In The News

Shortly after 9.30am on Sunday, when the Louvre in Paris had just opened its doors to visitors, alarm bells started to ring out through the halls of the world-famous museum.Four thieves had managed to access the building via the first floor balcony facing the river Seine. Seven minutes later they escaped on motorbikes carrying priceless French crown jewels.The robbery has sparked outrage across the French political spectrum – the country’s president Emmanuel Macron called the raid “an attack on our history”, while the leader of the far-right National Rally party Jordan Bardella said it was an “intolerable humiliation”.The heist has also prompted serious questions about the security needed in high profile museums and art galleries, and the increasingly brazen nature of criminal art robberies.How exactly did these thieves manage to steal priceless artefacts from one of the most secure museums in Europe in broad daylight? And why are the French authorities now racing against the clock to track down the missing items?BBC Paris Correspondent Hugh Schofield discusses how this audacious heist was pulled off and whether the jewels will ever be seen again.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scam call centres are paying up to €1,200 per person for the contact details of potential Irish victims.And once they have a name and number, it’s game on, with highly-trained fraudsters working the phones to persuade victims to part with their money via bogus investment “opportunities”.Analysis by The Irish Times has identified 31 Irish victims who lost a combined total of nearly €300,000. This includes a 76-year-old man who lost €61,720, and a high-ranking diplomat who lost more than €31,000.Details of the transactions are contained in a vast data leak - including recordings of the phones calls - from a Georgian scam call centre which was provided to The Irish Times by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OOCRP), a non-government investigative journalism organisation.Irish Times crime and security correspondent Conor Gallagher is part of that project and he explains to In the News exactly how the scams work. And he talks to some of the Irish victims.But how do these scammers collect the phone numbers they call; how do they identify their victims and what sophisticated sales techniques do they use to persuade unsuspecting victims to “invest” in the bogus schemes?Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon and Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eleven years after the bodies of Anthony Keegan (33) and Eoin O’Connor (32) were discovered buried on Inchicup Island, Dublin woman Ruth Lawrence (45) has gone on trial for their murder. She has pleaded not guilty.The prosecution has laid out its case: alleging that Lawrence worked “as a unit” with her South African boyfriend Neville van der Westhuizen to kill O’Connor, a drug dealer and his friend Keegan.Van der Westhuizen was in considerable debt to O’Connor.It was further alleged that Lawrence and her boyfriend had “spoken openly” about “the murders and disposing of the bodies”.The jury has already heard from the landlord of the remote Co Meath lakeside cottage where the accused and her boyfriend were living at the time of the murder. He testified how they had asked to borrow a boat with an engine and had done so.Set to last until November, the judge sent the jury away on Tuesday due to a medical issue with a witness but the court heard on Thursday that the trial would continue.Court reporter Alison O’Riordan has been following the trial.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Irish Olympic swimmer Shane Ryan can now take all the performance-enhancing drugs he wants as part of his training plan.And if anabolic steroids, human growth hormone (HGH), or testosterone supplements show up in his system next May when he competes in Las Vegas, the organisers will congratulate him for playing by the rules.The Enhanced Games dubbed the Steroid Olympics – was dreamed up by Australian businessman Aron D’Souza as a sporting event that lets competitors maximise their performance by doping.Ryan, who was the first swimmer to compete in three Olympics for Ireland, says the decision to join the Enhanced Games is financial. He will, he says, be “making over six figures for nine months and then potentially making over $600,000 when it comes down the line”.But Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) rules exist not just to level the playing field for all athletes but also to protect them from the health impacts of doping. So isn’t the 31 year-old worried?Irish Times sports writer Malachy Clerkin talked to him from his new training base in Nevada.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The number of people falling victim to online fraud, and in some cases losing their life savings as a result of being scammed, is skyrocketing. Banks have warned of a sharp increase in phone calls and text messages from criminals purporting to be delivery companies or Government agencies. However, in some of the most disturbing cases, victims are targeted with the promise of love and romance.Romance scams are not new – lonely people have always been targeted by criminals. But with the omnipresence of social media in people’s daily lives, and the rapid development of AI, criminal gangs are using more sophisticated methods than ever before to exploit the human need for connection, trust and affection.The sheer extent and impact of these scams remains unknown because many people are too embarrassed to report the relationship, or their lost funds, to the authorities. They are often also left heartbroken after truly believing they had found their soul mate.One Irish woman in her 60s, who recently lost more than €291,000 through a sinister romance scam to a man who claimed to love and want to marry her, shared her experience with The Irish Times this week.On today’s In The News episode Conor Pope, Irish Times consumer affairs correspondent, shares the story of Mary* who has been left with huge debts, and potentially serious legal implications, after being financially exploited, and emotionally manipulated, by a man who called himself Donald.What are the red flags people should watch out for if they begin a relationship online?And can further steps be taken by authorities to track down the criminal gangs behind this financial fraud?Today, the story of one woman who lost everything through an elaborate romance scam.