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

Ireland

Heather Andrews and Josh Warde have their engagement blessed at the Shrine of St. Valentine in Dublin Sam Boal Sam Boal

• The Department of Foreign Affairs has said that Irish citizens in Ukraine should “leave immediately by commercial means”.  
• A 12-year-old Limerick boy who died in a head-on collision while driving alone in his mother’s car will be laid to rest next Thursday. 
• Businessman Richard O’Halloran has criticised the level of support he received from the Irish government while he was prevented from leaving China for nearly three years.
• DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has said there is little chance of a Protocol deal before May elections as his party sought a pact with other unionist parties. 
• A man and a a woman arrested in connection with the fatal assault of a man in Wicklow have been released without charge.
• Last night’s winning EuroMillions ticket worth nearly €31 million was sold in Co Clare, the National Lottery has confirmed. 
• Following a number of aggravated burglaries in the past week, there are concerns criminal gangs may be exploiting deficits in the rural policing system.

WORLD

A US Army Stryker wheeled tank in Romania. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#TALKS: Russian President Vladimir Putin held crisis talks with US and French counterparts Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron amid Russia’s military build up on the Ukrainian border. 

#CANADA: Police are set to clear a key bridge between Canada and the US that has been blocked by anti-vaccine mandate truckers.

#PARIS: Similar anti-vaccine demonstrations inspired by the Canadian truckers have taken place in European cities including Paris and The Hague.

#UNFROZEN ASSETS: There was anger in Kabul following the decision by US President Joe Biden to take $3.5 billion of Afghan assets held in US banks to fund 9/11 families. 

PARTING SHOT

The wide availability of the pill was once heralded as revolutionary for women across the world who could access it. 

The UK’s medicines regulator is seeking to do the same for the menopause by making hormone replacement therapy available over the counter and at negligible charge.

When the BBC reflected on the 50 things that made the modern economy a few years back, of course it included the pill.

And yet a new move in Britain to address inequalities in health care could prove almost as revolutionary for women https://t.co/zrvskpsNta

— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) February 12, 2022