For decades concerns were raised at Government level that the Russian Embassy in Dublin was an espionage hub, with the sheer scale of the Soviet diplomatic mission to the State prompting suspicions over spying.
However, the war in Ukraine emboldened the Government to take action. Russian diplomats have been expelled, new visas refused and now the embassy’s staff in Dublin has been reduced from 30 to 15.
This follows the refusal to grant Moscow permission to expand the Rathgar embassy on “national security” grounds.
Crime and security correspondent Conor Gallagher explains why the Government has at last taken action. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why spy fears have led to the downsizing of the Russian Embassy

In The News is a daily podcast from The Irish Times that takes a close look at the stories that matter, in Ireland and around the world. Presented by Bernice Harrison and Sorcha Pollak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

News & Politics

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.

How Ireland's far-right campaigned

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.

Heatstroke and hallucinations: A mother’s record-breaking run from Malin to Mizen Head

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.

What is Nigel Farage's endgame?

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.

Are you sharing too much of your children's lives online?

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.

Why spy fears have led to the downsizing of the Russian Embassy

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