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair.*Pseudonym requested to protect woman’s identity  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Monday, more than two years after the conflict in Gaza began – a war which has killed tens of thousands, including an estimated 20,000 children – the remaining living Israeli hostages returned home.Meanwhile, about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners – including 1,700 from Gaza who have been held by Israel without charge – were released and reunited with family.The return of hostages and release of prisoners is all part of the first phase of Donald’s Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.Trump, who spoke before the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on Monday, told cheering lawmakers that the “long and painful nightmare is finally over” and that the agreement marked a “historic dawn of a new Middle East”.But is the US president correct? Will both sides honour the agreement and what will the next stage of this peace plan look like?And when so many lives have been lost, where do Palestinians begin when it comes to rebuilding the Gaza Strip?Irish Times contributors Mark Weiss and Michael Jansen discuss how Trump’s peace plan will work and what the future holds for Palestinians.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon and Suzanne Brennan.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael D Higgins will shortly finish his two terms as President of Ireland, having served 14 years as head of State.In 2011 he said his tenure would be “a presidency of ideas”. But what are they and where in his background and in his impressive and varied pre-Áras career did they come from?And how has his outspokenness on a wide range of subjects, from foreign affairs to army pay, been received by successive governments? To what extent did his personal popularity insulate him from criticism and even censure when he was perceived to have overstepped the boundaries of the role?The 84 year-old’s appeal, notably among young people, has secured a prominent place for him in Irish popular culture inspiring a range of “miggledy” memorabilia from T-shirts to tea cosies.But while his public image is that of a warm, affable elder statesman in a tweed suit with a ready smile and an ability to connect with everyone who comes in contact with, his private persona is somewhat different according to Irish Times journalist Naomi O’Leary who has written a long profile of this very popular, effective President.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was Micheál Martin’s worst week in the job as leader of Fianna Fáil and it began on late on Sunday evening when the party’s campaign for the presidency imploded. Its candidate Jim Gavin resigned following media reports that, 16 years ago, a tenant had accidentally overpaid him by €3,300 and despite repeated requests, the former military man and presidential hopeful had refused to return it.The failure to repay a debt – and a landlord’s debt at that – had caused a sensation when news of it was reported on Friday.Gavin was Martin’s man – his “celebrity” non-party pick announced after a summer of speculation.But from his first outing it was clear that he lacked the charisma and communication skills that are baseline requirements in any political campaign. And for a celebrity candidate he was remarkably unknown.Many in Martin’s party were simply puzzled by his choice while also being angry at a process in which they felt sidelined.Wednesday provided a new twist when the tenant outed himself on his popular crime podcast as Niall Donald, deputy editor of the Sunday World.Then on Wednesday evening before a five-hour parliamentary party meeting, a shaken Martin apologised for the disaster which has left party members furious and embarrassed.So how did Micheál Martin get here; how did he make this massive misstep in choosing Gavin and has he set the clock ticking on the end of his career leading Fianna Fáil.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So now we know what’s in Budget 2026 but for most people, what’s not so clear is what’s in it for them.As he has done every year on the day after the budget Irish Times personal finance expert and assistant business editor Dominic Coyle put a call-out to readers for their own queries and then he answered them.For In the News he picks out the ones that exercised people the most and explains how he answered.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is in Budget 2026 for you? Not a lot, probably - as expected, Ministers Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers have delivered a much tighter package than recent years. Out are universal payments to help with steep energy bills and most bonus social welfare payments. But the budget did deliver some help for some groups. Conor Pope runs through the main points. Plus: Cliff Taylor on why, eleven months after a general election campaign that featured many spending promises, the Government has instead decided to tighten its belt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.