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

IRELAND

Isobel Carnegie with her dog Mila, viewing Andy Warhol's 1985 painting The New Spirit in Gormleys Gallery. The Pop Art Pioneers exhibition, featuring work by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring & Robert Indiana, opens on Saturday. Sasko Lazarov Sasko Lazarov

• A once-off €100 child benefit payment and a €200 lump sum for social welfare recipients are among some of the cost-of-living measures agreed by the Cabinet today.
• AIB will be asked to appear before the Oireachtas Finance Committee to address why debt of €9.5 million owed by DJ Carey was reportedly written down to €60,000 in 2017.
• Mary Lou McDonald’s husband is taking legal action against former cabinet minister Shane Ross and a publishing company.
• Two Gardaí were attacked when they got out of their patrol car to help a woman who was allegedly struck by a motorcyclist taking part in a post funeral demonstration in Ballyfermot yesterday, The Journal learned.
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said a national conversation on the increase of violence in our society is needed.
• The moratorium on electricity and gas disconnections is to be extended until the end of March for all customers.
• The Government cleared the way for 30 Irish troops who are instructors in battlefield medics, bomb disposal and engineering to help train Ukrainian soldiers as part of an EU mission.
• A man in his 50s was arrested in connection with the fatal assault of Limerick woman Louise Muckell last year.
• The first record of a noble false widow spider feeding on a pygmy shrew, a species of tiny mammal protected in Ireland, was published by University of Galway scientists.

INTERNATIONAL

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives his annual state of the nation address in Moscow. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#RUSSIAN INVASION Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia is suspending its participation in the New Start treaty — the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the US.

#WARSAW US President Joe Biden declared that Ukraine’s capital Kyiv remained “free” during a visit to Poland ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

#ANDREW TATE A Romanian court agreed to extend social media influencer Andrew Tate’s detention on suspicion of organised crime and human trafficking by another 30 days, an official said.

#NICOLA BULLEY UK media watchdog Ofcom said it is “extremely concerned” by comments from the family of Nicola Bulley about media behaviours and it has written to ITV and Sky “to ask them to explain their actions”.

PARTING SHOT

Whether you eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner – or perhaps all three – many of us will have tucked into a pancake today in celebration of Pancake Tuesday. 

But the pre-lent feast is not just for humans. In a video shared on social media, Dogs Trust showed that dogs enjoy a pancake as much as we do.

As long as they’re dog friendly, of course. 

Happy #PancakeTuesday!🥞
🔊 Turn the sound up to hear the adorable chomps of the dogs devouring their pancakes. Some were a little more enthusiastic about the day than others 🤭
Will you treat your dog to a dog friendly pancake today? Get the recipe on https://t.co/dHmg8WtuPw pic.twitter.com/7mGg3vQqMo

— Dogs Trust Ireland (@DogsTrust_IE) February 21, 2023