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

IRELAND

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett on a loudspeaker talking to protesters supporting the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign at the US Embassy in Dublin. Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie / © RollingNews.ie

• Gardaí have launched a murder investigation following the death of a man in an attack in Dublin city centre in the early hours of this morning.
• Six people have been arrested as part of a major operation targeting organised crime in west Dublin.
• Gardaí have appealed for witnesses after a woman was seriously injured in a hit-and-run incident in Kildare two weeks ago.
• Ireland could be about to sign a contract costing between €600m to €800m for new armoured vehicles for the Irish Defence Forces with France. 
• One of Ireland’s new Senators has said he received death threats and was criticised from all angles when he spoke out about the problem of asylum seekers sleeping rough in Dublin. 
• Six people, including two children, have been treated in hospital for smoke inhalation following a fire at a home in Ballyfermot, Co Dublin.
• Over 650 historic buildings across Ireland are to receive state funding to facilitate restoration, repairs, and conservation.

INTERNATIONAL

Keith Kellogg, Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Department of State, United States of America speaking during panel Peace Through Strength: A Plan for Ukraine. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#AUSTRIA: A 14-year-old boy has died and four other people were injured in a knife attack in southern Austria, police said, adding they have arrested a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker.

#MUNICH: A two-year-old girl and her mother have died on from injuries they suffered in a car-ramming attack on Thursday in the German city of Munich that left around 40 others injured, local police said.

#UKRAINE: Tánaiste Simon Harris has said that there is “only one aggressor” in the war in Ukraine, “and that is Putin”. Earlier at the Munich Security Conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the time has come for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe”, and says his country’s fight against Russia has proved that a foundation for it already exists.

#CEASEFIRE DEAL: Hamas has handed over three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, in the sixth hostage-prisoner swap under its ceasefire agreement with Israel, an AFP journalist reported.

PARTING SHOT

WHEN YOU CALL to mind what kind of project the British Academy Film Awards might reward for ‘outstanding British film’, you would be forgiven for not immediately thinking of Kneecap. 

But that’s just one of six awards that the movie could pick up at the Baftas tomorrow, along with outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer, film not in the English language, original screenplay, casting and editing. 

Jane Moore of The Journal will be attending the BAFTAs tomorrow evening - but in the meantime, you can read about Ireland’s chances here.