In The News

Journalist Khadija Haidary left her home in Afghanistan in October 2024 after spending three years trying to survive as a working woman in a Taleban-controlled country.

When universities closed to women in late 2022, Haidary joined an underground “resistance” network teaching maths, physics and English to girls.

Ms Haidary, who is editor of the Zan Times, now reports from her new home in Pakistan. She talks to Sorcha Pollak about the oppressive reality facing women inside Afghanistan. But while the situation is grim, some are pushing back.

Plus: Stefan Smith, spokesperson for the UN’s...

A Belfast court delivered a not-guilty verdict on Thursday in the trial of a former British Army paratrooper accused of the murder of two young men in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry 53 years ago.

It was the first-ever trial of a former British soldier accused of killing unarmed civilians during the massacre.

The veteran, referred to as Soldier F for legal reasons, was accused of the murders of James Wray and William McKinney during a civil rights march in the city on January 30th, 1972.

By the end of that...

Crimes carried out by a loose syndicate of about 60 teenagers spread across north and South Dublin, who are more interested in capturing their joyriding escapades on social media than making money, are on the rise.

Known as the Lucky Dip Gang, these groups of young, low-level criminals focus on burglaries and vehicle theft. These often failed and haphazard attempts to steal bikes and cars contrast starkly with the other side of the burglary trade, which is dominated by tight-knit, dangerous organised gangs known for their forensic and meticulous planning.

But if the Lucky...

In chaotic and violent scenes reminiscent of the street riots in Dublin city centre two years ago, around 1,000 protesters outside the Citywest IPAS centre in Saggart threw missiles, set fires, used fireworks as weapons and roared racist chants on Tuesday evening.

They had gathered in response to news that a man had been arrested in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year old Irish girl outside the centre, which is home to mostly Ukrainians but also international protection applicants.

The man, a failed asylum seeker in his 20s, has been in...

On Tuesday, almost six months after she took her own life, the posthumous memoir of Virginia Giuffre went on sale. ‘Nobody’s Girl’, which was completed by Giuffre before her death, details how she feared she might “die a sex slave” at the hands of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre also says she was made to have sex with Prince Andrew on three occasions.

Prince Andrew, who has always denied any wrongdoing, and who reached a financial settlement with Giuffre in 2022, announced last week he would voluntarily no longer use his titles, including the Duke of York. H...

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...

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 reco...

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 mur...

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 t...

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, crim...

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 an...

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...

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 Mart...

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 Acas...

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...

It’s budget day and one thing we can almost certainly expect in Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe’s spending announcements is an increase in the price of cigarettes. This year, the cost of a pack of cigarettes is set to increase by 50 cents, bringing it to almost €19 for a pack of twenty.

And while this price hike may help reduce smoking levels in Irish society, and improve the overall health of the population, it is also driving Ireland’s rapidly growing black market tobacco business.

More than one in four cigarettes smoked in Irela...

Fianna Fail’s presidential candidate Jim Gavin's sensational withdrawal from the presidential race has plunged Fianna Fáil into crisis. There’s dismay among party backbenchers, anger at Taoiseach Micheal Martin, and uncertainty over what kind of presidential election race we now have. 

Earlier today, Jack Horgan Jones and Ellen Coyne talked to Hugh Linehan on our sister podcast Inside Politics about the affair. In the News will be back with another regular episode tomorrow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can it happen that a doctor who has been sanctioned or even struck-off in one country can simply move to another and continue working?

Shouldn’t the various medical registration bodies have robust recording and information sharing systems that would make that impossible. Most patients will assume that to be the case but a new global investigation has found serious flaws in the system.

And it is happening in Ireland: 11 doctors who have faced serious sanctions in the UK, including being struck off, remain registered in Ireland.

In each case, th...

The long-awaited MetroLink line, which will finally connect Dublin Airport to the city by rail, has been approved by An Coimisiún Pleanála, three years after planning permission was sought.

The 18.8km rail line, expected to cost more than €10 billion, was first proposed a quarter of a century ago and is anticipated to begin operations in the mid-2030s.

Travelling mostly underground, the remote-controlled, driverless trains will run every three minutes from Swords in north Dublin to Charlemont close to Ranelagh in south Dublin. The route will have 16 stops serving areas including Dublin Airp...

The body of 23-year-old Kelly Lynch was found in a canal in Monaghan on the morning of St Patrick’s Day 2024.

