GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news you need to know this morning as you start your day.

Central Bank outlook

1. The Central Bank has said the lack of housing supply in Ireland is “a constraint on economic activity” as it revised its consumer price inflation forecasts down to 5% due to a more positive outlook for energy prices for the year ahead

Gender Equality referendum

2. The Governmen have announced that referendums on issues relating to gender equality are to take place this November.

In particular, the referendum would focus on amendments to Article 41 of the Constitution, which contains references to ‘women’s life in the home’.

Ukraine

3. The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has said that his forces had taken “all the eastern part” of Bakhmut, the east Ukrainian town where fighting has raged for weeks.

Greece train collision

4. Greece faces a fresh round of mass strikes and nationwide protests today as anger mounts over the country’s worst rail tragedy that killed 57 people last week.

Fourteen people remain in hospital after a freight train crashed head-on with a passenger train, carrying mostly students, near the central city of Larissa on 28 February.

Tipperary Peace Awards

5. Belarus’ exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya has been announced as the recipient of the 2022 Tipperary (Ireland) International Peace Award. 

Tsikhanouskaya was forced to exile to Lithuania in summer 2020 after challenging Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s nearly three decades in power in a presidential election. 

Belarus on Monday sentenced Tsikhanouskaya in absentia to 15 years in prison for spearheading historic protests against the former Soviet country’s authoritarian leader.

Cold spell

6. Temperatures dipped to as low as minus four degrees last night, and a Status Ywllow warning for low temperatures and ice remains in effect for many counties.

AStatus Yellow warning for snow and ice is also in place for Cork and Kerry until noon, while a Yellow warning for snow and ice from the UK Met Office is in place for Antrim, Down, Tyrone and Derry until 9am. 

Gary Lineker criticism

7. The UK’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said Gary Lineker’s comments were “disappointing”.

It’s after the Match of the Day host accused Braverman of promoting an “immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”.

Jon Stewart

8. American TV host Jon Stewart has spoken to Mick Wallace and Clare Daly as part of a piece about the Ukraine war.

It’s understood they spoke about NATO involvement in the war and what the Irish people think of the issue.

Stewart has been pictured this morning at the European Parliament speaking to Ireland South MEP Wallace.

Oscars trade mission

9. Minister for Tourism, Culture and Arts Catherine Martin will lead a trade mission in Los Angeles to promote the Irish screen industry and Ireland’s cultural power ahead of the Academy Awards this Sunday.