Students through to Irish Times Debate final

Welcome to the Student Hub weekly digest - a selection of stories, reviews and podcasts

Students from Trinity College Dublin and the Solicitors' Apprentice Debating Society of Ireland (Sadsi) have progressed through to the Irish Times Debate final.

'Kill them Reacher!' I shout. He makes them crunch and squelch, and I laugh myself sick: Huge slab of muscle turned detective Jack Reacher was invented by popular thriller novelist and aquatic Cork infant Lee Child.

Today we celebrate the birthday of Countess Markievicz, the first woman in Ireland, and indeed Europe, to be appointed a government minister in 1919.

In a three-way fight between the world's most famous podcaster, the biggest streaming platform, and an aging curmudgeonly musician, who would you put your money on? I like Neil Young; Harvest is one of my favourite albums. But as he takes on Spotify and Joe Rogan, I know where to cut my losses.

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Lenny Abrahamson's forthcoming 12-episode BBC/Hulu adaptation of Rooney's book has just been featured in a big Vanity Fair spread and the first stills from the show are floating around the internet. It's clearly going to be huge.

It's first thing Friday morning, Longitude tickets have just gone on sale, and that blue bar in front of me is moving slowly. I'm 25,085th in the queue.

Golden eras flit by more quickly in the digital epoch. The Pax Romana – Rome Classic, as today's marketers might style it – lasted about 200 years. Money: The five-letter word that could kill the Wordle craze.

It is customary these days, when discussing a book or film to issue a plot spoiler alert. In the case of Ulysses, a no-plot spoiler alert may be more appropriate. If you're used to reading thrillers, be warned: not all that much happens in James Joyce's masterpiece.

A proposal to reduce the €3,000 student contribution charge for third-level education is expected to be brought to Cabinet in February, but there is strong opposition in parts of the Government to any plan which would lean heavily on the exchequer for extra support for the sector.

Ronald Wafula wakes before dawn. He uses the quiet time to get some study donebefore starting on a two-hour and 40-minute journey by bus to college. Originally from Kenya, Wafula is one of some 21,000 international students studying in Ireland, many of whom are struggling.