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

IRELAND

Members of the Northern Ireland Covid Bereaved Families for Justice group on the steps of Parliament Buildings at Stormont, ahead of a meeting with the First Minister and deputy First Minister Alamy Alamy

• Gardaí have launched an investigation after a man in his 60s died at a house in Midelton, Co Cork, while a woman has been rushed to hospital for treatment arising from the same incident.
• A new report by Daft has shown that rents in the cities of Cork and Galway rose by an average of 10% last year – and rent in Limerick city has risen by as much as 19%.
• A 66-year-old man would not have died immediately from two skull fractures that the State alleges were inflicted with a rock before he was put off Ireland’s tallest cliffs, if they were the only injuries he suffered, a pathologist has told a murder trial.
• Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney has accused the government of undermining the UN, the principle of multilateralism and Irish neutrality with its plan to reform the mechanism that governs the deployment of Irish troops overseas. 
• Former archbishop Willie Walsh won people over with “genuine Christian values through kindness, understanding, listening, generosity”, his funeral service heard.
• Swans in the Greater Dublin and Co Kildare areas have been found to frequently carry antimicrobial resistant bacteria in their guts that are very similar to those that cause infections in humans which are difficult to treat.

INTERNATIONAL

People carry a giant Ukrainian flag to mark the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in Vilnius, Lithuania Alamy Alamy

#VATICAN Pope Francis remains in a “critical condition” but is showing “slight improvement”, the Vatican has said. 

#END IS NIGH Donald Trump has said the Ukraine war could end “within weeks” as he met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House to discuss the conflict.

#RIP Grammy-winning US singer Roberta Flack has died aged 88, her publicist has confirmed.

PARTING SHOT

Mark Stedman Mark Stedman

Today FM presenters Louise Cantillon, Ian Dempsey and Alison Curtis are pictured above with Julia Smith from Focus Ireland and musicians Saibh Skelly and Sam Clifford, launching The Big Busk for Focus Ireland which takes place nationwide on 7 March.

Ireland’s musicians, choirs, buskers, community groups and schools are encouraged to sign up for a Focus Ireland Big Busk event in Cork, Dublin, Galway or Limerick, or host their own busk and raise funds to help end homelessness.

For more information or to get involved, go to focusireland.ie.