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

IRELAND

Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla in Co Tyrone today. PA PA

• Over 40,000 Ukrainian refugees are expected to have arrived in Ireland by the end of April.
• 23,702 new Covid-19 cases were reported. 1,338 Covid patients are in hospital, including 61 in intensive care.
• Several European countries, including Ireland, lifted their Covid curbs too “brutally” and are now seeing a rise in cases likely due to the more transmissible BA2 variant, the World Health Organization said.
• The government approved a €12 million package to help tillage farmers in the planting of new crops.
• The terror threat in Northern Ireland was lowered from severe to substantial, but there were warnings an attack is still likely. 
• An American woman whose Irish husband ended his and their three-year-old daughter’s life by walking into the sea has spoken of her relief at being granted permission to exhume the remains of her child for burial in her native country.
• Gardaí arrested 434 people in Dublin over the St Patrick’s Day weekend.

THE WORLD

Ludmila saying goodbye to her granddaughter Kristina, who with her son Yaric, left the train station in Odesa, southern Ukraine today. AP / PA Images AP / PA Images / PA Images

#UKRAINE: Two “super powerful bombs” hit Mariupol as Ukrainian authorities announced a new bid to rescue civilians from the besieged city.

#RUSSIA: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged people to take action against the “deceitful and thievish” regime of President Vladimir Putin after being sentenced to nine years in a maximum security prison.

#WEAPONS: US President Joe Biden said that it’s “clear” Russia is considering the use of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine and warned of a “severe” Western response if it chose to do so.

#TYRONE VISIT: Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited County Tyrone.

PARTING SHOT 

In case you missed this from yesterday, a team of Associated Press journalists documented the agony of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol from inside the city centre when they learned their names were on a Russian list.

In the gripping read, one told his story of their rescue by Ukrainian soldiers as the Russian forces closed in on a hospital treating the wounded.