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

IRELAND

The Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin City lit up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag this evening. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

• A cut in excise on petrol and diesel was signed off by Cabinet
• Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said that one “practical example” of how people can keep their fuel costs down is to drive slower
• Two Irish MEPs who voted against an EU motion condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have defended their position, saying they weren’t “playing to a gallery”
• Irish medical student Racheal Diyaolu, who was living in the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, said that she has reached the EU
• More than 2,500 Ukrainian refugees have already arrived in Ireland, with children comprising a third of that number
• A Status Orange rain warning is currently in place for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow and Waterford until 9pm today.

WORLD

An elderly woman is carried out in a wheelbarrow as the city of Irpin is evacuated. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#UKRAINE: A Russian strike has hit a children’s hospital and maternity facility in the besieged southeastern port city of Mariupol, wounding at least 17 people.

#CEASEFIRE: It comes on the same day that a day-long ceasefire was observed to allow citizens to flee from besieged cities.

#SANCTIONS: The EU has agreed to add 160 Russian oligarchs and lawmakers to its sanctions blacklist, target crypto-assets and hit the maritime sector over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, officials said.

#HISTORIC OPERATION: The first person to receive a pig heart transplant has died two months after the historic procedure, the hospital that carried out the surgery said.

PARTING SHOT

Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922). Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The wreck of renowned polar explorer and Kildare man Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance has been found 107 years after it became trapped in sea ice and sank off the coast of Antarctica.

The wooden ship had not been seen since it went down in the Weddell Sea in 1915, and in February the ‘Endurance22′ expedition set off from Cape Town, South Africa, a month after the 100th anniversary of Shackleton’s death on a mission to locate it.

Aileen Crean O’Brien, granddaughter of Tom Crean, the renowned Irish explorer who was on board the Endurance, told The Journal: “It’s so exciting. It’s fantastic that new technology has allowed this to happen and just to see the image of it in the video, it’s so pristine. It’s amazing altogether.”

She said that she hopes the discovery will bring further attention to the fact that three of the crew on board the Endurance were Irish – Crean, Shackleton and Cork man Tim McCarthy. A healthy dose of curiosity there. 

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