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

IRELAND 

Actor John C Reilly at the Guinness Storehouse this morning. Sam Boal Sam Boal

• The Taoiseach told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the people of Ireland “stand fully behind” Ukraine as it faces Russia’s invasion.
• The ESB said it will decommission a wind farm in Co Galway that has led to the State paying millions in fines over lack of compliance with EU legislation. 
• A further 14,096 positive Covid-19 antigen and PCR test results were reported by public health officials.  
• The Taoiseach said he cannot rule out Ireland slipping into recession this year due to the conflict in Ukraine.
• Price caps on household electricity and gas bills are unlikely to solve the problem of skyrocketing energy prices and household costs, the chair of the utilities regulator said.
• French prosecutors opened a war crime probe into the death of Franco-Irish Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski.
• A leading barrister accused of murdering a father-of-four in a fatal shooting after an altercation on farmland in Tallaght will be “completely and utterly ruined” and his “life’s work wiped out” if he is not granted bail, his lawyers argued. 
• One of the four men accused of raping a teenage girl “one after another” first told gardaí none of them had sex with the girl, then later told gardaí they all had sex with her, a trial heard.

THE WORLD 

A deserted street in downtown Kyiv in Ukraine today. VADIM GHIRDA VADIM GHIRDA

#UKRAINE: A Mariupol theatre sheltering hundreds of civilians was hit by a Russian air strike. 

#NO-FLY: Ukrainian president Zelenskyy reiterated calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine this afternoon in an address to the US Congress.

#EUROPE: Russia has ceased to be a member of the Council of Europe after over a quarter of a century of membership in the pan-European rights body.

#JAPAN: A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake jolted east Japan in the past few hours, rattling the capital Tokyo and prompting a tsunami advisory for parts of the northeast coast, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. 

PARTING SHOT  

You asked and it’s back!

Servant of the People is once again available on Netflix in The US. The 2015 satirical comedy series stars Volodymyr Zelenskyy playing a teacher who unexpectedly becomes President after a video of him complaining about corruption suddenly goes viral. pic.twitter.com/Pp9f48jutF

— Netflix (@netflix) March 16, 2022

Netflix in the US has made Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ‘Servant of the People’ TV show available on the platform again.

The former actor and current Ukrainian President starred in the show on Ukrainian television from 2015 to 2019.

In the programme Zelenskyy played a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president of Ukraine after a video of him complaining about corruption goes viral.

The show ended production when Zelenskyy decided to run for president in 2019 as a member of the Servant of the People political party.