NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Artwork by Emmalene Blake supporting medical staff in Tallaght. Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• A further 59 deaths and 229 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Ireland.
• Supporters were prevented from entering the Four Courts for a hearing on the case against the State brought by Gemma O’Doherty and John Waters.
• The Cabinet has been told there are no indications that virus levels are low enough to ease restrictions on 5 May.
• There was a potential breakthrough in a double murder investigation as the associate of a gangland figure was arrested.
• Thousands of checkpoints are in operation to ensure compliance with the Covid-19 restrictions.
• The Labour Party asked Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil five questions on government formation.
• Mary Lou McDonald wrote to the Taoiseach about getting cross-party buy-in for the plan on lifting restrictions.
• Gardaí have been coughed on or spat at in 31 incidents this month, with “spit hoods” used 15 times.
• The CSO released statistics on marriages in Ireland last year.
• Footballer Anthony Stokes appeared in court accused of headbutting a man at a Temple Bar pub during last year’s St Patrick’s Festival.

INTERNATIONAL

Grafitti showing portraits of Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in facemasks at Berlin Mauerpark Jan Scheunert / PA Images Jan Scheunert / PA Images / PA Images

#US: Donald Trump has said the US may seek damages from China over the coronavirus outbreak.

#UFO: Three US Navy videos of UFOs have been published by the Pentagon. 

#LIMA: Nine people were killed in a Peru prison protest against overcrowded conditions during the pandemic.

PARTING SHOT

There has been much speculation about North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un in recent days, with rumours suggesting he may have died.

This piece on the BBC takes a look at the Kim family, and who might succeed Jong Un if he has indeed passed away.

“So how can you imagine a North Korea without this symbolic and political figure at the top? How would elites organise themselves, as well as society as a whole?

“The easy answer is: we don’t know. More interestingly, they don’t know either. They have never had to do it.”

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