In The News

Israeli forces rescued four hostages captured by Hamas and held since October in a raid in Gaza on Saturday that Palestinian officials said resulted in the death of more than 200 people, one of the single bloodiest Israeli assaults of the eight-month-old war.The Israeli military claimed that less than 100 people died during the operation - still a significant death toll.Meanwhile, on Sunday, Israeli minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s emergency government, withdrawing the only centrist power in the embattled leader’s far-right coalition, amid the months-long war in Gaza.Today on In the News we talk to Sky News Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall about the impact of the raid and Gantz's exit on the situation in Israel and Palestine.Hosted by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happened on day two of the local and European election count? Yesterday evening on The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast, host Hugh Linehan talked to Jack Horgan-Jones and Harry McGee about the latest news from count centres, and also to Taoiseach Simon Harris about his reaction to better than expected results for Fine Gael and its coalition partners. Will Harris now be tempted to call an early general election? We play that conversation for you this morning. In the News will be back tomorrow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today and tomorrow voters will find out who will fill council seats up and down the country and who Ireland will send to Europe to represent its interests. In most constituencies the ballot papers facing voters were longer than ever – with candidates from new parties with far-right policy platforms, as well as many independents who broadly share the same views, seeking election. Forceful anti-immigration sentiment is a common thread. But who are they, and what are their chances? Conor Gallagher has been tracing the rise of these would-be political representatives and has reported how their calls to action and anti-immigrant messaging has crossed over from the virtual world on social media where they are most active, to real life. Will their followers now also move offline and into the voting booth? Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey and Aideen Finnegan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sophie Power has just done something extraordinary – she ran 563km from Malin Head to Mizen Head in record time.It took her a record-breaking three days, 12 hours and eight minutes and she beat the existing record by an astonishing three hours. And it’s not even her most gruelling run – not by long way.The 41 year-old mother to Donnacha, Cormac and Saoirse is an ultra runner and the morning after she finished running the length of Ireland she posted on social media: “My body had about 2 hrs sleep over 3 nights so is still in shock. Finally in a proper bed I still woke up last night every 30 minutes thinking it was time to go running again.”She tells In the News how on the first two days she ran in driving rain, on the last day, heading into Cork she got heatstroke. She injured her knee less than half-way through but she kept running and outside Longford she started hallucinating.An unsporty child she took up running at 26 and astonishingly her first race was the infamous Marathon des Sables, a seven-day, 250km run in the Sahara. She has run while pregnant and a photo of her breastfeeding mid-race went viral. She founded SheRaces, an organisation to encourage women of all ages and abilities to run.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With a landslide victory for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party predicted, the UK general election looks to be all over bar the shouting.But then this week the shoutiest voice in British politics, Nigel Farage, announced he is to run for Reform UK.Mark Paul explains why that’s more bad news for the Tories – and a jolt of excitement in what has been a dull run up to the July 4th election.Also on Tuesday, Rishi Sunak was judged to have won the first televised leaders debate. The Irish Times London correspondent was in “the spin room” afterwards – upstairs in the Coronation Street visitors’ centre – with party advisers, media and politicians, and he says the Sunak side took the (slight) win as a glimmer of hope.But why, when he’s so far behind?Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever shared a photo of your child wearing her Halloween costume on Instagram? Or, perhaps you’ve uploaded a video of your nephew dancing to TikTok. We live in a world where sharing images of our lives, and in turn the lives of our children, has become completely normalised. But there are serious safety risks and privacy concerns around this type of content. Deepfakes using a child's image and / or voice, identity theft and abusive material are just some of the frightening ways in which young people are at risk when their data is shared, either on an open forum or a messaging app. Leah Plunkett, author of ‘Sharenthood’ and faculty at Harvard law school, explains the pitfalls of sharing images of kids online, the ethical quandary we may unwittingly find ourselves in and how we can protect the young people in our lives.Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Friday 7th June, the country will go to the polls to decide who should represent us at a local and European level. Voters will elect 14 MEPs to the European Parliament and 949 councillors to 31 local authorities. While it’s easier to feel the tangible changes that are made by city and county councillors, it’s perhaps harder to get a handle on what exactly our MEPs do for us.  So what is the role of the MEP and can they make any difference at a European level?And how did our outgoing MEPs fare over the last five years?Jack Power reports from Brussels.Presented by Aideen Finnegan, produced by Suzanne Brennan.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, father and daughter Tom and Molly Martens will be released from prison after serving just over six months for killing Jason Corbett in 2015. The pair were sentenced last November, following their guilty plea of involuntary manslaughter.  Following the sentencing hearing last year, documentary maker and journalist Brian Carroll spoke to In the News, about the Marten’s case and the Corbett family’s long fight for justice.   This is the first of a two-part episode on the case, originally published in November 2023. In the first part, Caroll explains how the Marten’s used the sentencing hearing to completely annihilate Jason’s Corbett’s character. In episode two, available here, we hear how the Limerick man’s family, including his two children, finally had their day in court to tell the world about their loving father and what their lives were like with their manipulative stepmother. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A plan to reintroduce National Service in Britain has been roundly criticised by former military personnel and opposition parties alike. But serving your country militarily is an accepted part of life in many countries like Finland, Sweden and Israel. Security analyst, Declan Power, explains how people in Scandinavia are predisposed to the idea because it's woven into their life in the same way Gaelic games, our literary history and the 1916 Rising are in this country. The former Irish solder also explains how the same concept wouldn't fly in Ireland and what we need to do instead to beef up our Defence Forces. Power also posits how the military offensive in Gaza may well turn out to expose the flaws in Israel's national service model. Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Earlier this month, Google launched AI Overviews – software which uses artificial intelligence to answer people’s questions quickly, skipping the step of scrolling through links. The new search system has made headlines for generating hilariously incorrect answers, a glitch Google says it is taking swift action to remedy. But this bumpy start will quickly be ironed out, says Irish Times writer Hugh Linehan who wrote this week about the “Googlepocalypse” sweeping the United States. The introduction of this pilot version of Google’s AI Overviews tool has already “significantly harmed” small businesses and content creators who have seen a collapse in web site traffic, and has been described as an extinction-level event for news media. These “devastating effects” are heading quickly our way, says Linehan. So, what is the Googlepocalypse and how will it change how the average person searches the internet? And will a reliance on AI to answer our questions only further enhance the misinformation plaguing the online world?Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.