NEED TO CATCH up TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

President of the Irish Farmers Association Joe Healy (R) and Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed (L) at the IFA Annual General Meeting in Dublin today Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

• Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said the Irish economy would get a sharp shock from a no-deal Brexit, with the economy set to slow down and unemployment to rise.
• The Government announced that a referendum on changing the waiting times for a couple seeking a divorce will be held in May.
• Opposition TDs criticised Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for not intervening in the nurses dispute ahead of tomorrow’s 24-hour strike.
• Funeral arrangements were announced for the four young men who died in a car crash in Co Donegal on Sunday night.
• A nationwide Status Yellow snow-ice warning, which will remain in place until 6pm on Saturday, kicked in this morning.
• Gardaí investigating Snapchat ‘fight clubs’ have called on potential victims of random assaults in Limerick and Clare to come forward.
• A woman told the Central Criminal Court that her relationship with her former lover, who is accused of murdering her boyfriend, was a “seedy affair”.
• Around ten children were taken to hospital following a collision between a school bus and a bridge in Dublin.
• The High Court ruled that €10,700 found in a ladies boot and a man’s jacket are the proceeds of crime.

INTERNATIONAL

British Prime Minister Theresa May (Front) attends a debate on the Brexit deal amendments in the House of Commons in London Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

#BREXIT The House of Commons voted to back an amendment seeking to replace the Irish backstop with unspecific “alternative arrangements”.

#MUELLER PROBE Former Trump advisor Roger Stone pleaded not guilty to charges related to the ongoing investigation into Russian collusion with the US President’s 2016 election campaign.

#ASIA BIBI Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected a challenge to its decision to acquit Christian woman Asia Bibi in a years-long blasphemy case against her.

PARTING SHOT

This evening, British MPs voted on seven amendments to Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement.

One of those amendments, brought by Labour MP Yvette Cooper, proposed delaying the UK’s departure from the EU by up to nine months.

After it was rejected, the value of the Pound fell further against the US dollar, amid uncertainty about Britain’s economic situation after 29 March.

Comments have been closed as legal proceedings are active in some of the above stories.

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