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

IRELAND

Clowns in vivid costume fill All Saints Trinity Church for the 80th annual Grimaldi Clown Service. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

• This year’s St Patrick’s Day programme is the biggest in the history of the State – but how exactly is it all decided? 
• The government’s major incoming reforms for the private rental sector will result in sharp increases in rent for new tenants across several parts of the country, Sinn Féin has claimed.
• A temporary accommodation centre contracted by the Child and Family Agency in Dublin was closed after a teenage boy who had recently arrived from Kyiv died violently there last year. 
• Met Éireann has issued Status Yellow rain warnings for eight counties in the east and south from tomorrow.
• Gardaí have seized €3.4m worth of Benzodiazepine tablets in searches of businesses in Dublin.
• George Mitchell, who was honoured for his work in the Irish peace process, has been removed from a scholarship programme that bears his name due his links to the Epstein scandal. 
• The delivery of flood relief schemes in Ireland has been “too slow”, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has acknowledged.

INTERNATIONAL

Masked water parade by the Coordination of Venetian Rowing Associations. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#UKRAINE A second round of talks between Russian, Ukrainian and US officials on a US-drafted plan to end the nearly four-year Ukraine war has been shifted from today to Wednesday. 

#GAZA Israel has said it is terminating the humanitarian operations of the international charity Doctors Without Borders in Gaza after the organisation failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff.

#SWITZERLAND A teenager injured in the fire that engulfed a Swiss bar during New Year celebrations has died in hospital, taking the death toll to 41, it has been announced.

#BRITAIN A second Jeffrey Epstein accuser has alleged the late US sex offender sent her to Britain for a sexual encounter with former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the BBC reported.

PARTING SHOT

“WAIT FOR THE second episode, we’re not watching Glenroe anymore.”

Actor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is returning to the TV slot that made him a household name in this country with Love/Hate. But that’s old Sunday night staple he uses as a contrast to his new unruly RTÉ drama. 

These Sacred Vows debuts tonight on RTÉ One and it’s Vaughan-Lawlor’s name that is front and centre of RTÉ’s promotion, even if it’s very much an ensemble cast across the six-episode run.