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

ELECTIONS

Staff empty the ballot boxes as they start counting the ballot papers for the Local and European elections in the RDS Dublin. Sasko Lazarov Sasko Lazarov

• The three coalition parties were bullishly optimistic at election count centres today with both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael appearing to hold their vote in early tallies.
• A cyber attack attempted to take down a number of government websites overnight, The Journal understands. 
• Candidates in this year’s local and European elections faced political intimidation in person and online on at least 36 occasions, according to a new report.
• Fine Gael apologised for using a rap song made by the Cork kids from the Kabin Crew in one of their campaign videos without asking for permission. 
• With the counts still coming in, here where you can keep track of the seats filled at local councils. 

IRELAND

• Father Ted star Ardal O’Hanlon, Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty, and Tommy Tiernan will be among a group of comedians to have an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican next week.
• Gardaí discovered of uncut heroin hidden under a child’s paddling pool and in a toy room during a €305k drug seizure at a house in Dublin, a court heard.
• The body of a man was found in the course of a search operation to find Conor Mcloughlin, a man who was reported missing after he went into the water near Mac Dara Island off the coast of Co Galway on Thursday evening.
• A guesthouse in Co Kerry, operated by a firm owned by independent Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae, received €917,970 (all figures incl VAT) for accommodating Ukrainians to date, new figures showed.

INTERNATIONAL

Clockwise from top left: Almog Meir Jan, Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv and Andrey Kozlov, the four rescued hostages. PA PA

#HOSTAGES Four Israeli hostages were retrieved from central Gaza by the Israeli military. 

#MASSACRE Hamas said that over 200 people had been killed in a “massacre” during the Israeli assault on central Gaza. 

#UN The United Nations Secretary General planned to add both Israel and Hamas to a blacklist for waging a war that violates the rights of children. 

#HASHTAG: William anders, the astronaut who took an iconic photo of Earth from the moon, died in a plane crash.

PARTING SHOT

THERE WAS PLENTY of competition but here is one of the photos of the day. 

People looking at a TV showing the tally of ballots at Nemo Rangers GAA club during counting for local elections in Cork Alamy Stock Photos Alamy Stock Photos