NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal brings you all of today’s top stories.

IRELAND

• RTÉ has released a statement clarifying that rap duo Kneecap had agreed not to wear pro-Palestine badges during their Late Late Show performance last night through their management, but then proceeded to wear them anyway live on air.
• An illegal cigarette factory that was operating in Dublin has been closed down by Gardaí and revenue officers after a search was carried out at the premises yesterday.
• The Health Service Executive (HSE) has launched a review into the death of a woman in her 30s one day after losing her baby. 
• The Government has been urged to launch an investigation into the Irish baby formula market, where prices have soared by between 18% and 22% in two years.
• Ireland march on in Grand Slam bid after BP win over Wales.
• Thousands of people have marched through Dublin in a demonstration marking the second anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine. 

INTERNATIONAL 

Mourners lay flowers and candles outside the Russian consulate in Poland to commemorate opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#GAZA: Dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed in the latest Israeli strikes, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said today, after Israel’s spy chief joined talks in Paris seeking to unblock negotiations on a truce.

#NAVALNY: The body of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed to his mother, more than a week after he died in an Arctic prison colony, his spokesperson said today. 

#VALENCIA: The death toll from a dramatic fire that swept through two residential buildings in the Spanish city of Valencia has risen to 10 after authorities announced they had located the remains of what they believed was the last missing person.

PARTING SHOT 

The Journal’s resident columnist Carl Kinsella writes about the dominant theme of Irish pop culture and Whatsapp groups alike for the last week – male nudity. 

The Uk Pleasure boys took Northern Ireland by storm, as has Barry Keoghan's Vanity Fair appearance.

By March 10, we shall know whether Cillian Murphy has become the first Irishman to win the Academy Award for Best Actor since Daniel Day-Lewis in 2012.

Whether or not Murphy succeeds, however, is immaterial. One Irish actor has already achieved the nation’s collective dream this week. We are speaking, of course, about Barry Keoghan, who this week appeared naked in the pre-Oscar’s edition of Vanity Fair.

The appearance by Keoghan is a reference to his nudity in the much-discussed film Saltburn. Keoghan’s nude scene has been so much discussed, in fact, that even Andrew Scott is getting harassed by BBC reporters with insulting questions about Keoghan’s penis.

Despite the inescapable nightmare that is British entertainment reporters during an awards season that prominently features Irish filmmakers, Keoghan’s success is something to be welcomed. Ireland is not often so roundly lauded in the field of nudity.