For 30 hours, her mother Julieanne had been unable to get in contact with her daughter who had travelled over the Border to visit her boyfriend. Increasingly worried, she got in the car to drive to Monaghan to find her.

While she was in the car she received a call from the Garda with the news every parent dreads. An Garda Síochána initially determined that the young woman had fallen and that...

The Irish Times is continuing to develop its podcast offering and would like to invite some of our current listeners to take part in a research study to listen to, and discuss, a new podcast pilot.

This will involve listening to 2 short versions of a news briefing podcast and taking part in an online forum to discuss your reaction. You will be free to take part and contribute to the discussion at times that suit you over a period of a number of days. If selected to take part, and in return for your participation, you...

The Irish Times is continuing to develop its podcast offering and would like to invite some of our current listeners to take part in a research study to listen to, and discuss, a new podcast pilot.

This will involve listening to 2 short versions of a news briefing podcast and taking part in an online forum to discuss your reaction. You will be free to take part and contribute to the discussion at times that suit you over a period of a number of days. If selected to take part, and in return for your participation, you...

On September 17th, partial skeletal remains of a child were discovered on waste ground in north Dublin following an extensive search by gardaí.

While DNA analysis has yet to be concluded, the remains are believed to be those of Daniel Aruebose.

He was last seen when he was 3 1/2 years of age and had not been seen in four years.

The discovery of his body was a significant step in the investigation into his disappearance but the initial results of the postmortem have been a setback as no cause of death c...

When the owners of the 751-acre Barne Estate in Tipperary put the property on the market in 2023, billionaire businessman John Magnier thought he had struck a deal to buy it for €15 million.

The oral agreement he had reached during a kitchen-table meeting was, as far as he was concerned, binding.

When the owners then sold it to someone else, Magnier went to court in a bid to make the them honour their deal.

What followed was a 19-day court case that revealed the details of the dispute and how determined Ma...

The aid flotilla which is attempting to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza has been attacked by drones in international waters off the coast of Greece. The move is widely seen as an escalation of Israel’s attempts to stop the flotilla from reaching its destination.

The organisers said at least 13 explosions were heard on and around boats and objects were dropped on at least 10 boats from drones or aircraft.

The 51-vessel flotilla carrying food and essential supplies has about 500 international volunteers, including Irish pro-Palestine activists.

Italy is to send a naval ship...

Last weekend, over the course of 24 hours, two men were stabbed and seriously injured in separate incidents in Dublin’s city centre.

An English tourist was hospitalised on Saturday night after he was stabbed in Temple Bar and on Sunday, a 17-year-old teenager was left in a critical condition after he was repeatedly stabbed on Dublin’s Eden Quay.

These latest attacks will undoubtedly reinforce beliefs that the streets of the Irish capital are becoming unsafe. They also come in the wake of a surge in attacks against immigrants, particularly the Indian community.

Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Heather Humphreys have secured their nominations for the campaign which will run for a month until the election is held on October 24th 2025.

How have the three candidates backed by political parties – Connolly, Gavin and Humphreys – fared so far in their bid to become the next Irish head of state and what bumps in the road have they faced in their race for the Áras?

Plus: at the time of recording, independent candidate Maria Steen was still in the hunt for the backing of 20 Oireachtas members. What would she bring...

Last Saturday, an estimated 25,000 people travelled from across the island of Ireland to gather in Dublin and march through the streets of the capital calling for the protection of the Irish language.

Participants in Cearta, the first major Irish language demonstration in over a decade, demanded action from Government on housing, education and funding for Gaeltacht communities and Irish speakers.

Their calls come at a time when the Irish language is clearly enjoying a bit of a moment. Three years ago, the Irish-language film An Cailín Ciúin experience global success and ac...

Last year An Garda Síochána made payments totalling €278,000 to an Israeli company, Cognyte, which manufactures sophisticated surveillance software.

It is not known exactly what was bought or what it will be used for but the purchase was made under the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) framework. That means other State agencies such as Revenue, Fiosrú and Military Intelligence can use the new Israeli tech.

It is not the first time the State has bought technology – including military technology – from Israel.

Cognyte’s flagship offering is what it calls an “investigations analytics platform”, a...

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, hundreds of millions of people worldwide suddenly found themselves working from home for the first time. Since then, calls for more flexible and shorter working hours have continued to gain momentum.

Proponents of a four-day week argue that employees, business and society at large would be better off with one less day of work. Those in favour of reducing working hours also say it would help tackle burnout, gender inequality, unemployment and improve general health and wellbeing.

