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

IRELAND

Leinster supporters after the full time whistle in their Champions Cup success today. Alamy Stock Photo / Actionplus Alamy Stock Photo / Actionplus / Actionplus

• A man was charged with attempted murder over a car bomb explosion at a police station near Belfast.
• The government Chief Whip said she was “taken aback by a negative narrative” surrounding Ireland’s economic management.
• Leinster reached the Champions Cup final after beating Toulon.
• The Oireachtas climate committee expressed concern about the diversion of renewables to data centres under a plan for ‘private wires’.
• The goverment was accused of “scraping the bottom of the barrel” by a former president of a nationwide architects body over its garden homes plan.
• Independent Ireland saw a jump in their support as Fianna Fáil slipped back according to a new opinion poll.
• Irish podcaster Joanne McNally will be among the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors UK line-up.

INTERNATIONAL

A Star Wars parade in Milan ahead of fans' annual commemoration on 4 May. It is also known as 'May the Fourth with you', in a pun on a catchphrase from the franchise. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#GAZA:Two activists who participated in the latest Gaza-bound aid flotilla have been brought to Israel for questioning, the country’s foreign ministry said today, after the vessels were intercepted by Israeli forces this week.

#UK: Members of the Labour Party are preparing to challenge their embattled leader, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, according to multiple reports published in the British media today.

#TRANSATLANTIC: The US has ordered the withdrawal of about 5,000 troops from Germany within the next year in the latest rift in transatlantic ties over the US-Israeli war against Iran.

PARTING SHOT

Nick Jonas (left) and Paul Rudd (right)

John Carney, director of the critically-acclaimed films Once (2007) and Sing Street (2016), is back with a new film.

Power Ballad stars Paul Rudd as a musician who has settled in Crumlin where his character settled after the wild touring days of his youth.

Mairead Maguire went along to a preview ahead of its release later this month.