EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you the five biggest stories of the day.

1. #ELECTION: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said today that May 2020 is the “right moment” for a general election. He was speaking at the party’s annual away day in Cork. 

2. #BELFAST: A court in Northern Ireland has rejected a challenge to prorogation, which had argued that a no-deal Brexit posed a threat to the Northern Ireland peace process. 

3. #DEFENCE PAY: Agriculture minister Michael Creed has suggested that Michael D Higgins’ comments yesterday on Defence Forces pay were “quite unusual”. 

4. #DUBLIN: A great grandfather who was left fighting for his life a month ago following an unprovoked attack outside his home has been left with a permanent significant brain injury.

5. #NO-DEAL BREXIT: Tanaiste Simon Coveney has said that customs checks imposed in a no-deal scenario will not be permanent, adding that the government needs to “level with people” about what will happen if the UK crashes out of the EU.