terms of public popularity, at 29 per cent support. Fine Gael has dropped to 26 per cent support and Labour to 8 per cent, RTÉ News reports.

#EGYPT: Liberal opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei has today been chosen as Egypt’s new prime minister. At least 30 people have been killed across the country after a day of clashes, with Islamists demanding the army restore Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

#SNOWDEN: Three countries have offered US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden asylum – but the fugitive, whose revelations rocked the US government and security establishment, has no passport to leave Moscow. Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia have offered the 30-year-old computer expert asylum but how he can travel to either country remains unclear.

#KOREAS: North Korea and South Korea held rare talks today on re-opening a joint industrial zone seen as the last remaining symbol of cross-border reconciliation. The talks follow months of friction and threats of war by Pyongyang after its February nuclear test attracted tougher UN sanctions, further squeezing its struggling economy.

Revelers pack the Pamplona town square during the launch of the “Chupinazo” rocket, to celebrate the official opening of the 2013 San Fermin fiestas in Pamplona, Spain, Saturday, July 6, 2013.

THINGS WE LOVED:

• Some days, the tiniest thing pushes us over the edge. Take comfort in the fact that you are not alone and check out the 9 tiny things that drive you completely MAD.
• This 12-year-old boy, Ali Ahmed, who elegantly explains the confluence of events leading to the overthrowing of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in recent days. “We didn’t get rid of a military regime to replace it with a fascist theocracy,” he says…. did we mention he’s 12? Twelve?

Uploaded by FreeArabsChannel

THINGS WE SHARED:

• New research shows that spiders are even more terrifying than previously accepted (as if we really needed to tell you that) as they use their webs to lure their prey using electric attraction… *shudder*
• Meditation and mindfulness techniques are becoming increasingly fashionable tools for improving the mind and augment productivity – but itsn’t there a bit of a disconnect between the pursuit of these benefits and the purpose for which meditation was first intended?
• Marina Hyde is the bearer of bad news. The revolution is over: the rude mobile phone users have won.

This excellent spoken word poem by Hollie McNish on the absurd attitude to breastfeeding in our society is going viral today…

Uploaded by Hollie McNish

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