Ahead of the bank holiday weekend, the news remains decidedly hard to watch. The death toll in Gaza is now estimated at over 7000.

As the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said it conducted another limited ground raid in Gaza, in what appears to be the second ground raid in as many days, the UN says aid is barely getting in to Gaza and the US military launched airstrike on two locations in eastern Syria.

EU leaders on Thursday night agreed on a call for “pauses” in the conflict in Gaza to allow aid access.

The statement did not use the term “ceasefire” as some EU states contended that this weakened the EU’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself.
However in a slightly more positive development a late addition to the text — said to be pushed for by Spain — included a call for the holding of “an international peace conference soon”.

Closer to home, you can listen back to the newspaper review on Morning Ireland here. 

Finally, rather than a Zen moment, if you're in Dublin this weekend and fancy a more otherworldly scare: take a look at the event's at this year's Bram Stoker Festival: https://www.bramstokerfestival.com/