However, opponents say reducing working hours could cause economic damage...

Gardaí searching for a child who went missing when he was three years old have found human remains at a site in Donabate, north Dublin.

Confirming that skeletal remains had been discovered, Garda HQ also named the boy as Daniel Aruebose.

It is the first time he has been named since his disappearance and assumed death was placed under investigation three weeks ago.

Conor Lally reports from the scene on what is known and is yet to be uncovered about the tragic case.

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On Tuesday, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns returned to the helm of her political party for a think-in dominated by the controversy over TD Eoin Hayes.

The previous night, Mr Hayes issued an apology for wearing brown make-up on his face and hands while dressed up as former US president Barack Obama, at a party 16 years ago.

Mr Hayes was previously suspended from the Social Democrats last December after it emerged he had issued misleading information about when he sold his shares in Palantir, a company he worked with which has been linked...

Last week, Brazil made history when its supreme court convicted the country’s former far right president Jair Bolsonaro, and seven other defendants, of attempting a coup after his failed re-election bid in 2022. Bolsonaro was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison.

The verdict brings an end to Brazil’s historical leniency in dealing with military men who have tried to overthrow democratically elected governments.

Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets to celebrate the sentencing, while the leaders of neighbouring countries like Chile and Colombia paid tribute to the country’s democratic instit...

As Pope Leo XIV turns 70 we look back at his first months in office, the messages he has been giving to his flock of 1.4 billion Catholics and what they reveal about the direction of his papacy.

Since May the Pope has used his Wednesday audience to condemn the actions of Isreal in Gaza and to call for peace in Ukraine. What he has chosen to wear and where to live has signalled a return to tradition – but as Irish Times Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary explains he’s also spoken about the dangers and the promise of AI...

In June 2024 French President Emmanuel Macron took a political gamble – and lost heavily.

Hoping to strengthen his centrist alliance he dissolved the National Assembly triggering an election. The result has been chaos – a legislature with no dominant political bloc in power and leading this week to France naming its fourth prime minister in 12 months and riots on the streets of Paris.

At the centre of the political chaos is the threat of austerity budgets. France is deep in debt and a succession of Macron-appointment prime ministers have proposed budgets with tax hikes and deep...

At just 18 committed Christian and college drop out Charlie Kirk established Turning Point USA, an organisation with a mission to spread conservative ideals at liberal-leaning US universities.

On Wednesday, now aged 31 and a father of two young children, Kirk was once again at a university campus to debate and spread his socially conservative viewpoint.

A roof-top sniper shot him dead in what is being viewed as a politically motivated assassination.

In those 13 years, the young man had become one of the most influential voices in US politics and well-known media personality.<...

An escalating series of threats made to Tánaiste Simon Harris in recent weeks went from an online threat to kidnap his children to co-ordinated bomb warnings on his Wicklow home.

Politicians say online trolling and verbal abuse now goes with the territory; dealing with it is part of the job.

Some have also had to face threats to their families with those against Harris being the latest.

It has prompted a debate about the growing security risks faced by our politicians.

But what can the Garda d...

Earlier this year, US president Donald Trump sent shock waves across America’s medical and scientific community by appointing Robert F Kennedy jnr, one of America’s most prominent vaccine-sceptics, as secretary of health and human services.

Since then, the controversial health secretary has caused large upheaval within America’s public health system, making appointments and changing vaccine policies which impact the lives of millions of Americans.

RFK Jnr has also been widely criticised for firing Susan Monarez, the director of the Centre for Disease Control, the federal agency in charge of protecting the he...

Tom Phillips, a fugitive father who spent four years hiding in New Zealand’s remote wilderness with his three children was shot dead on Monday by police probing an armed burglary. The children were found unharmed. But why did Phillips disappear in the first place, and how did he manage to evade capture for so long? New Zealand journalist Tony Wall tells the story to Bernice Harrison. 

Produced by Andrew McNair. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Could new technology help to finally reveal who killed Sophie Toscan du Plantier? 

After prime suspect Ian Bailey’s death last year, Sophie's uncle Jean-Pierre Gazeau said their family would never get the truth. 

But now a Garda cold case team has used new technology, called M-Vac, to harvest DNA from items recovered at the West Cork crime scene.

We talk to Jared Bradley, the man behind M-Vac, about how it has helped US investigators to crack decades-old cases. 

But first, Southern correspondent Barry Roche sh...