LAST UPDATE | 19 Apr

GOOD MORNING.

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

Strait of Hormuz

1. That brief window of optimism when the Strait of Hormuz was opened seems to have closed shut – along with the strait – as Iran has claimed that a final peace deal with the US remains far off.

The crisis at home

2.  One claim among the fuel protestors over the past fortnight was that Ireland drill for oil as a way of securing a homegrown energy source for the state. Paul O’Donoghue examines the potential.

Connolly in Barcelona

3. In her first overseas speech, President Catherine Connolly warned of a global shift to ‘might is right’ at a leftist leaders summit in Spain. Andrew Walsh reports from Barcelona.

Leo on fuel protests

4. Back to the fuel protests, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has claimed there’s a perception in rural Ireland that people living there are the “real workers” who are “paying all the bills” – but it is urban Ireland who do so.

Political winners and losers

5.  Our Leinster House team looks back at the three winners and six losers from the political week.

Lebanon

6.  A French peacekeeper was killed in southern Lebanon during an attack against UNIFIL.

Coastal rescue

7.  Four people were rescued after a pleasure boat caught fire in water off Dun Laoghaire.

Internet column

8. Our FactCheck editor Stephen McDermott details the internet trends seen by a thirty-something-year-old man.

Hurling

9. The Leinster hurling campaign began not with a bang, but lightning striking twice as Galway hammered Kilkenny for the second time in as many months.